Rachel Atherton And Danny Hart Win World Titles

Honestly, who can stop the Brits? This year has seen some incredible success on the World Cup circuit for our British downhillers, and that success has carried on to the biggest race of the year: the World Championships. Over the weekend, Rachel Atherton and fellow Brit Danny Hart stamped their authority on the downhill race circuit by both claiming their respective rainbow jerseys at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championship in Val di Sole, Italy.

Atherton’s fourth world title victory ended a perfect season for the Trek Factory racer after she already claimed overall World Cup success following seven (out-of-seven) event victories. For Hart it was his second World Championship win after he achieved rainbow jersey-worthiness back in 2011 with that run in Champery. Atherton finished with an impressive time of four minutes 20.187 seconds, which was three seconds faster than runner-up Myriam Nicole of France.

“I can’t believe it,” Atherton said following her Word Cup winning run. “I felt sure that Tracey (Hannah) would go faster than me. She has been riding so well in the dust.”

“This track is totally wild and brutal” said Atherton. “It was like a controlled fall all of the way. I just want to thank everybody that has supported me and made this possible. I’m loving every moment right now!”

(Can’t see the video? Click here)

Hart came into the race in stunning form on the back of three consecutive World Cup wins. He finished three seconds ahead of runner-up Laurie Greenland. Florent Payet claimed third.

“After the year I’ve had I could believe in it (winning,)” said Hart. “I’ve been working hard and this has always been a big goal of mine. I thought ‘well, I’ve won the last three World Cups, let’s just ride the course and see what happens’ and I took the win.”

“Just getting back to where I was has been a hard mission (after five years without a World Cup win)” said Hart. “All those saying I’m a one hit wonder, well I’ve done it four times in a row and there’s not many who have done that.”

Also check out this cool little edit from Shimano about Rachel Atherton and her perfect season. Enjoy!

(Can’t see the video? Click here)

More on UCI MTB here and the full results can be found here.