Brosnan nips Mulally at junior downhill Worlds

Australia's Troy Brosnan, the second to last junior man down the mountain at the world championships in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec, on Sunday, sped to a narrow victory by six one hundredths of a second ahead of Neko Mulally (United States). Lewis Buchanan (Great Britain), the last man to race, finished third.

"I couldn't believe it when I came across the line," said Brosnan. "I don't think it's sunk in yet."

Mulally, who was fastest in the official timed run two days ago, started 14th out of 49 riders given his low UCI ranking after much of a year off the circuit due to injury. The American clocked a 4:50.77 and spent more than an hour in the hot seat before narrowly losing his spot at the very end.

Mulally proved he was back to good health after breaking his arm earlier this season. "I had hoped to come back in time to do a few more World Cups, but it never worked out. I wanted to do well here, and my race was good. It was a really close race, and I'm happy to be right up there with Troy."

"I wasn't nervous. I just wanted to get down the mountain," said Mulally. "I wanted to do a solid run and not get out of control, and it was over before I knew it."

At the top of his run, Brosnan was thinking, "'What I really need to do is pedal, pedal, pedal.' I was trying to keep a clear head and pin it."

The Australian had no idea at the beginning of the year that he'd be wearing the rainbow stripes. "At the start of the season, I was training back home. My manager said I should do the full World Cup circuit and in it, I got the leader's jersey a few times, which gave me some more confidence. As my season went on, I had ups and downs, but the races helped me learn what I needed to do to win. I've taken everything from every race this year and put it together, and it worked."

After overnight rains, the junior men faced damp conditions and a wet track.

"Coming from Australia, I would have preferred it to be dry, but it was good fun in the mud," said Brosnan. "I was trying to hold speed. I think the muddier track today made it more deserving."

Bronze medallist Buchanan finished just over nine seconds behind Brosnan.

"I started off pretty confident and knew what I had to do. I clipped a rock with my pedal up in the top section. It was hard to concentrate, but I tried to put that in the back of my mind and pedal, although I was quite off the pace."

Still, Buchanan managed to work himself up from fifth at an early split to third by the end. "I focused on getting smooth lines and building speed. This is probably one of the fastest courses we had all year and one of the roughest."

All three medallists are first-year juniors and will return next year to race each other again.

Race note

American Mitch Ropelato flatted during his run and rolled across the line with his tire and tube all entangled in his wheel.

Full Results

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#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Troy Brosnan (Australia)0:04:50.71
2Neko Mulally (United States Of America)0:00:00.06
3Lewis Buchanan (Great Britain)0:00:09.05
4George Brannigan (New Zealand)0:00:12.37
5Oliwer Kangas (Sweden)0:00:14.90
6Zakarias Blom Johansen (Norway)0:00:18.22
7Ludovic Oget (France)0:00:19.13
8Timothy Bentley (South Africa)0:00:20.12
9Petr Tresnak (Czech Republic)0:00:20.34
10Rupert Chapman (New Zealand)0:00:21.30
10Manuel Gruber (Austria)Row 10 - Cell 2
12Jed Rooney (New Zealand)0:00:21.35
13Marius Paccolat (Switzerland)0:00:21.42
14Daniel Franks (New Zealand)0:00:22.87
15Freddy Hunziker (Switzerland)0:00:23.02
16Tyler Allison (Canada)0:00:24.23
17Carlos Castro (Portugal)0:00:24.60
18Miikka Lehtinen (Finland)0:00:25.53
19Nick Geddes (Canada)0:00:25.69
20Chayse Marshall (Canada)0:00:26.49
21Antony Moore (Australia)0:00:26.80
22Evan Powell (United States Of America)0:00:27.09
23Daniel Lavis (Australia)0:00:28.95
24Sam Baker (New Zealand)0:00:29.74
25Sam Flockhart (Great Britain)0:00:29.95
26Blaz Hölcl (Slovenia)0:00:30.22
27Remi Gauvin (Canada)0:00:31.84
28Isak Leivsson (Norway)0:00:32.72
29Gustavo Cisneros (Argentina)0:00:33.06
30Nate Furbee (United States Of America)0:00:33.86
31Trevor Trinkino (United States Of America)0:00:36.00
32Felipe Escobar (Colombia)0:00:36.89
33Riley Suhan (Canada)0:00:37.19
34Philipp Bünnemann (Germany)0:00:37.74
35Kazuki Shimizu (Japan)0:00:39.70
36Phillip Piazza (Australia)0:00:39.76
37Hajime Imoto (Japan)0:00:40.28
38Nick Grimm (Canada)0:00:43.03
39Fabian Fader (Germany)0:00:46.11
40Juan Manuel Orrego Castano (Colombia)0:00:47.96
41Gabriel Giovaninni (Brazil)0:00:48.41
42Sam Powers (United States Of America)0:00:55.39
43Jimmy Wilson (New Zealand)0:01:08.03
44Marek Petelik (Czech Republic)0:03:10.61
45Mitch Ropelato (United States Of America)0:04:36.90
DNFKyle Sangers (Canada)Row 45 - Cell 2
DNFMartin Bryson (United States Of America)Row 46 - Cell 2
DNSSimon Dinkelman (South Africa)Row 47 - Cell 2

 

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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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