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Gee Atherton has become only the fourth (we think…) British rider to win a round of the UCI World Cup. Schladming, Austria was the venue for the weekend’s three-way DH/4X/XC event on a selection of steep and tricky courses. Gee looked very promising in the semi-finals, posting the second-fastest time just a second behind top qualifier Fabien Barel. Those two and Nathan Rennie were the only riders to get under four minutes on the 1.55mile course in the semi-finals – fourth-placed Steve Peat was on 4:03.35. World Champion Greg Minnaar was off NORBA racing again – he’s focussing on the US series and defending his rainbow jersey in preference to the World Cup series.
Come the finals, fifth qualifier Sam Hill took a chunk off his semi-final time to join the exclusive sub-four-minute club. Peat knocked a bit off his time too but not quite enough to get under four or ahead of Hill. With Hill’s final run time faster than all the semi-final times bar Barel, the last three runners were going to have to pull something out of the bag to top the Australian. Nathan Rennie rose to the challenge, sneaking on to the hot seat by just 0.32seconds. Then penultimate runner Gee Atherton put in the race of his life, hacking a second and a half off his own semi time and taking nearly a second out of Rennie. That just left Barel to run, and he’d have to improve his own time to match Atherton. It was bad luck for Barel, though – two crashes on his final run dropped him to 31st place and gave Gee Atherton his first World Cup victory. Rennie was second, Sam Hill third, Steve Peat fourth and Cedric Gracia fifth.
As well as the two Brits on the podium (and we don’t get to write that very often), strong performances came from Neil Donoghue (9th) and Marc Beaumont (14th). Overall it’s still Peat in front with 565 points, 76 ahead of Gracia. Sam Hill’s third, Gee Atherton fourth and Mickael Pascal fifth.
Over in the women’s event, Tracy Moseley was looking to follow up last week’s win in France with another podium-topping run. She knows she can beat Chausson, but she wouldn’t have to – Anne-Caro wasn’t racing. Alas, it wasn’t to be. Marielle Saner and Sabrina Jonnier made the semi-final running with times just 0.06seconds apart, and in the final they took first and second too. Vanessa Quin was third with Tracy Moseley a solid fourth well clear of fifth-placed Emmeline Ragot. Helen Gaskell was 8th, and Maria Conway continues to improve in her first season – she was 12th, just ahead of Fionn Griffiths.
Overall it’s Jonnier out front on 557, 50 ahead of Saner. Tracy Moseley’s in contention with 465 for third, with Chausson fourth and Quin fifth.
4X
It was a great weekend for Sabrina Jonnier – she won the 4X as well, beating Anneke Beerten, Tracy Moseley and Mio Suemasa in the final. Which meant two podiums for Moseley too, which can’t be bad. In the overall standings it’s Jonnier in the lead, Katrina Miller second and Anneke Beerten third. The men’s final was wom by Karim Amour ahead of Kanil Tatarkovic, Cedric Gracia and Mickal Prokop. Best British performance was Scott Beaumont, third in the “small final” for 7th place. Overall it’s Prokop in the lead, Karim Amour second and Guido Tschugg third.
XC
Britain’s Liam Killeen is clearly on a roll at the moment, but he wasn’t at Schladming – instead he was at Mt Snow, Vermont for the NORBA racing. Which he won – we don’t think a Brit’s won a NORBA XC round since Tim Gould in the early 90s, although we stand to be corrected on that. In Austria is was Julien Absalon who won on a tough course. Bart Brentjens was second and Jose Antonio Hermida third. The overall standings were largely unaffected, with Roel Paulissen hanging on to first place, Filip Meirhaeghe in second and Christoph Sauser third. It’s pretty close though – Meirhaeghe and Sauser are both on 665 points.
An absent Gunn-Rita Dahle made way for some new and extraordinarily long names at the top of the women’s race, with Irina Kalientieva winning ahead of Maja Wloszczowska and Anna Szafraniec. Dahle’s still got a 93-point lead over Kalientieva in the overall standings, though, with Annabella Stropparo in third.
All three wings of the World Cup circus now cross the Atlantic, with Mont Ste Anne, Canada hosting another triple-header World Cup next weekend…
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