Peat takes first downhill title at Worlds title after long wait

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Steve Peat (Great Britain) finally won the World Championships downhill title that he has been chasing his entire career in Canberra, Australia. He beat his Santa Cruz teammate Greg Minnaar (South Africa) by five-hundredths of a second.

"I don't think it has sunk in yet," said Peat of the title. "I'm pretty overwhelmed with it all. It's emotional putting that jersey on on the podium, just realising I get to wear this jersey for a year, and I am actually World Champion.

"I am one of the oldest guys out there, and I've been trying for a long time and got a lot of second places."

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Canada's Steve Smith was best North American rider, in tenth.

An estimated 15,000 fans poured into the Mt Stromlo venue to take in the sunshine on the side of the hill and cheer on every rider. The 2.1-kilometre course conditions were near perfect – dry, fast and hard – with only a breeze to cool the air and raise some dust.

Americans were the early leaders in the race, with former four cross World Champion Brian Lopes taking the lead as the third rider down. He held onto the lead until his teammate Cody Warren knocked a second and a half off the best time, to drop it to 2:35.95.

Warren lasted 16 riders until Australian Bryn Atkinson bumped him out of the lead, and then the time started to drop steadily until Nathan Rennie (Australia) set a new benchmark of 2:34.31 . Rennie lasted through 11 finishers before one of the favourites, two-time World Champion Fabien Barel (France), knocked three seconds off the leading time.

Barel's time would end up being good enough for fourth, and less than second behind Peat's winning run. Mick Hannah (Australia), the pre-race favourite came down sixth from the end and managed to squeeze 15-hundredths ahead of Barel, but two riders later it was the turn of Peat.

Peat turned in the first sub-2:31 time of the day, stopping the clock at 2:30.33 . For the popular rider it was a nerve wracking wait through the final three, to see if he had finally won the world title he had been chasing since 1993.

Sam Hill (Australia) was two and a half seconds down. Minnaar, who Peat had said was his most dangerous rival, came within the blink of an eye of snatching the victory away – only five hundredths of a second behind. Defending world champion Gee Atherton (Great Britain) did not threaten Peat's win, finishing sixth.

"Greg [Minnaar] was my biggest worry," said Peat "He won here last year, and he is really strong on the bottom part of the course. But I think I took a bit out of him at the top, and I'm a pretty physical rider myself, so I thought I had a good chance."

"I knew Steve was going to be quick," said Minnaar. "He was quick all through timed training and the whole week. When I was up against Steve I knew I had to ride all out to try to beat him, and clearly it didn't work."

Steve Smith continues to improve, and tenth is his best result ever at the Worlds.

"For me it was a great run, I was happy with how it went," said Smith.

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