By Squirrel - September 6, 2010 - 22:23
By: Colin Meagher
The second helping of meat and potatoes for this World Champs came down to who could keep it together the best on a track that the remnants of Hurricane Earl had saturated during the two previous days. For the Elite Women, it was Tracy Moseley; for the elite Men, it was none other than Sam Hill.
The loose and dusty track of the first few days of training at Mont-Sainte-Anne was big and fast and mean. Then came the rain from Earl. While everyone agreed that a bit of wet was needed to smooth out the rough monster that the DH track had evolved into, none were wanting quite so much moisture as was delivered. C’est la vie.
The Junior riders went off first in the morning—yet another appetizer. Lauren Rosser of Canada pulled out a great ride for the win, while the Monster Energy junior racer Troy Brosnan took the hot seat away from Neko Mulally.
Then came the ladies. The rain-slicked course was getting faster in some places boggy in other. Additionally, the succession of riders from the previous two days of training had left a thin greasy coating of mud on all the roots and rocks, forcing riders to re-assess line choice in favor of staying upright—particularly in the rock garden.
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Tags: Championships, Colin Meagher, DH, world championships
By Squirrel - September 6, 2010 - 21:44
by:Colin Meagher
The World Champs are a peculiar thing. Favorites falter. Dark horses can win. Sometimes. In other words, expect the unexpected. And that’s what happened in the elite XC races: Maja Wloszczowska of Poland and Jose Hermida of Spain both came away from their respective races with gold.
Hurricane Earl may have missed hitting the Eastern Seaboard, but the close brush was enough to send rainsqualls into Quebec and season the dusty XC track with more than enough rain to turn the dry, blown out XC track into proper Mont-Sainte-Anne dirt and mud. Canadians Marie-Helene Premont and Geoff Kabush were both licking their chops; Kabush was even hoping it would rain harder.
In the Women’s Elite race, Wloszczowska pulled off the equivalent of a Cinderella story by taking the win. Wloszczowska is a two time World Cup winner, and while she’s raced well all season, for her to take the win against local powerhouse Marie-Helene Premont and World Cup overall champ Catharine Pendrel was unexpected, to say the least; Wloszczowska was ranked fourteenth overall following this year’s World Cup, while Pendrel and Premont both excel on technical courses like this one. Vegas odds likely had the Polish rider somewhere in the 50-1 neighborhood for a win, if not even lower. But she somehow overcame those odds to pull off win.
All throughout the early stages of the race, she was in perfect position to go for the lead, and by the lap two, she had it and never looked back. By lap three, she owned it. Behind her, more than a bit of chaos ensued with Eva Lechner, Sabine Spitz, Pendrel, Koerber, and a few others duking it out. Eventually, it was Kalentieva and Koerber who filled out the podium with Pendrel a close fourth and Premont back in ninth place.
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Tags: Championships, Colin Meagher, Mont-Sainte-Anne world cup, world champoinships, XC
By Squirrel - September 4, 2010 - 19:09
By: Colin Meagher
The world of mountain biking boils down to meat, potatoes, and gravy. But appetizers are always welcome. So far in this year’s World Champs, we’re had a few appetizers, and a bit of gravy; the meat and potatoes get served up during Saturday’s XC Elite XC and Sunday’s Elite DH races. But to tide you over, there’s been a healthy serving of Junior and U23 XC action, and some bar banging 4X action.
Junior XC races: Not much to mention, really. The next crop is coming up; hopefully not too many will get seduced to the dark side (road racing). The new Junior World XC Champs are Pauline Ferrand Prevot and Michiel Van Der Heijden (although with Prevot, the seduction has already occurred—she’s the reigning World Junior Road Cycling champ, too). U23 saw Alexandra Engon and Mathias Flueckiger claim victory. In Women’s Observed Trails—evidently that still exists—Gemma Abant Condal once again crushed the competition (evidently the Spaniard has been killing it for a number of years).
The 4X competition could be considered the gravy of this World Champs, and it was served up steaming hot.
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Tags: 4X, Colin Meagher, DH, Mont Sainte Anne, world championships, XC
By Squirrel - September 3, 2010 - 07:33
By: Colin Meagher
Hot, humid, and dusty as all hell; that’s the conditions found on the hill here at Mont-Sainte-Anne. Most unusual. But the bugs are still out in force in the woods. Some things never change here.
World Champs. It is a madhouse of activity. Trying to see everything here is like juggling flaming chainsaws. It isn’t just the meat and potatoes of racing—Downhill, 4X, and Elite XC racing, but also Trials, U23 XC races, Junior races, Junior DH racing…you get the picture.
So the meat and potatoes: Elite XC, elite DH, and 4X.
XC racing. The track has undergone a few adjustments to make this a more television and spectator event. Gone are a number of sweet single-track sections; instead they’ve been cut wide enough to accommodate a Mack truck. In addition, the first section of track has been abbreviated, as have some of the lower loops that transitioned riders to the east end of the track. Riders aren’t too put out, though; rather the stoke level is on high—racing at Worlds is a dream come true for many, and a challenge relished by many of the others.
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Tags: 4X, Colin Meagher, DH, Mont Sainte Anne, mtb, world championships, Worlds, XC
