Cyclingnews TV News Tech Features Road MTB BMX Cyclo-cross Track Photos Fitness Letters Search Forum | |||||||||||||||
|
MTB index page for all MTB content MTB World Cup DH & 4X #4 - CDMFort William, Scotland, Great Britain, June 5-7, 2009Main Page Results Previous Race World Cup Standings Race 6 - June 7: Elite men downhillMinnaar repeats Fort William winBy Rob Jones in Fort William The men's field at the fourth round of the Downhill World Cup in Fort William, Scotland had multiple candidates for the win - Steve Peat (Santa Cruz Syndicate) was coming off two consecutive wins, his teammate Greg Minnaar was defending champion here and second fastest in qualifying, World Champion Gee Atherton (Animal-Commencal) was fastest in qualifying, and Sam Hill (Specialized Factory Racing) won the world title on this course in 2007. Australia's Brook MacDonald (Ancillotti Doganaccia) set the early fast time of 4:52.54, which stood up surprisingly well. It took 29 riders, over one-third of the field, before three-time World Champion Fabien Barel (Subaru MTB Team), in his first race back after a knee injury, finally took the best time, setting the bar below 4:50. "I'm super pleased to be back after seven weeks off," said Barel "I had quite a good run at the top, but then lost time at the bottom in the pedaling section." Barel's time in the Hot Seat lasted through 15 riders before Chris Kovarik (Chain Reaction/Intense) knocked another second off the lead, followed a few minutes later by Canada's Steve Smith (MS Evil Racing). Justin Leov (Trek World Racing) soon after shaved another few tenths off before Aaron Gwin Holmes (Yeti Fox Shox) made the next major cut in the lead, down to 4:46.72. The race was coming down to the final ten, and it was becoming apparent that only those riders with the fitness to pedal through the lower section into the finish had a chance to do well. Seconds were made or lost in the final 600 metres. Junior World Champion Josh Bryceland (Santa Cruz Syndicate) briefly took the lead, and Matti Lehikoinen (MS Evil Racing) came close at eight to go, before Hill put in a tremendous ride to drop the lead to 4:40.43, with five riders remaining. After this, is was Peat, who could only slot in four seconds behind Hill, then Sam Blenkinsop (Yeti Fox Shox), who came within a second and a half of Hill. The consistent Mick Hannah (GT Bicycles) assured himself of a fourth consecutive podium by finishing just behind Blenkinsop, and then it was the turn of Minnaar. Looking smooth and graceful, hugging the ground over jumps for extra speed, the South African winner of round one was clearly on a superb run; fastest at the first intermediate timer, four tenths slower than Hill at the second, but hitting 69.498 kilometres per hour through the speed trap near the bottom, well above anyone else, to finish 1.45 seconds ahead of Hill. "I gave it my all," said Minnaar. "Sam put up an amazing time, and I really had to put it all out there at the bottom of the course." However, there was still Atherton to come down, the fastest qualifier and with the support of a home crowd. Atherton started well, only one hundredth of a second behind Minnaar at the first time split, but couldn't maintain the pace, slipping to fourth by the finish line. Peat's lead in the overall standings has slipped to a slim four points over teammate Minnaar at 762, with Atherton in third at 657 and Hannah at 652. The race for the overall title among the men is still very tight. PhotographyFor a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here Images by Gary Perkin
Results1 Greg Minnaar (RSA) Santa Cruz Syndicate 4.38.98 2 Samuel Hill (Aus) Monster Energy / Specialized / Mad Catz 0.01.45 3 Samuel Blenkinsop (NZl) Yeti Fox Shox Factory Race Team 0.02.87 4 Gee Atherton (GBr) Animal Commencal 0.02.99 5 Michael Hannah (Aus) GT Bicycles 0.04.15 6 Steve Peat (GBr) Santa Cruz Syndicate 0.05.63 7 Josh Bryceland (GBr) Santa Cruz Syndicate 0.07.17 8 Matti Lehikoinen (Fin) MS Evil Racing 0.07.46 9 Aaron Gwin (USA) Yeti Fox Shox Factory Race Team 0.07.74 10 Marc Beaumont (GBr) GT Bicycles 0.08.36 11 Justin Leov (NZl) Trek World Racing 0.09.35 12 Steve Smith (Can) MS Evil Racing 0.09.39 13 Bernat Guardia Pascual (Spa) Massi 0.09.41 14 Chris Kovarik (Aus) Chain Reaction Cycles/Intense 0.09.98 15 Fabien Barel (Fra) Subaru Mountain Bike Pro Team 0.10.91 16 Fabien Pedemanaud (Fra) Scott 11 0.11.43 17 Robin Wallner (Swe) 0.11.54 18 Nick Beer (Swi) Scott 11 0.12.07 19 Duncan Riffle (USA) Duncan Riffle Racing 0.12.18 20 Danny Hart° (GBr) Lapierre Powered By Saab Salomon 0.12.45 21 David Vazquez Lopez (Spa) Lapierre Powered By Saab Salomon 0.12.51 22 Brendan Fairclough (GBr) Monster Energy / Specialized / Mad Catz 0.13.05 23 Dan Stanbridge (GBr) 0.13.19 24 Luke Strobel (USA) Team Maxxis-Rocky Mountain Bicycles 0.13.51 25 Brook Macdonald° (NZl) Ancillotti Doganaccia Racing Team 0.13.56 26 Joshua Button (Aus) 0.13.89 27 Lorenzo Suding (Ita) Dytech DH 0.13.91 28 Sam Dale (GBr) 0.14.26 29 Joseph Smith (GBr) Kona 0.15.02 30 Thomas Braithwaite (GBr) 0.15.06 31 Aurélien Giordanengo (Fra) 0.15.21 32 Jared Rando (Aus) Giant Mountain Bike Team 0.15.49 33 Ivan Oulego Moreno (Spa) Massi 0.15.86 34 Filip Polc (Svk) MS Evil Racing 0.15.96 35 Joris Bigoni (Fra) 0.16.18 36 Rémi Thirion (Fra) Team Sunn 0.16.53 37 Andrew Neethling (RSA) Trek World Racing 0.16.63 38 Ben Reid (Irl) Just Reid Race Team 0.17.22 39 Rhys Willemse° (Aus) 0.17.47 40 Nathan Rennie (Aus) Kenda Morewood 0.17.68 41 Marcus Klausmann (Ger) Ghost A.T.G. Pro Team 0.17.89 42 Matthew Simmonds (GBr) 0.18.93 43 Jared Graves (Aus) 0.19.05 44 Cesar Rojo (Spa) 0.19.18 45 Marco Milivinti (Ita) 0.19.24 46 Aari Barrett° (NZl) 0.20.12 47 Will Rischbieth (Aus) 0.20.21 48 Antoine Badouard (Fra) 0.20.32 49 Mitchell Delfs (Aus) 0.20.59 50 Mathieu Troquier (Fra) 0.20.76 50 Nico Vink (Bel) 52 Kyle Strait (USA) 0.20.81 53 Bernard Kerr° (GBr) 0.21.27 54 Harry Heath° (GBr) 0.21.30 55 Boris Tetzlaff (Aut) 0.21.65 56 Benny Strasser (Ger) 0.22.29 57 Antonio Ferreiro Pajuelo (Spa) 0.22.40 58 Neil Donoghue (GBr) 0.22.75 59 Wyn Masters (NZl) 0.22.83 60 Robert Smith (GBr) 0.23.14 61 Mathieu Gallean (Fra) 0.23.99 62 Scott Laughland (Irl) 0.24.05 63 Cody Warren (USA) 0.24.62 63 Herman Olund (Swe) 65 Marcel Beer (Swi) 0.24.85 66 Dominik Gspan (Swi) 0.26.02 67 Cameron Cole (NZl) 0.26.58 68 Ralph Jones (GBr) 0.27.98 69 Arran Gannicott° (GBr) 0.28.39 70 Elias Somvi (Ita) 0.28.77 71 Andréa Gamenara° (Ita) 0.31.50 72 Shaun O'connor° (Aus) 0.36.23 73 Bryn Atkinson (Aus) 0.41.17 74 Joe Barnes (GBr) 0.47.64 75 Fabien Cousinie (Fra) 2.54.73 76 Mickael Pascal (Fra) 3.20.58 DNF Damien Spagnolo (Fra) DNF Tom Deacon (GBr) DNF Markus Pekoll (Aut) DNF Nicolas Ortiz (Fra) DNF Matthew Scoles (NZl) DNF Ben Cathro (GBr) Teams 1 Santa Cruz Syndicate 90 pts 2 Yeti Fox Shox Factory Race Team 54 3 GT Bicycles 49 4 Scott 11 49 5 Team Maxxis-Rocky Mountain Bicycles 47 6 Monster Energy / Specialized / Mad Catz 44 7 Trek World Racing 44 8 MS Evil Racing 42 9 Chain Reaction Cycles/Intense 40 10 Suspension Center 35 11 Morzine-Avoriaz 74 32 12 Animal Commencal 30 13 Iron Horse-Kenda-Playbiker 30 14 Lapierre Powered By Saab Salomon 21 15 Norco World Team 19 16 Massi 18 17 Subaru Mountain Bike Pro Team 16 18 Team Vario Racing 16 19 Duncan Riffle Racing 12 20 2Stagefactory 11 21 Ancillotti Doganaccia Racing Team 6 22 Dytech DH 4 23 Kona 2 World Cup standings after four rounds 1 Steve Peat (GBr) Santa Cruz Syndicate 762 pts 2 Greg Minnaar (RSA) Santa Cruz Syndicate 758 3 Gee Atherton (GBr) Animal Commencal 657 4 Michael Hannah (Aus) GT Bicycles 652 5 Samuel Hill (Aus) Monster Energy / Specialized / Mad Catz 607 6 Samuel Blenkinsop (NZl) Yeti Fox Shox Factory Race Team 406 7 Justin Leov (NZl) Trek World Racing 386 8 Brendan Fairclough (GBr) Monster Energy / Specialized / Mad Catz 354 9 Marc Beaumont (GBr) GT Bicycles 329 10 Steve Smith (Can) MS Evil Racing 301 11 Andrew Neethling (RSA) Trek World Racing 298 12 Nick Beer (Swi) Scott 11 293 13 Josh Bryceland (GBr) Santa Cruz Syndicate 288 14 Aaron Gwin (USA) Yeti Fox Shox Factory Race Team 285 15 Bernat Guardia Pascual (Spa) Massi 279 16 David Vazquez Lopez (Spa) Lapierre Powered By Saab Salomon 273 17 Duncan Riffle (USA) Duncan Riffle Racing 261 18 Aurélien Giordanengo (Fra) 259 19 Matti Lehikoinen (Fin) MS Evil Racing 241 20 Filip Polc (Svk) MS Evil Racing 238 21 Robin Wallner (Swe) 228 22 Mickael Pascal (Fra) MSC Bikes 209 23 Dan Stanbridge (GBr) 206 24 Mitchell Delfs (Aus) Kenda Morewood 201 25 Chris Kovarik (Aus) Chain Reaction Cycles/Intense 184 26 Danny Hart° (GBr) Lapierre Powered By Saab Salomon 184 27 Jared Graves (Aus) Yeti Fox Shox Factory Race Team 179 28 Julien Camellini (Fra) Chain Reaction Cycles/Intense 171 29 Rémi Thirion (Fra) Team Sunn 169 30 Ivan Oulego Moreno (Spa) Massi 166 31 Thomas Braithwaite (GBr) 164 32 Joseph Smith (GBr) Kona 159 33 Fabien Cousinie (Fra) 153 34 Thibaut Ruffin (Fra) 153 35 Joris Bigoni (Fra) 151 36 Fabien Pedemanaud (Fra) Scott 11 145 37 Nathan Rennie (Aus) Kenda Morewood 143 38 Cameron Cole (NZl) Team Maxxis-Rocky Mountain Bicycles 142 39 Joshua Button (Aus) 139 40 Kyle Strait (USA) Specialized Team America 138 41 Luke Strobel (USA) Team Maxxis-Rocky Mountain Bicycles 138 42 Dan Atherton (GBr) Animal Commencal 134 43 Damien Spagnolo (Fra) Subaru Mountain Bike Pro Team 133 44 Cody Warren (USA) Specialized Team America 131 45 Jared Rando (Aus) Giant Mountain Bike Team 130 46 Bryn Atkinson (Aus) 124 47 Sam Dale (GBr) 121 48 Lorenzo Suding (Ita) Dytech DH 118 49 Tom Deacon (GBr) 2Stagefactory 110 50 Ben Reid (Irl) Just Reid Race Team 106 51 Antoine Badouard (Fra) 101 52 Pasqual Canals Flix (Spa) XMS-Devinci World Cup Team 101 53 Matthew Simmonds (GBr) Chain Reaction Cycles/Intense 101 54 Ruaridh Cunningham (GBr) Chain Reaction Cycles/Intense 100 55 Marcus Klausmann (Ger) Ghost A.T.G. Pro Team 99 56 Pierre Charles Georges (Fra) Solid Aclass Factory Team 95 57 Brook Macdonald° (NZl) Ancillotti Doganaccia Racing Team 90 58 Nathan Rankin (NZl) Iron Horse-Kenda-Playbiker 89 59 Cyrille Kurtz (Fra) Team Sunn 81 60 Cesar Rojo (Spa) 80 61 Benny Strasser (Ger) 80 62 Boris Tetzlaff (Aut) Solid Aclass Factory Team 79 63 Aari Barrett° (NZl) Scott 11 75 64 Wyn Masters (NZl) Ancillotti Doganaccia Racing Team 74 65 Antonio Ferreiro Pajuelo (Spa) XMS-Devinci World Cup Team 71 66 Bradley Benedict (USA) Duncan Riffle Racing 70 67 Markus Pekoll (Aut) Solid Aclass Factory Team 69 68 Will Rischbieth (Aus) 69 69 Fabien Barel (Fra) Subaru Mountain Bike Pro Team 66 70 Florent Payet (Fra) Subaru Mountain Bike Pro Team 66 71 Cédric Gracia (Fra) 62 72 Adam Vagner (Cze) 61 73 Ben Cathro (GBr) 61 74 Nicolas Ortiz (Fra) 57 75 Ryan Condrashoff (USA) X-Fusion-Intense 54 76 Marco Milivinti (Ita) Dytech DH 53 77 Romain Paulhan (Fra) 52 78 Neil Donoghue (GBr) 52 79 Jonty Neethling (RSA) 51 80 Joe Barnes (GBr) 51 81 Matthew Scoles (NZl) 49 82 Herman Olund (Swe) 48 83 Rhys Willemse° (Aus) 46 84 Harry Heath° (GBr) 45 85 Kieran Bennett (NZl) X-Fusion-Intense 44 86 Bernard Kerr° (GBr) 43 87 Dominik Gspan (Swi) 42 88 Georg Sieder (Aut) Solid Aclass Factory Team 40 89 Johann Potgieter (RSA) 38 90 Esteban Deronzier (Fra) Morzine-Avoriaz 74 38 91 Adam Brayton (GBr) Just Reid Race Team 38 92 Vlastimil Hyncica (Cze) 37 93 Matej Charvat (Cze) 36 94 Dennis Dertell (Swe) 33 95 Nico Vink (Bel) 31 96 Mathieu Troquier (Fra) Solid Aclass Factory Team 31 97 Rowan Sorrell (GBr) 28 98 Arnau Sugranes Mateu (Spa) 27 99 Marco Bugnone (Ita) Argentina Bike Gravity Team 26 100 Claudio Cozzi (Ita) Dytech DH 25 101 Emanuel Pombo (Por) 24 102 Kevin Aiello° (USA) GT Bicycles 24 103 Curtis Keene (USA) 23 104 Maximilian Bender (Ger) 21 105 Robert Smith (GBr) 21 106 Mathieu Gallean (Fra) Team Sunn 20 107 Rémy Charrier (Fra) Team Sunn 19 108 Scott Laughland (Irl) 19 109 Scott Mears (GBr) 19 110 Arran Gannicott° (GBr) 19 111 Maxime Remy (Fra) Suspension Center 16 112 Marcel Beer (Swi) 16 113 Carlo Gambirasio (Ita) Surfing Shop 15 114 Pierre Van Der Merwe° (RSA) 15 115 Timothy Bentley° (RSA) 14 116 Kim Petersson° (Swe) 13 117 Ralph Jones (GBr) 13 118 Iago Garay Tamayo° (Spa) 12 119 Louis-Bresler Knipe (RSA) 12 120 David Eme (Fra) 11 121 Laurie Dinham° (Aus) Suspension Center 11 122 Jorge Aguin Castro (Spa) 11 123 Elias Somvi (Ita) 11 124 Gary Barnard (RSA) 10 125 Markus Olkkonen (Fin) 10 126 Andréa Gamenara° (Ita) Argentina Bike Gravity Team 10 127 Darryn Stow (RSA) 9 128 Shaun O'connor° (Aus) Iron Horse-Kenda-Playbiker 9 129 Hayden Brown (RSA) 8 130 James Hughes (GBr) 7 131 Emyr Davies (GBr) 5 132 Martin Frei (Swi) 4 133 Simon Dinkelman° (RSA) 4 134 Daniel Critchlow (GBr) Chain Reaction Cycles/Intense 3 Teams 1 Santa Cruz Syndicate 329 pts 2 Trek World Racing 269 3 GT Bicycles 191 4 Team Maxxis-Rocky Mountain Bicycles 185 5 Yeti Fox Shox Factory Race Team 164 6 Monster Energy / Specialized / Mad Catz 163 7 Scott 11 152 8 Chain Reaction Cycles/Intense 145 9 Animal Commencal 139 10 MS Evil Racing 133 11 Suspension Center 133 12 Iron Horse-Kenda-Playbiker 118 13 Norco World Team 95 14 Morzine-Avoriaz 74 88 15 Massi 67 16 Lapierre Powered By Saab Salomon 62 17 2Stagefactory 47 18 Ancillotti Doganaccia Racing Team 45 19 Kenda Morewood 43 20 Duncan Riffle Racing 36 21 Team Vario Racing 35 22 Specialized Team America 34 23 MSC Bikes 32 24 Subaru Mountain Bike Pro Team 30 25 Team Sunn 22 26 Ghost A.T.G. Pro Team 9 27 XMS-Devinci World Cup Team 6 28 Dytech DH 4 29 Kona 2 |
|
|