Greg Minnaar on his way to victory Pic © zooom.at/Stefan Eisend

Greg Minnaar and Anne-Caroline Chausson are the 2003 UCI MTB World Downhill Champions. Minnaar had to fight for it, with other riders just a couple of seconds behind, while Chausson scored a characteristically sweeping victory with a 12-second gap on second placed Sabrina Jonnier. Third woman was Nolvenn le Caer, with battling Brits Tracy Moseley and Fionn Griffiths in fourth and fifth. It was a disappointing result for the British pair, but there’s still the World Cup to be settled…

In the men’s race it was Mickael Pascal and Fabien Barel occupying second and third spots, pushing Steve Peat down to fourth. After a disappointing World Cup, Steve was really hoping for the championship here, but it wasn’t to be. Will Longden pulled out a good ‘un, though, coming in 11th.

There were high hopes for Gee Atherton in the Junior category, but at the end of the day it was the equally scarily-talented Sam Hill who took gold with a time that would have placed him fourth in the Elite category. Gee was second, Cyrille Kurtz third.

In the Junior Women’s category, Emmeline Ragot was first followed by Scarlett Hagen and Bernadita Pizarro.

Other World Titles that have been settled include the 4X (Mickael Prokop and Anne-Caroline Chausson), Junior Men XC (Jaroslav Kulvahy) and U23 Men XC (Blaz Weber). A quick mention of the UK’s Liam Killeen, fourth in the U23s.

So just the Elite XC titles to be decided…