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MTB World Cup XC #4 & DH #2 - CDM
Fort William, Scotland, May 27-28, 2006
Main Page Results Previous Race
Race 6 - May 28: Men's downhill
Hill takes win and World Cup lead
By Rob Jones in Fort William
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Steve Peat (Santa Cruz Syndicate) was hoping to repeat his immensely popular win from last year, he had to settle for fourth; hampered by a broken knuckle. Australian Sam Hill took the win, and the overall lead in the men's World Cup, with crowd favourite Cedric Gracia finishing second.
Hill wasn't the fastest in qualifying, running second to Greg Minnaar (Team G-Cross Honda) by three-quarters of a second. But in the final Minnaar was less than a second ahead of his qualifying time, good for third, while Hill knocked four seconds off his seeding run time. World champion Fabien Barel (Kona Les Gets) was also expected to do well, after qualifying third, but crashed coming out of a jump halfway down the course, and lost valuable seconds, pushing him back to seventh.
"I really like this course" said Hill, "it's the most physically and mentally challenging course on the World Cup circuit. I'm actually not surprised to win here, because I always feel good on this course."
Minnaar put his relatively minor improvement over qualifying down to not being prepared for the changing conditions at the top of the course. "I was not really aware of how much windier it had gotten at the top of the course, so it blew me around quite a bit and I definitely lost some time there."
Steve Peat broke a knuckle on his right hand while travelling back from a downhill event in Lisbon two weekends earlier. He was in an altercation with a man who attacked him, and broke his knuckle. "I don't have as much strength in the hand, and I can't pull on the brake lever very well. I have to keep it taped, and it meant that I wasn't able to train as much because it is so painful."
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Rob Jones/www.canadiancyclist.com
- Chris Kovarik
- Brendan Fairclough
- Mick Hannah
- Cédric Gracia
- Gee Atherton
- Steve Peat
- Fabien Barel crashed but still managed 7th
- Sam Hill
- Andrew Neethling
- Nathan Rennie
- Florent Payet
- Dan Atherton
- Matti Lehikoinen
- The men's podium: Steve Peat, Cédric Gracia, Sam Hill, Greg Minaar, Gee Atherton
Results
1 Samuel Hill (Aus) Monster/Iron Horse/Mad Catz 4.25.33 2 Cédric Gracia (Fra) Commencal 4.26.59 3 Greg Minnaar (RSA) Team G-Cross Honda 4.27.64 4 Steve Peat (GBr) Santa Cruz Syndicate 4.27.68 5 Gee Atherton (GBr) Team Animal / Giant 4.27.77 6 Marc Beaumont (GBr) Team Mbuk Santacruz 4.29.20 7 Fabien Barel (Fra) Kona Les Gets Factory Tea 4.29.73 8 Nathan Rennie (Aus) 4.30.91 9 Matti Lehikoinen (Fin) Team G-Cross Honda 4.32.34 10 Mickael Pascal (Fra) Qbikes 4.35.17 11 Jared Graves (Aus) Yeti Fox Racing Factory T 4.35.66 12 Bryn Atkinson (Aus) 4.35.94 13 David Vazquez Lopez (Esp) Maxxis-Msc 4.35.99 14 Filip Polc (Svk) Gravity Group 4.36.62 15 Ivan Oulego Moreno (Esp) Massi-Abarth 4.37.48 16 Dan Atherton (GBr) Team Animal / Giant 4.37.60 17 Julien Camellini (Fra) 4.38.35 18 Bernat Guardia Pascual (Esp) Maxxis-Msc 4.38.71 19 Fabien Cousinie (Fra) 4.39.96 20 Chris Kovarik (Aus) Ms-Intense Factory-Racing 4.40.27 21 Justin Leov (NZl) Yeti Fox Racing Factory T 4.40.33 22 Brendan Fairclough (GBr) 4.40.52 23 Dan Stanbridge (GBr) Mojo Suspension 4.40.57 24 Damien Spagnolo (Fra) Qbikes 4.40.65 25 Florent Payet (Fra) 4.40.79 26 Thomas Braithwaite (GBr) 4.41.39 27 Damien Mermoud (Sui) Suspension Center 4.41.82 28 Andrew Neethling (RSA) 4.41.86 29 Chris Ball (GBr) Mojo Suspension 4.43.15 30 Neil Donoghue (GBr) Team Mbuk Santacruz 4.44.23 31 Fabien Pedemanaud (Fra) 4.44.65 32 Michal Marosi (Cze) Arbö Rsp Downhill Racing 4.44.98 33 Maxime Remy (Fra) Team Bikepark.Ch Tui 4.45.98 34 Duncan Riffle (USA) 4.46.37 35 Frank Schneider (Ger) 4.46.39 36 Thibaut Ruffin (Fra) Alvarez Racing 4.47.26 37 Samuel Zbinden (Sui) 4.47.60 38 Antoine Badouard (Fra) 4.47.67 39 Michael Hannah (Aus) 4.47.88 40 Tom Deacon (GBr) 4.48.64 41 Ben Reid (Irl) 4.48.69 42 Joris Bigoni (Fra) 4.48.73 43 Pasqual Canals Flix (Esp) 4.49.20 44 Romain Saladini (Fra) 4.49.83 45 Luke Marshall (GBr) 4.50.45 46 Richard Thomas (GBr) 4.50.51 47 Mathieu Troquier (Fra) 4.50.64 48 Fergus Lamb (GBr) 4.51.28 49 Lee Bertram (GBr) 4.51.71 49 Lee Pincher (GBr) 51 Stuart Thomson (GBr) 4.51.79 52 Rowen Sorrell (GBr) 4.52.62 53 Pierre Charles Georges (Fra) 4.52.63 54 Dan Harper (GBr) 4.52.82 55 Joe Barnes (GBr) 4.53.96 56 Vlastimil Hyncica (Cze) 4.54.32 57 Rob Warner (GBr) 4.54.43 58 Adam Brayton (GBr) 4.54.93 59 Cole Bangert (USA) 4.55.61 60 Herman Olund (Swe) 4.55.66 61 Ralph Jones (GBr) 4.55.67 62 James Hughes (GBr) 4.56.48 63 Darren Pokoj (Aus) 4.56.60 64 Iain Cookson (GBr) 4.57.58 65 Andrew Mitchell (Can) 4.57.88 66 Scott Beaumont (GBr) 4.58.00 67 Ed Moseley (GBr) 4.58.10 68 Ruben Garcia Ramon (Esp) 4.59.89 69 Nicolas Moiny (Fra) 5.00.43 70 Will Longden (GBr) 5.00.93 71 Matthew Simmonds (GBr) 5.01.42 72 Kyle Strait (USA) 5.03.71 73 Tyler Morland (Can) 5.04.81 74 Jonathan Cheetham (GBr) 5.07.84 75 Matthias Haas (Aut) 5.09.73 76 Mario Schurter (Sui) 5.11.96 77 Brian Lopes (USA) 5.32.82 78 Cyrille Kurtz (Fra) 6.05.05 79 Rob Breakwell (GBr) 6.16.18 80 Claudio Caluori (Sui 6.16.39
