Thursday’s seeding runs for Saturday’s World Downhill Mountain Bike Championships riders saw several British producing excellent rides.

Top of the list was Steve Peat from Sheffield, who posted the fastest time in the Elite Men category. Steve has held the World Number One ranking in the last 12 months and narrowly missed out on the 1999 World Cup title, before missing that year’s World Championships with injury. Fully recovered and clearly on-form, he is a strong contender for a medal.

Of the other elite British men, Crawford Carrick-Anderson was 24th, Nigel Page 31st, Rob Warner 32nd, Ed Moseley 37th, Will Longden 46th and Tim Ponting 91st after a mechanical problem. In the Elite Women, Adele Croxon was 20th and Helen Mortimer 34th (with a flat).

The Junior women category saw further seeding run success for British riders. Fionn Griffiths and Helen Gaskell were both on-form and enjoyed trouble-free runs to finish second and third respectively. Both have shown excellent form in Senior domestic racing this year and will go into Saturday’s race full of confidence.

In the Junior Men category, Paul Garrett was an impressive fifth and Sam Furness tenth, underlining Britain’s strength in Junior Downhilling. Danny Harper was 20th and Stuart Thompson 35th.