Vergier wins junior world downhill title in Hafjell

Loris Vergier won the gold medal for France in the junior men's downhill race at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Hafjell, Norway on Sunday morning. Laurie Greenland (Great Britain) celebrated a silver medal while Jacob Dickson (Ireland) took home the bronze medal.

"I can't really believe it yet," said the new world champion Vergier, "but it was a good day for me."

Carlos Alfaro Peralta (Peru), the 16th man down the mountain, had time to get quite toasty in the hot seat after he clocked a 3:40.322.

"It was my best run today. I felt good after I had problems in the timed run," said Alfaro Peralta. Today the track was fast and dry."

Several riders commented that the track was so fast that it was scary to race.

It wasn't until New Zealand's Connor Hamilton came down as the 47th rider of the day that anyone was faster. Hamilton finished the 2.2km course in 3:38.736.

Australia's Max Warshawsky was the next man in the hot seat with a 3:37.721, but he wasn't fast enough for a medal.

"I'm pretty exhausted, but my run was good. It was pretty loose, but I got down in the end," said Warshawsky.

However, Dickson was quick enough to medal, thanks to a time of 3:36.384, which was within 7.294 seconds of Vergier. After his run, the Irishman took over the hot seat.

"I can't believe it. I had a few mistakes, but it's just the nature of the track, and I'm so happy to be in the top three," said Dickson.

Just three riders later, Greenland bumped him out of it with a 3:34.080, a time that would net him the silver medal.

"I had a good run. I slid out in the open turns, but pushed as hard as I could," said Greenland.

Pre-race favorite Luca Shaw (United States) crashed during his run, knocking himself out of medal contention. Other favorites, including Martin Maes (Belgium) and Taylor Vernon (Great Britain) had problems during their runs.

Vergier, the World Cup champion and top favorite for the day, was the last man down the mountain. His graceful, fluid run netted him the gold medal with a time of 3:29.100. He was the only man to go sub-3:30.

"The top of the course is so hard and I made some mistakes. It's so fast and so easy to crash, but it was a good day for me," said Vergier. After the top part, I applied some gas in the lower parts."

Full Results

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Junior men
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Loris Vergier (France)0:03:29.100
2Laurie Greenland (Great Britain)0:00:04.990
3Jacob Dickson (Ireland)0:00:07.294
4Max Warshawsky (Australia)0:00:08.631
5Connor Hamilton (New Zealand)0:00:09.646
6Carlos Alfaro Peralta (Peru)0:00:11.232
7Aiden Varley (Australia)0:00:12.251
8Loris Revelli (Italy)0:00:12.781
9Keegan Wright (New Zealand)0:00:12.941
10Andreas Kolb (Austria)0:00:13.116
11Thomas Estaque (France)0:00:13.324
12Daniel Olarra Lopez (Spain)0:00:13.344
13Nal Otonicar (Slovenia)0:00:13.693
14Jack Iles (Canada)0:00:13.836
15Drew Carters (Great Britain)0:00:15.144
16Maxime Ciriego (France)0:00:15.555
17Andrew Crimmins (Australia)0:00:16.385
18Shane Leslie (United States Of America)0:00:16.484
19Benjamin Dengate (Australia)0:00:18.705
20Chase Nelson (United States Of America)0:00:20.232
21Jackson Davis (Australia)0:00:20.660
22Silvio Cesar Felix Junior (Brazil)0:00:20.750
23Miha Ivancic (Slovenia)0:00:21.051
24Connor Sandri (New Zealand)0:00:21.175
25Peter Bethell (New Zealand)0:00:22.498
26Pascal Engel (Austria)0:00:22.640
27Francisco Matias (Chile)0:00:22.722
28Andrew Martin (South Africa)0:00:22.809
29Jozef Ondic (Slovakia)0:00:23.324
30Johan Geschwind (Sweden)0:00:23.510
31Mike Schaer (Switzerland)0:00:23.529
32Kamil Gladysz (Poland)0:00:24.066
33Petteri Leivo (Finland)0:00:24.223
34Myles Weber (Switzerland)0:00:24.585
35Artur Hryszko (Poland)0:00:25.938
36Per Henrik Thorp (Norway)0:00:25.999
37Henrik Myhrvold (Norway)0:00:26.077
38Max Scharf (Canada)0:00:28.064
39Masaki Kato (Japan)0:00:28.208
40Taylor Vernon (Great Britain)0:00:28.592
41Ben Hill (Australia)0:00:29.864
42Tomas Navratil (Czech Republic)0:00:30.153
43Carl Goodwin (New Zealand)0:00:30.664
44Juraj Straka (Slovakia)0:00:30.832
45Luciano Jose De Neufville (Ecuador)0:00:30.981
46Amaury Pierron (France)0:00:32.289
47Samuel Jakobsson (Sweden)0:00:34.281
48Grunde Kvalseth (Norway)0:00:34.655
49Gregg Brown (South Africa)0:00:34.749
50Martin Klette (Norway)0:00:35.028
51Neil Stewart (Great Britain)0:00:37.301
52Charlie Harrison (United States Of America)0:00:37.669
53Vitaly Khripunov (Russian Federation)0:00:38.247
54Sondre Furuheim (Norway)0:00:39.517
55Tomas Uruba (Czech Republic)0:00:39.776
56Luca Shaw (United States Of America)0:00:42.374
57Robin Andre Ryste Skjeret (Norway)0:00:55.217
58Marton Nagy (Hungary)0:00:59.018
59Martin Maes (Belgium)0:01:15.657
60Erik Toth (Hungary)0:01:35.770
DNFArmin Kiraly (Hungary)Row 60 - Cell 2
DNFJoshua Mccombie (New Zealand)Row 61 - Cell 2
DNFSeverin Poppe Midteide (Norway)Row 62 - Cell 2
DNFSilas Grandy (Germany)Row 63 - Cell 2
DNFMartin Lebl (Czech Republic)Row 64 - Cell 2
DNSFerran Jorba Prats (Spain)Row 65 - Cell 2
DNSMarcus Hansson (Sweden)Row 66 - Cell 2
DNSMatthew Mccorkell (Australia)Row 67 - Cell 2
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Nations
#Rider Name (Country) TeamResultHeader Cell - Column 3
1France170pts
2Australia170Row 1 - Cell 3
3New-Zealand160Row 2 - Cell 3
4Great Britain141Row 3 - Cell 3
5United States Of America108Row 4 - Cell 3
6Austria96Row 5 - Cell 3
7Slovenia96Row 6 - Cell 3
8Canada80Row 7 - Cell 3
9Norway77Row 8 - Cell 3
10Switzerland67Row 9 - Cell 3
11Poland65Row 10 - Cell 3
12Ireland63Row 11 - Cell 3
13Peru60Row 12 - Cell 3
14Slovakia59Row 13 - Cell 3
15Italy58Row 14 - Cell 3
16South Africa55Row 15 - Cell 3
17Sweden55Row 16 - Cell 3
18Spain54Row 17 - Cell 3
19Brazil44Row 18 - Cell 3
20Chile39Row 19 - Cell 3
21Czech Republic35Row 20 - Cell 3
22Finland33Row 21 - Cell 3
23Japan27Row 22 - Cell 3
24Ecuador21Row 23 - Cell 3
25Hungary14Row 24 - Cell 3
26Russian Federation13Row 25 - Cell 3
27Belgium7Row 26 - Cell 3

 

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Sue George is an editor at Cyclingnews.  She coordinates all of the site's mountain bike race coverage and assists with the road, 'cross and track coverage.

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