June 21, 2008 (Val di Sole, Italy) – The course here in Val di Sole for the 2008 UCI MTB World DH Championships is incredibly demanding, with riders tackling what is essentially a 2.2km long rock garden with a few brief open sections, which happened to be strewn with slick roots. The mud that riders fought against earlier in the week dried and turned into a frighteningly fast speedway as sunny skies and hot temperatures greeted the worlds best downhillers.

Following the Junior competitions the Elite women were next on the course and Great Britain’s Rachel Atherton proved she really is the new queen of the downhill, winning by a staggering 11.99 seconds over France’s Sabrina Jonnier in second place. Jonnier’s countrywoman Emmeline Ragot was 3rd. Micayla Gatto was the top Canadian in 12th place. Gatto seemed pleased about her run later on in the afternoon “My run was alright, I wanted to be top 10, but I was fastest Canadian so I was excited about that. I went a lot faster than qualifying. I wish it was faster, but you can’t have it all.” Canada’s Claire Buchar placed 14th, Danice Uyesugi 15th, and Kim Huard finished in 20th.

The Elite Men’s race saw the pace pick up dramatically, with riders reaching speeds of 70km/h mid course. Crashes abounded as rider after rider pushed himself to the very ragged edge, and at times the edge pushed back. Bryn Arkinson of Australia absolutely exploded in what is probably the fastest section of the course when he caught a pedal on the embankment and was launched off his bike.

Crashes ended up being the story of the day for the big boys. Steve Peat moved into the hot seat with three riders to go. Greg Minnaar of South Africa was next on course, but is suffering the effects of a few crashes and couldn’t unseat the veteran Englishman. Next up was defending champion Sam Hill. Hill was over 6 seconds ahead at the split and was reeling in the seconds as he entered the last steep section of the course. After launching off the Nissan jump all looked golden for the Aussie until he was exiting the last high speed corner, and disaster struck. Hill’s front wheel hit a rock and in a split second, he was laying on the ground in a cloud of dust within view of the finish line. After scrambling for his bike, Hill crossed the line only .53 seconds back and would hang on for 3rd place.

The last rider down was Gee Atherton (Gbr), who looked incredible in practice all week. The Englishman tore down the course and took 2.62 seconds out of Peat to be crowned the new DH world champion. Atherton spoke briefly about his run on his way to the podium. “It’s been a good season and it’s still the middle of the year. This a really good one to get on. I’m stoked!” Top Canadian was Andrew Mitchell in 36th with Hans Lambert in 38th.

Results

Elite Women

1. Rachel Atherton (Great Britain) 3.49.92 (54.02 km/h)
2. Sabrina Jonnier (France) 4.01.91
3. Emmeline Ragot (France) 4.07.03
4. Floriane Pugin (France) 4.10.25
5. Mio Suemasa (Japan) 4.11.68
6. Tracy Moseley (Great Britain) 4.12.30
7. Kathleen Pruitt (United States Of America) 4.19.66
8. Fionn Griffiths (Great Britain) 4.20.10
9. Scarlett Hagen (New Zealand) 4.20.14
10. Melissa Buhl (United States Of America) 4.20.38
11. Petra Bernhard (Austria) 4.34.31
12. Micayla Gatto (Canada) 4.36.08
13. Helene Valer Fruhwirth (Austria) 4.37.04
14. Claire Buchar (Canada) 4.37.42
15. Danice Uyesugi (Canada) 4.37.71
16. Amy Laird (New Zealand) 4.44.44
17. Diana Marggraff (Ecuador) 4.45.40
18. Elisa Canepa (Italy) 4.49.52
19. Vict Hernandez Molinas (Spain) 4.51.39
20. Kim Huard (Canada) 4.51.74
21. Katarina Tothova (Czech Republic) 5.58.91
22. Katarina Pialova (Slovakia) 6.07.15
23. Céline Gros (France) 6.16.49
24. Helena Boskova (Slovakia) 7.11.25
DNF Miriam Ruchti (Switzerland)
DNF Emilie Siegenthaler (Switzerland)

Elite Men

1. Gee Atherton (Great Britain) 3:12.12
2. Steve Peat (Great Britain) 2.62
3. Samuel Hill (Australia) 3.15
4. Greg Minnaar (South Africa) 5.22
5. Fabien Barel (France) 5.80
6. Justin Leov (New Zealand) 5.84
7. Mickael Pascal (France) 8.00
8. Julien Camellini (France) 9.19
9. Fabien Pedemanaud (France) 9.34
10. Ivan Oulego Moreno (Spain) 14.74
11. Bernat Guardia Pascual (Spain) 14.75
12. Chris Kovarik (Australia) 14.96
13. Kieran Bennett (New Zealand) 16.41
14. Brendan Fairclough (Great Britain) 16.94
15. Marco Milivinti (Italy) 17.49
16. Marcel Beer (Switzerland) 18.00
17. Samuel Blenkinsop (New Zealand) 18.86
18. Amiel Cavalier (Australia) 19.44
19. Marcus Klausmann (Germany) 19.50
20. Alan Beggin (Italy) 19.53
21. Nathan Rennie (Australia) 19.61
22. Cameron Cole (New Zealand) 20.08
23. Pasqual Canals Flix (Spain) 20.34
24. Cole Bangert (United States) 20.50
25. Wyn Masters (New Zealand) 20.79
26. Ben Cathro (Great Britain) 21.62
27. Damien Spagnolo (France) 21.70
28. Lorenzo Suding (Italy) 22.70
29. Ben Reid (Ireland) 23.20
30. Markolf Berchtold (Brazil) 23.72
31. Nico Vink (Belgium) 23.89
32. Duncan Riffle (United States) 24.71
33. John Swanguen (United States) 24.86
34. Toni Berg (Finland) 25.05
35. Dominik Gspan (Switzerland) 25.05
36. Andrew Mitchell (Canada) 25.10
37. Maciej Jodko (Poland) 25.26
38. Hans Lambert (Canada) 25.77
39. Nick Beer (Switzerland) 25.87
40. Will Rischbieth (Australia) 28.50
41. Bryn Atkinson (Australia) 30.06
42. Mathias Haas (Austria) 30.09
43. Frank Schneider (Germany) 30.28
44. Samuel Zbinden (Switzerland) 30.46
45. Jurgen Beneke (Germany) 30.75
46. Jared Rando (Australia) 30.78
47. Oscar Saiz Castane (Spain) 30.92
48. Bruno Zanchi (Italy) 31.06
49. Claudio Loureiro (Portugal) 32.17
50. Michael Skinner (New Zealand) 32.8
51. Maicon Zottis (Brazil) 33.11
52. Daniel Wolfe (Ireland) 34.86
53. Cody Warren (United States) 35.1
54. Filip Polc (Slovakia) 35.75
55. Florent Payet (France) 36.04
56. Patrick Meyer (Switzerland) 36.14
57. Greg O’Keefe (Ireland) 36.86
58. Luca Bertocchi (Italy) 37.29
59. Carlo Gambirasio (Italy) 37.31
60. Marco Fidalgo (Portugal) 37.34
61. Aki Färm (Finland) 37.52
62. Mario Jo Jarrin Molina (Ecuador) 37.62
63. Renato Ventura (Portugal) 39.23
64. Luka Novak (Slovenia) 39.81
65. Kain Leonard (United States) 40.75
66. Jonty Neethling (South Africa) 41.81
67. Emanuel Pombo (Portugal) 42.41
68. Gundars Osis (Latvia) 43.43
69. Lars Sternberg (United States) 44.28
70. Santiago De Santiago (Argentina) 45.69
71. Wataru Koyama (Japan) 45.83
72. Kyle Strait (United States) 46.71
73. Arkadiusz Perin (Poland) 47.51
74. Karlis Kisuro (Latvia) 48.92
75. Martins Sprogis (Latvia) 52.40
76. Takuya Aoki (Japan) 53.03
77. Jure Logar (Slovenia) 53.53
78. Daniel Pombo (Portugal) 53.56
79. Peter Novacik (Slovakia) 53.58
80. Greg Saharin (South Africa) 54.72
81. Mitchell Delfs (Australia) 56.94
82. Attila Hutter (Hungary) 1:01.50
83. Albe Barilaro Caparros (Andorra) 1:02.22
84. Matej Charvat (Czech Republic) 1:02.28
85. King Man Tsui (Hong Kong) 1:02.77
86. Mike Mihai Moga (Romania) 1:03.81
87. Markus Pekoll (Austria) 1:13.93
88. Sergey Maltsev (Russian Federation) 1:14.74
89. Matej Vitko (Slovakia) 1:15.75
90. Erik-Lennart Purres (Estonia) 1:21.25
91. Ricard Ferreira Campos (Andorra) 1:21.64
92. Vadim Feklistov (Estonia) 1:35.80
93. Marc Beaumont (Great Britain) 1:36.08
94. Gergely Veres (Hungary) 1:37.66
95. Andrew Neethling (South Africa) 2:06.81
96. Jorge Jaramillo Salazar (Colombia) 3:12.52
97. Adam Vagner (Czech Republic) 4:47.98
98. Pedro Ferreira Landskran (Chile) 7:31.22
DNF Robin Wallner (Sweden)
DNS Krisztian Halasz (Hungary)
DNS Charles-Alexandre Dube (Canada)
DNS Markus Olkkonen (Finland)