After yesterday’s race, I don’t think we’re going to hear too many complaints that Leogang is a bike park track. After rain and snow, the trails looked more like a swamp than a World Championship circuit with around 90% of the field had trouble staying upright.
Defending champ, Loic Bruni, had a nightmare of a run, as did Greg Minnaar, Arron Gwin and many many others, but it was Scottish rider Reece Wilson that not only stayed on his bike but put down the fastest time by some margin. David Trummer came in 2nd, with Commencal’s Remi Thirion coming 3rd, though he did look set to challenge Reece before a couple of mistakes.
The Elite Women also gained a new World Champ for 2020. Camille Balanche took the win by 3 seconds after a super smooth race run ahead of Myriam Nicole and Dorval teammate Monika Hrastnik. Interestingly all 3 top women were riding the same Commencal Supreme race bike.
Elite Women
- Camille Balanche: 5:08.426
- Myriam Nicole: +3.130
- Monika Hrastnik: +16.966
- Tracey Hannah: +20.012
- Mikayla Parton: +23.164
Elite Men
- Reece Wilson: 3:51.243
- David Trummer: +3.197
- Remi Thirion: +5.953
- Mark Wallace: +6.655
- Bernard Kerr: +7.203
Junior Women
- Lauryne Chappaz: 5:41.502
- Sophie Gutohrle: +46.809
- Leona Pierrini: +53.812
- Aina Gonzalez Grimau: +1:05.086
- Ella Erickson: +2:01.558
Junior Men
- Oisin O’Callaghan: 4:02.142
- Daniel Slack: +2.141
- James Elliott: +10.705
- Dennis Luffman: +10.714
- Luke Mumford: +13.580
Great Britain’s Reece Wilson was crowned as the elite men’s downhill world champion on the final day of the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Leogang, Austria, finishing off a successful day for the British downhill mountain bikers.
Wilson’s smooth, stylish ride saw him post a time of 3:51.243 and take to the hot seat early on in the competition, where he had a tense wait to see whether any of the 31 remaining competitors could beat his time. When the final rider, defending champion Loic Bruni, crashed on his run, the victory was sealed for Reece and the Scottish rider took the rainbow jersey.
Upon learning of his victory, an emotional Reece said: “I don’t know what went right this weekend, I was ready for it to be wet or dry… I just believed in myself. I needed a year off, I used it productively and I came here and I believed I could be the guy who could win. And now that I’m here, I can’t believe it! I’ve worked really hard, and yeh – here we are.”
In silver medal position was Austria’s David Trummer, who crossed the line 3.197 seconds slower than Wilson, while France’s Remi Thirion won bronze.
Great Britain’s Bernard Kerr and Greg Williamson also finished in the top ten, finishing in fifth and seventh place respectively, while Danny Hart was 13th, Matt Walker was 16th, Charlie Hatton was 23rd and Laurie Greenland was 37th.
It was a remarkable day for the Great Britain Cycling Team’s junior men’s downhill riders earlier on, with six British riders all finishing within the top eleven places.
Dan Slack won the silver medal, just 2.141 seconds behind the victor Oisin O’Collaghan from Ireland, while James Elliott finished in third to take the bronze medal. Fellow GB riders Dennis Luffman, Luke Mumford and Luke Williamson finished in fourth, fifth and seventh place respectively while Ethan Craik finished just outside the top ten, in 11th place. Connor Smith finished in 46th place overall.
In the women’s race, Mikayla Parton was Great Britain’s highest placed finisher in an impressive fifth place, 23.164 seconds behind the victorious Camille Balanche from Switzerland. Tahnee Seagrave was unfortunate to crash during her run, finishing in 11th overall while Stacey Fisher finished in 13th place. Myriam Nicole from France and Monika Hrastnik from Slovenia completed the podium, winning the silver and bronze medals.
British Cycling
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Well deserved from both the elite winners: Camille being the only woman to get down clean; Reece was reportedly going well throughout practice so can’t be called a fluke, seemed to have got the measure of the track.
Hope they both get a proper race season next year to wear their stripes with pride.
Would it be possible, please, to have coverage of a race without a picture of the winner heading up the article on the front page. It’s a bit of a spoiler for those of us who are a day or so late watching it.
I believe there was an XC World Championship going on as well – any chance of a report on that too?….
Agree with the above; Doesn’t XC count?
That track was brutal, you couldn’t tell what was mud and what was stumps or roots for some of it; Enchanted Forest, my foot. Well done to anyone who finished and especially to the winners.
Seeing the current (now former) world champ slide down most of the track on his backside was fantastic. Shows I’m doing something right. And props too to Mr Minnaar for an otb that would have sat comfortably in my own highlights reel 😉
With a double stripes winner for sure in xc…
I haven’t had much good to say about them this year, but well done the BBC for showing the DH event live on Sunday. Even my wife pulled up a chair to watch at my PC. It made my rides in the Quantocks (on Saturday) and the Purbecks (on Sunday) look a tad tame!