Atherton clinches round and overall

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The final round of the 2010 Mountain Bike World Cup concluded on Sunday in Windham, New York, with the men's downhill. The riders did not disappoint, with a tight race for both the event win and the overall title. The men had a race within a race - both the race to win the World Cup final, and the race for the title. Gee Atherton (Commencal) and Greg Minnaar (Santa Cruz Syndicate) were separated by a mere four points, so it all came down to whomever finished in front - no matter where they finished in the race. Atherton sealed the title by winning the race; 37 hundredths of a second in front of Minnaar.

Junior rider Troy Brosnan (Monster Energy/Specialized/Mad Catz) set the first sub-2:36 time, and ended up winning the junior World Cup title. His time was slowly eaten away at, until his teammate Sam Hill, returning from injury, dropped the top time below 2:35. Hill was, in turn, bumped by a third teammate, Brendan Fairclough. Fairclough took the leading time down to 2:33.49 with 20 riders remaining.

Nine riders later, Brook MacDonald took the lead, but he didn't even have time to climb into the hot seat before the next rider down, Nick Beer (Scott 11) knocked nearly two seconds off the lead. There were 10 riders left, but Beer was untouchable until Atherton came in over three seconds faster.

Next up was Minnaar. The South African was seven tenths of a second slower through the two intermediate splits, but picked it up in the lower section to finish 37 hundredths of a second behind Atherton. After a season of racing, the World Cup had been won by less than half a second.

There were still three riders to finish for the event victory. Sam Blenkinsop (Lapierre International) slotted in third behind Minnaar, and Aaron Gwin (Yeti Fox Shox) was just behind Blenkinsop. The only rider left was Steve Peat (Santa Cruz Syndicate), the world champion, and the fastest qualifier. Peat was fast, and getting faster as he came down the course - 1.41 seconds ahead at the second split. It looked like Atherton would have to settle for the overall title, until Peat inexplicably crashed less than 500 metres from the finish line.

"As you can imagine, I feel at the top of the world," said Atherton. "It's a great way to end the season. I'm stoked I've won it but Steve was up on me and he crashed... but that is just racing, I guess."

"I feel ready for the Worlds. This was a good race to lead into it. It has been a tough track to race on all week, so you know everyone's going to be definitely raring to go for next weekend."

Atherton took the title with 1229 points to Minnaar's 1185, with Blenkinsop third at 864 points.

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