Gwin dominates the downhill competition in Leogang
American jumps into lead of World Cup standings
Aaron Gwin (Trek World Racing) retook the World Cup lead from rival Greg Minnaar (Santa Cruz Syndicate) with a dominating performance at round three of the downhill World Cup in Leogang, Austria. Gwin, who lost the lead after crashing in round two, qualified fastest, and finished over two seconds ahead of Gee Atherton (Commencal) in the final, with Minnaar nearly six seconds back in third place. Gwin, with 628 points, remains only 46 points in front of Minnaar after three rounds while Atherton is at third, 101 points back.
The ground continued to dry out after the women finished and the men began their runs, which was a mixed blessing, since it made dry condition tires important for the pedaling sections, but the sticky mud and slippery roots in the wooded sections led to numerous crashes. As an indication, Gwin's winning time was still three seconds slower than his qualifying time.
The lead time slowly went down as the first riders came through the finish, but it wasn't until Romain Paulhan, the French national champion, came through that it dropped below four minutes. Paulhan held the lead for nearly a quarter of the field before local Austrian favourite Markus Pekoll (MS Evil) bumped him out of the Hot Seat by half a second.
Pekoll had the longest time in the lead, holding on until the first of the top-20 qualifiers began their runs. Brook MacDonald, the young New Zealand team mate of Pekoll who finished third a week earlier in round two, proved that was no fluke by knocking 4.2 seconds off the top time, good enough for 10th place at the end of the day.
Steve Peat (Santa Cruz Syndicate), racing with a suspected broken hand, slotted in behind MacDonald. World champion Sam Hill (Monster Energy-Specialized-Mad Catz), six riders after MacDonald, had a very strong start, faded slightly at the bottom, but was still good enough to give him the lead, and an eventual fifth place. Cedric Gracia (CG Racing) and Danny Hart (Giant) both came within two-tenths of a second of Hill, but also faded at the bottom.
Hill, while happy to make the podium, admitted that Gwin is a step above everyone at the present. "Gwin is riding pretty amazing at the moment, so we're all going to have to work a little bit harder to stop him."
It was Minnaar, riding eighth from last in a surprisingly high qualifying spot for him, who finally made the next big cut to the top time, the first to go below 3:50. The next five riders all failed to better his time, with Fabien Barel (Mondraker) crashing in the slippery roots, and only Steve Smith (Devinci) able to squeeze between Minnaar and Hill.
"I didn't know what to think after [qualifying]," saidMinnaar, "because I had a good run and still got thrashed by a lot of guys. I was pretty tense at the start of the final, and I made some mistakes at the top; I wasn't making mine lines and was losing time ... that top section killed me, killed my run. Technically, I'm riding with the top guys, but Gee's [Atherton] going a bit better, and Gwinny's out-pedaling us all."
However, the final two riders, the top two qualifiers, showed that they were a notch above everyone else on this day. Atherton came through the first split three seconds up on Minnaar and finished 3.608 seconds ahead of the South African.
"It was a good result," said Atherton, "close to the win, but no cigar. Looking back, I probably should have put drys [tires] on, but that was just a bad decision on my part."
Atherton's time wouldn't prove to be enough for the win, unfortunately for the Brit, as Gwin, possibly still smarting from losing a week earlier after crashing while well in the lead, blew through every section of the course well ahead of his competition to score his second win in three races and recover the lead in the standings.
"It feels great to get that monkey off my back after last week's crash," said Gwin. "I knew I had it in me, I just had to put it together. My run went good until it almost fell apart at the bottom ... I blew my feet out of the pedals and rode the last minute of the track without being clipped in, but managed to hold it together. The bike was working awesome, everything just sort of clicked. I'm just happy it all came together."
Full Results
# | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
---|---|---|
1 | Aaron Gwin (USA) Trek World Racing | 0:03:44.200 |
2 | Gee Atherton (GBr) Commencal | 0:00:02.113 |
3 | Greg Minnaar (RSA) Santa Cruz Syndicate | 0:00:05.721 |
4 | Steve Smith (Can) Devinci Global Racing | 0:00:07.942 |
5 | Samuel Hill (Aus) Monster Energy / Specialized / Mad Catz | 0:00:09.225 |
6 | Danny Hart (GBr) Giant Factory Off-Road Team | 0:00:09.253 |
7 | Cédric Gracia (Fra) CG Racing Brigade | 0:00:09.357 |
8 | Justin Leov (NZl) Trek World Racing | 0:00:09.984 |
9 | Samuel Blenkinsop (NZl) Lapierre International | 0:00:10.163 |
10 | Brook Macdonald (NZl) MS Evil Racing | 0:00:10.615 |
11 | Josh Bryceland (GBr) Santa Cruz Syndicate | 0:00:12.173 |
12 | Steve Peat (GBr) Santa Cruz Syndicate | 0:00:13.445 |
13 | Marc Beaumont (GBr) | 0:00:13.580 |
14 | Luke Strobel (USA) MS Evil Racing | 0:00:13.720 |
15 | Troy Brosnan° (Aus) Monster Energy / Specialized / Mad Catz | 0:00:13.832 |
16 | Markus Pekoll (Aut) MS Evil Racing | 0:00:14.803 |
17 | Mickael Pascal (Fra) Morewood Unitedride | 0:00:15.053 |
18 | Julien Camellini (Fra) Team Sunn Montgenevre | 0:00:15.164 |
19 | Lorenzo Suding (Ita) | 0:00:15.169 |
20 | Romain Paulhan (Fra) | 0:00:15.284 |
21 | Pierre Charles Georges (Fra) Team Lac Blanc / Solid / Massif Des Vosges | 0:00:15.374 |
22 | Rémi Thirion (Fra) Labyrinth Shimano Racing Team | 0:00:15.589 |
23 | Bernat Guardia Pascual (Spa) | 0:00:16.152 |
24 | Cameron Cole (NZl) Lapierre International | 0:00:16.205 |
25 | Ruaridh Cunningham (GBr) Team Maxxis - Rocky Mountain | 0:00:16.279 |
26 | Fabien Pedemanaud (Fra) Scott 11 | 0:00:16.312 |
27 | Mitchell Delfs (Aus) Kona | 0:00:16.331 |
28 | Fabien Barel (Fra) Mondraker Factory Team | 0:00:16.339 |
29 | Matthew Scoles (NZl) Team Cingolani Trek | 0:00:16.401 |
30 | Nico Vink (Bel) Team Lac Blanc / Solid / Massif Des Vosges | 0:00:16.453 |
31 | Brendan Fairclough (GBr) Monster Energy / Specialized / Mad Catz | 0:00:17.130 |
32 | Neko Mulally° (USA) Trek World Racing | 0:00:17.608 |
33 | Boris Tetzlaff (Aut) Alpine Commencal Austria | 0:00:17.916 |
34 | Marcus Klausmann (Ger) Ghost Factory Racing Team | 0:00:18.320 |
35 | Filip Polc (Svk) MS Evil Racing | 0:00:18.363 |
36 | Damien Spagnolo (Fra) Mondraker Factory Team | 0:00:18.515 |
37 | Ben Reid (Irl) Dirt Norco Race Team | 0:00:18.562 |
38 | Fabien Cousinie (Fra) Morewood Unitedride | 0:00:18.751 |
39 | Antonio Ferreiro Pajuelo (Spa) | 0:00:19.053 |
40 | Robin Wallner (Swe) Team Are Bikepark Powered By W - Racing | 0:00:19.069 |
41 | Marcelo Gutierrez Villegas (Col) Cg Racing Brigade | 0:00:20.586 |
42 | Benny Strasser (Ger) | 0:00:20.637 |
43 | Harry Heath (GBr) Unior Tools Team | 0:00:20.783 |
44 | Dan Stanbridge (GBr) Dirt Norco Race Team | 0:00:20.914 |
45 | Alex Bond (GBr) | 0:00:21.221 |
46 | Mark Scott° (GBr) | 0:00:21.325 |
47 | Loic Bruni° (Fra) Lapierre International | 0:00:21.844 |
48 | Patrick Thome (Fra) Mondraker Factory Team | 0:00:21.900 |
49 | Matthew Simmonds (GBr) Chain Reaction Cycles / Nukeproof | 0:00:22.604 |
50 | Mitch Ropelato (USA) | 0:00:22.607 |
51 | Nejc Rutar (Slo) Unior Tools Team | 0:00:23.067 |
52 | Joseph Smith (GBr) Chain Reaction Cycles / Nukeproof | 0:00:23.626 |
53 | Lewis Buchanan° (GBr) Chain Reaction Cycles / Nukeproof | 0:00:24.053 |
54 | Johann Potgieter (RSA) | 0:00:24.166 |
55 | George Brannigan (NZl) Devinci Global Racing | 0:00:24.463 |
56 | Emanuel Pombo (Por) | 0:00:25.245 |
57 | Curtis Keene (USA) | 0:00:25.962 |
58 | Florent Payet (Fra) SC - Intense | 0:00:27.082 |
59 | Simon Cardon (Fra) XCYTT Racing | 0:00:27.161 |
60 | Dan Atherton (GBr) Commencal | 0:00:27.219 |
61 | Wyn Masters (NZl) MS Evil Racing | 0:00:27.378 |
62 | Michael Hannah (Aus) | 0:00:28.832 |
63 | Dean Tennant (Can) | 0:00:29.704 |
64 | Thomas Jeandin (Swi) | 0:00:30.140 |
65 | Duncan Riffle (USA) Giant Factory Off-Road Team | 0:00:30.151 |
66 | Sam Dale (GBr) Team Sunn Montgenevre | 0:00:31.925 |
67 | Joshua Button (Aus) SC - Intense | 0:00:32.737 |
68 | Thomas Braithwaite (GBr) | 0:00:32.828 |
69 | Robert Smith (GBr) | 0:00:34.244 |
70 | Joe Barnes (GBr) | 0:00:34.601 |
71 | Alexander Kangas (Swe) | 0:00:38.721 |
72 | Andrew Neethling (RSA) Giant Factory Off-Road Team | 0:00:39.333 |
73 | Marco Milivinti (Ita) Torpado Surfing Shop | 0:00:41.296 |
74 | Charly Di Pasquale (Fra) Labyrinth Shimano Racing Team | 0:00:44.108 |
75 | Dominik Gspan (Swi) | 0:00:47.416 |
76 | Timothy Bentley (RSA) Morewood Unitedride | 0:00:50.641 |
77 | Remi Gauvin (Can) | 0:00:58.742 |
78 | Adam Vagner (Cze) | 0:01:56.033 |
79 | Joris Bigoni (Fra) | 0:05:53.834 |
DNF | Eliot Jackson (USA) Yeti Fox Shox Factory Race Team | |
DSQ | Matti Lehikoinen (Fin) Chain Reaction Cycles / Nukeproof |
# | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Trek World Racing | 93 | pts |
2 | Santa Cruz Syndicate | 71 | |
3 | Commencal | 70 | |
4 | Scott 11 | 63 | |
5 | MS Evil Racing | 53 | |
6 | Monster Energy / Specialized / Mad Catz | 44 | |
7 | Devinci Global Racing | 30 | |
8 | Lapierre International | 29 | |
9 | Team Maxxis - Rocky Mountain | 28 | |
10 | Riding Addiction Commencal | 26 | |
11 | Giant Factory Off-Road Team | 26 | |
12 | CG Racing Brigade | 24 | |
13 | Alpine Commencal Austria | 20 | |
14 | Team Morzine - Avoriaz / Haute - Savoie | 14 | |
15 | Morewood Unitedride | 14 | |
16 | Team Sunn Montgenevre | 13 | |
17 | Passion Velo Thiers Stemtee | 12 |
# | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Aaron Gwin (USA) Trek World Racing | 628 | pts |
2 | Greg Minnaar (RSA) Santa Cruz Syndicate | 582 | |
3 | Gee Atherton (GBr) Commencal | 527 | |
4 | Danny Hart (GBr) Giant Factory Off-Road Team | 359 | |
5 | Steve Smith (Can) Devinci Global Racing | 352 | |
6 | Samuel Hill (Aus) Monster Energy / Specialized / Mad Catz | 315 | |
7 | Brook Macdonald (NZl) MS Evil Racing | 274 | |
8 | Justin Leov (NZl) Trek World Racing | 269 | |
9 | Samuel Blenkinsop (NZl) Lapierre International | 268 | |
10 | Steve Peat (GBr) Santa Cruz Syndicate | 267 | |
11 | Cédric Gracia (Fra) Cg Racing Brigade | 245 | |
12 | Josh Bryceland (GBr) Santa Cruz Syndicate | 241 | |
13 | Marc Beaumont (GBr) | 240 | |
14 | Fabien Barel (Fra) Mondraker Factory Team | 234 | |
15 | Cameron Cole (NZl) Lapierre International | 221 | |
16 | Troy Brosnan° (Aus) Monster Energy / Specialized / Mad Catz | 206 | |
17 | Luke Strobel (USA) MS Evil Racing | 188 | |
18 | Matthew Scoles (NZl) Team Cingolani Trek | 181 | |
19 | Ruaridh Cunningham (GBr) Team Maxxis - Rocky Mountain | 180 | |
20 | Fabien Cousinie (Fra) Morewood Unitedride | 171 | |
21 | Julien Camellini (Fra) Team Sunn Montgenevre | 168 | |
22 | Duncan Riffle (USA) Giant Factory Off-Road Team | 163 | |
23 | Mickael Pascal (Fra) Morewood Unitedride | 161 | |
24 | Markus Pekoll (Aut) MS Evil Racing | 157 | |
25 | Mitchell Delfs (Aus) Kona | 155 | |
26 | Romain Paulhan (Fra) | 155 | |
27 | Pierre Charles Georges (Fra) Team Lac Blanc / Solid / Massif Des Vosges | 153 | |
28 | Matti Lehikoinen (Fin) Chain Reaction Cycles / Nukeproof | 148 | |
29 | Damien Spagnolo (Fra) Mondraker Factory Team | 148 | |
30 | Fabien Pedemanaud (Fra) Scott 11 | 146 | |
31 | Filip Polc (Svk) MS Evil Racing | 144 | |
32 | Florent Payet (Fra) SC - Intense | 142 | |
33 | Robin Wallner (Swe) Team Are Bikepark Powered By W - Racing | 139 | |
34 | Michael Hannah (Aus) | 128 | |
35 | Rémi Thirion (Fra) Labyrinth Shimano Racing Team | 127 | |
36 | Joseph Smith (GBr) Chain Reaction Cycles / Nukeproof | 126 | |
37 | Bernat Guardia Pascual (Spa) | 113 | |
38 | Thibaut Ruffin (Fra) Riding Addiction Commencal | 111 | |
39 | Neko Mulally° (USA) Trek World Racing | 111 | |
40 | Joshua Button (Aus) SC - Intense | 109 | |
41 | Marcelo Gutierrez Villegas (Col) Cg Racing Brigade | 104 | |
42 | Ben Cathro (GBr) | 102 | |
43 | Shaun O'connor (Aus) Yeti Fox Shox Factory Race Team | 99 | |
44 | Mitch Ropelato (USA) | 99 | |
45 | Nico Vink (Bel) Team Lac Blanc / Solid / Massif Des Vosges | 97 | |
46 | Nick Beer (Swi) Scott 11 | 94 | |
47 | Patrick Thome (Fra) Mondraker Factory Team | 91 | |
48 | Dan Stanbridge (GBr) Dirt Norco Race Team | 89 | |
49 | Ben Reid (Irl) Dirt Norco Race Team | 83 | |
50 | Lorenzo Suding (Ita) | 82 | |
51 | Bryn Atkinson (Aus) | 80 | |
52 | Thomas Braithwaite (GBr) | 79 | |
53 | Andrew Neethling (RSA) Giant Factory Off-Road Team | 79 | |
54 | Mark Scott° (GBr) | 78 | |
55 | Boris Tetzlaff (Aut) Alpine Commencal Austria | 76 | |
56 | Sam Dale (GBr) Team Sunn Montgenevre | 75 | |
57 | Harry Heath (GBr) Unior Tools Team | 75 | |
58 | Emanuel Pombo (Por) | 72 | |
59 | Aurélien Giordanengo (Fra) Mondraker Factory Team | 70 | |
60 | Jared Graves (Aus) Yeti Fox Shox Factory Race Team | 68 | |
61 | Alex Bond (GBr) | 68 | |
62 | Antonio Ferreiro Pajuelo (Spa) | 67 | |
63 | Timothy Bentley (RSA) Morewood Unitedride | 67 | |
64 | Curtis Keene (USA) | 66 | |
65 | Matthew Simmonds (GBr) Chain Reaction Cycles / Nukeproof | 61 | |
66 | Richard Thomas (GBr) | 57 | |
67 | Johann Potgieter (RSA) | 53 | |
68 | Brendan Fairclough (GBr) Monster Energy / Specialized / Mad Catz | 50 | |
69 | Lewis Buchanan° (GBr) Chain Reaction Cycles / Nukeproof | 49 | |
70 | Marcus Klausmann (Ger) Ghost Factory Racing Team | 47 | |
71 | Wyn Masters (NZl) MS Evil Racing | 47 | |
72 | Bernard Kerr (GBr) | 46 | |
73 | Scott Mears (GBr) | 42 | |
74 | Loic Bruni° (Fra) Lapierre International | 41 | |
75 | Greg Williamson (GBr) | 40 | |
76 | Benny Strasser (Ger) | 39 | |
77 | Fergus Lamb (GBr) | 36 | |
78 | Thomas Jeandin (Swi) | 36 | |
79 | Will Rischbieth (Aus) | 35 | |
80 | Adam Brayton (GBr) | 33 | |
81 | Dan Atherton (GBr) Commencal | 33 | |
82 | Jack Reading (GBr) | 32 | |
83 | Marcel Beer (Swi) | 31 | |
84 | Nejc Rutar (Slo) Unior Tools Team | 30 | |
85 | George Brannigan (NZl) Devinci Global Racing | 29 | |
86 | Jonty Neethling (RSA) | 27 | |
87 | Alexander Kangas (Swe) | 26 | |
88 | Hayden Brown (RSA) | 23 | |
89 | Simon Cardon (Fra) XCYTT Racing | 22 | |
90 | Dean Tennant (Can) | 18 | |
91 | Lars Peyer (Swi) SC - Intense | 18 | |
92 | Fraser Mcglone° (GBr) | 17 | |
93 | Daniel Pombo (Por) | 16 | |
94 | Florian Arthus (Fra) | 15 | |
95 | Kelvin Purchase (RSA) | 15 | |
96 | Ziga Pandur (Slo) Unior Tools Team | 14 | |
97 | Chris Hutchens (GBr) | 14 | |
98 | Tiaan Odendaal° (RSA) | 13 | |
99 | Charly Di Pasquale (Fra) Labyrinth Shimano Racing Team | 13 | |
100 | Robert Smith (GBr) | 12 | |
101 | Joe Barnes (GBr) | 11 | |
102 | Seanan O'riordan (Irl) | 11 | |
103 | Francesco Danilo Petrucci (Ita) Team Cingolani Trek | 11 | |
104 | Roman Roschi (Swi) | 10 | |
105 | Oscar Harnstrom (Swe) | 9 | |
106 | Ivan Oulego Moreno (Spa) | 9 | |
107 | Marco Milivinti (Ita) Torpado Surfing Shop | 8 | |
108 | Arthur Parret° (Fra) Passion Velo Thiers Stemtee | 8 | |
109 | Christopher Mcglinchey° (Irl) | 8 | |
110 | Joris Bigoni (Fra) | 8 | |
111 | Jérôme Payet (Fra) | 7 | |
112 | Dominik Gspan (Swi) | 6 | |
113 | Mathias Haas (Aut) Alpine Commencal Austria | 5 | |
114 | Mathieu Gallean (Fra) Ryde - Racing | 5 | |
115 | Remi Gauvin (Can) | 4 | |
116 | Daniel Critchlow (GBr) | 4 | |
117 | Adam Vagner (Cze) | 3 | |
118 | Travis Browning (RSA) | 3 |
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