Atherton Train Stopped on Mont Saint-Anne UCI Downhill Race

August 14th, 2013 8:41am

UCI PRO MEN DOWNHILL

Mother Nature Has her Say and Smith Has his.

Visiting Mont Saint-Anne for the 25 year, the UCI circus rolled into town bringing the high flying, fast rolling downhillers to North America for the fastest course on the circuit. Under sketchy skies, the Mont Saint-Anne course was rough but dry for 75% of the riders before the skies opened up on the top of the mountain.If your familiar with the course, there is a huge advantage for those who got down the mountain before the rain. One of those recipients was Gee Atherton, whose crash in qualifying saw him start very early in the event. So the fastest guy in the series this year took advantage of it and smoked the best time of the day set by Andrew Neethling by 3.8 seconds to take the early hot seat and wait to see what the field could bring.

But before the big challengers could throw down, mother nature interrupted with a short shower to wet the course. First on the top of the mountain, then over the majority of the hill. The rain's immediate impact was felt as times slowed and confidence waned.

With the final ten qualifiers still to go, the rain ceased giving the top qualifiers a bit of hope. But the numbers don't lie and mother nature's influence on the top of the course showed up in the split times. But the fastest riders didn't get fast by giving up when it rains. No one could best Athertons time as the riders ticked by until Mr. Sam Hill took the gate. Probably one of the strongest riders in wet conditions, Hill came through the first split 1.8 seconds behind Atherton, but by the second split had it down to .4 seconds. The lower third saw Hill slip back a bit and come up just 2.1 seconds behind. Hart, Blenkinsop, Minnaar followed but also came up a bit short setting the stage for Steve Smith, home country favorite and top qualifier to see what the course would give up. At the top split Smith was only .2 seconds back, but the crowd was insane, cheering on their hometown hero. Smith wanted to win and so did the crowd. Smith bombed the rock garden gapping into the gnarliest rock section of the course. By the second split Smith had pulled Gee back to within .018 second and the race was on. Coming into the bottom section of the course, the crowd was going nuts and Smith rode fully inspired. Pinning it through final rock section and over the big jumps, Smith hammered all the way through the finish to win by .9 of second. It was the most exciting race of the year so far. Congrats to Steve and his Devinci bike manufactured for winning at home (Devinci is made in Quebec Province)

1. Steve Smith (CAN/Devinci Global Racing) 3:58.485
2. Gee Atherton (GBR/GT Factory Racing) +0.904
3. Samuel Hill (AUS/ Chain Reaction Cycles.com/Nukeproof) +2.118
4. Sam Blenkinsop (NZ/ LaPierre)
5. Aaron Gwin (Wildomar, Calif./Specialized Racing DH) +3.123

UCI PRO WOMEN DOWNHILL

Ragot Stops the Atherton win train at Mont Saint-Anne

Two time world champion Emmeline Ragot did what no other woman has managed to do this year - win a UCI Womens Pro DH race. With Rachel Atherton's domination in every race so far it was going to take a rider willing to hang it all out and hang on to beat Rachel. Emmeline was up to the task putting down a run that was so much
smoother than any other competitor including Atherton that it was all but a forgone conclusion that victory was to be hers. But before she could take home the trophy, Emmeline had to suffer through the drama of waiting for Rachel's run. But the drama would quickly be dismissed after Rachel was 10 seconds off the pace at the
first split and followed up by going hard over the bars in the rock section.

1. Emmeline Ragot (FRA/Lapierre Gravity Republic) 4:24.985
2. Manon Carpenter (GBR/Madison Saracen Downhill Team) +4.211
3. Floriane Pugin (FRA/Gstaad-Scott) +7.094