Minnaar takes narrow victory in downhill world championships
Atherton and Smith settle for medals
The men's race for the downhill world title in Leogang, Austria, had a dozen strong contenders, and South Africa's Greg Minnaar took a that victory came down to the wire. Gee Atherton (Great Britain) was second, ahead of Steve Smith (Canada).
Australia's Bryn Atkinson set the first sub-3:30 time, with nearly 50 riders to go. Sam Dale (Great Britain) quickly took off three-tenths of a second and held the hot seat for 20 riders before he was replaced by Florent Payet (France), with a drop of two seconds in the lead time.
Australian Mick Hannah took the leading time below 3:24 with 10 riders to go, but was immediately replaced by Canada's Steve Smith, who was bumped by Gee Atherton (Great Britain) with two riders left to finish. Minnaar came in next, half a second ahead of Atherton, but everyone knew that the final rider, American Aaron Gwin, could quite easily upset the standings. Gwin has won an incredible nine World Cups in 13 races over the past two seasons, so everyone was waiting to see what he could do.
However, it became apparent early in his run that Gwin was suffering mechanical problems, eventually finishing a distant 83rd, after his front and rear brakes, in the words of the team manager, "exploded". Minnaar jumped to his feet from the hot seat as he was mobbed by well wishers, ecstatic to win his second world title.
"It's been nine years and this run it, was tough," said Minnaar. "I had a lot of pressure today, I was super nervous. To be honest, I tried to nail the top section and just after the bridge I lost a lot of speed, I had to pedal hard. But I held it together, in a way same as in the Pietermaritzburg World Cup earlier this season. I couldn't believe I crossed the line in first."
"I am a bit bummed for Gwinny, he seems to have had a mechanical. I am not sure what happened. It is not exactly the best way for me to win, or how I'd like to win, but we are all out there trying our best. We all have mechanicals from time to time, that's part of racing."
Third place finisher Smith said, "Everybody comes to world champs to win. I didn't win, but if I am not on top, I'd rather be on the podium. I've had silver and bronze, so hopefully the next one will be gold. The track was awesome – quite grippy as the sun was out all day. I can’t believe the crowd; I have been here twice now for World Cups and they didn’t even have half the crowd we’ve had today. There were people all the way down, it was full of people, so it made the race good."
Race notes
- Steve Peat (Great Britain) was participating in his 20th world championship in a row. He was recognized for his achievement with a special jersey from the UCI. After quite a fast split time, he was out of the title race because of an unfortunate crash on a berm.
- Austrian rider Markus Pekoll rode to his first world championship top ten placing in his career (ninth).
- Justin Leov (New Zealand) was competing in the final race of his career. "For sure I was chasing a top 10 here. The course had dried up really well and I was looking forward to running at speed and getting a great result. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be, and I'll have to settle for 21st, but it has been an amazing run from Kaprun (Austria) in 2002, to these World Champs in Austria 10 years later."
Full Results
# | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
---|---|---|
1 | Greg Minnaar (South Africa) | 0:03:21.790 |
2 | Gee Atherton (Great Britain) | 0:00:00.581 |
3 | Steve Smith (Canada) | 0:00:01.214 |
4 | Michael Hannah (Australia) | 0:00:02.140 |
5 | Samuel Hill (Australia) | 0:00:03.406 |
6 | Damien Spagnolo (France) | 0:00:03.859 |
7 | Florent Payet (France) | 0:00:04.227 |
8 | Brook Macdonald (New Zealand) | 0:00:04.861 |
9 | Markus Pekoll (Austria) | 0:00:05.774 |
10 | Marcelo Gutierrez Villegas (Colombia) | 0:00:06.064 |
11 | Samuel Blenkinsop (New Zealand) | 0:00:06.375 |
12 | Sam Dale (Great Britain) | 0:00:06.504 |
13 | Bryn Atkinson (Australia) | 0:00:06.794 |
14 | Marc Beaumont (Great Britain) | 0:00:07.101 |
15 | Rémi Thirion (France) | 0:00:07.167 |
16 | Cameron Cole (New Zealand) | 0:00:07.283 |
17 | Johannes Fischbach (Germany) | 0:00:07.430 |
18 | Mitchell Delfs (Australia) | 0:00:07.980 |
18 | Andrew Neethling (South Africa) | Row 18 - Cell 2 |
20 | Joshua Button (Australia) | 0:00:08.198 |
21 | Justin Leov (New Zealand) | 0:00:08.534 |
22 | Luke Strobel (United States Of America) | 0:00:08.582 |
23 | Boris Tetzlaff (Austria) | 0:00:08.886 |
24 | Matthew Simmonds (Great Britain) | 0:00:08.904 |
25 | Lorenzo Suding (Italy) | 0:00:08.915 |
26 | George Brannigan (New Zealand) | 0:00:09.065 |
27 | Neko Mulally (United States Of America) | 0:00:09.713 |
28 | Lutz Weber (Switzerland) | 0:00:09.850 |
29 | Aurélien Giordanengo (France) | 0:00:10.062 |
30 | Robin Wallner (Sweden) | 0:00:10.240 |
31 | Mitch Ropelato (United States Of America) | 0:00:10.336 |
32 | Jared Graves (Australia) | 0:00:10.623 |
33 | Logan Binggeli (United States Of America) | 0:00:11.084 |
34 | Joseph Smith (Great Britain) | 0:00:11.099 |
35 | Mickael Pascal (France) | 0:00:11.925 |
36 | Steve Peat (Great Britain) | 0:00:11.971 |
37 | Lars Peyer (Switzerland) | 0:00:12.022 |
38 | Pierre Charles Georges (France) | 0:00:12.243 |
39 | Isak Leivsson (Norway) | 0:00:12.567 |
40 | Benny Strasser (Germany) | 0:00:12.646 |
41 | Slawomir Lukasik (Poland) | 0:00:12.692 |
42 | Johann Potgieter (South Africa) | 0:00:12.761 |
43 | Matthew Beer (Canada) | 0:00:12.823 |
44 | Filip Polc (Slovakia) | 0:00:13.139 |
45 | Francisco Pardal (Portugal) | 0:00:13.458 |
46 | Ben Reid (Ireland) | 0:00:14.315 |
47 | Andreas Sieber (Germany) | 0:00:15.528 |
48 | Kyle Sangers (Canada) | 0:00:15.724 |
49 | Niklas Wallner (Sweden) | 0:00:15.931 |
50 | Bernat Guardia Pascual (Spain) | 0:00:16.680 |
51 | Nick Beer (Switzerland) | 0:00:17.008 |
52 | Oscar Harnstrom (Sweden) | 0:00:17.095 |
53 | Fabian Fader (Germany) | 0:00:17.248 |
54 | Felix Wunderlich (Germany) | 0:00:18.117 |
55 | Ewan Doherty (Ireland) | 0:00:18.646 |
56 | Ziga Pandur (Slovenia) | 0:00:19.028 |
57 | Nejc Rutar (Slovenia) | 0:00:19.075 |
58 | Lukas Splichal (Czech Republic) | 0:00:19.093 |
59 | Attila Liszi (Hungary) | 0:00:20.056 |
60 | Carlo Gambirasio (Italy) | 0:00:20.944 |
61 | Eliot Jackson (United States Of America) | 0:00:21.962 |
62 | Matti Lehikoinen (Finland) | 0:00:22.593 |
63 | Ivan Oulego Moreno (Spain) | 0:00:23.041 |
64 | Arkadiusz Perin (Poland) | 0:00:23.275 |
65 | Duncan Riffle (United States Of America) | 0:00:23.436 |
66 | Rostislav Stencel (Czech Republic) | 0:00:23.609 |
67 | Andréa Gamenara (Italy) | 0:00:23.690 |
68 | Mathias Haas (Austria) | 0:00:24.098 |
69 | Greg Callaghan (Ireland) | 0:00:24.448 |
70 | Kazuki Shimizu (Japan) | 0:00:24.902 |
71 | Emanuel Pombo (Portugal) | 0:00:25.193 |
72 | Pietro Caire (Italy) | 0:00:26.066 |
73 | Jan Javornik (Slovakia) | 0:00:26.198 |
74 | Alvaro Hidalgo Vasquez (Costa Rica) | 0:00:26.278 |
75 | Josh Bryceland (Great Britain) | 0:00:26.763 |
76 | Lukas Ucen (Slovakia) | 0:00:27.034 |
77 | Tomas Liska (Slovakia) | 0:00:27.209 |
78 | Matej Laktis (Slovakia) | 0:00:27.485 |
79 | Remi Gauvin (Canada) | 0:00:27.688 |
80 | Pavel Cep (Czech Republic) | 0:00:27.945 |
81 | Edgar Carballo Gonzalez (Spain) | 0:00:28.228 |
82 | Marco Milivinti (Italy) | 0:00:29.010 |
83 | Aaron Gwin (United States Of America) | 0:00:30.538 |
84 | Lars Vatnebryn Sandviken (Norway) | 0:00:31.047 |
85 | Manuel Gruber (Austria) | 0:00:31.381 |
86 | Martin Messavilla (Italy) | 0:00:32.208 |
87 | Markus Planitzer (Austria) | 0:00:32.763 |
88 | Claudio Caluori (Switzerland) | 0:00:33.233 |
89 | Petr Tresnak (Czech Republic) | 0:00:33.937 |
90 | Petrik Jurs (Estonia) | 0:00:34.378 |
91 | Valentyn Popov (Ukraine) | 0:00:35.220 |
92 | Orlando Sarioglou (Greece) | 0:00:35.771 |
93 | Felipe Andres Saenz Anabalon (Chile) | 0:00:36.661 |
94 | Mario Reinbacher (Austria) | 0:00:37.491 |
95 | Miran Vauh (Slovenia) | 0:00:39.513 |
96 | Vladimir Pulaevskiy (Russian Federation) | 0:00:40.442 |
97 | Oleksiy Priymachek (Ukraine) | 0:00:41.959 |
98 | Bernardo Neves (Brazil) | 0:00:44.211 |
99 | Miklos Kantor (Hungary) | 0:00:46.015 |
100 | Adam Vagner (Czech Republic) | 0:00:48.037 |
101 | Berislav Topol (Croatia) | 0:00:48.354 |
102 | Marko Sisovic (Croatia) | 0:00:49.155 |
103 | Marios Papasimakopoulos (Greece) | 0:00:50.294 |
104 | Viktor Usachev (Russian Federation) | 0:00:56.426 |
105 | Peter Keresztes (Hungary) | 0:01:00.009 |
106 | Thibaut Ruffin (France) | 0:01:01.938 |
107 | Erik-Lennart Purres (Estonia) | 0:01:11.513 |
108 | Mahdi Mirzahosseini (Islamic Republic of Iran) | 0:01:30.835 |
109 | Felipe Zanette (Brazil) | 0:01:39.182 |
110 | Mart Laosma (Estonia) | 0:01:42.145 |
111 | Alexandr Zubenko (Kazakhstan) | 0:02:52.207 |
112 | Ludovic May (Switzerland) | 0:06:25.529 |
DNF | Noah Grossman (Germany) | Row 112 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Zakarias Blom Johansen (Norway) | Row 113 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Troy Brosnan (Australia) | Row 114 - Cell 2 |
DNS | Mauricio Andres Acuna Quintana (Chile) | Row 115 - Cell 2 |
# | Rider Country | Result | Header Cell - Column 3 |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Australia | 326 | pts |
2 | Great Britain | 320 | Row 1 - Cell 3 |
3 | France | 320 | Row 2 - Cell 3 |
4 | New-Zealand | 313 | Row 3 - Cell 3 |
5 | South Africa | 287 | Row 4 - Cell 3 |
6 | United States Of America | 268 | Row 5 - Cell 3 |
7 | Canada | 254 | Row 6 - Cell 3 |
8 | Austria | 248 | Row 7 - Cell 3 |
9 | Germany | 244 | Row 8 - Cell 3 |
10 | Switzerland | 232 | Row 9 - Cell 3 |
11 | Sweden | 217 | Row 10 - Cell 3 |
12 | Italy | 196 | Row 11 - Cell 3 |
13 | Ireland | 178 | Row 12 - Cell 3 |
14 | Slovakia | 155 | Row 13 - Cell 3 |
15 | Spain | 154 | Row 14 - Cell 3 |
16 | Czech Republic | 144 | Row 15 - Cell 3 |
17 | Slovenia | 140 | Row 16 - Cell 3 |
18 | Poland | 127 | Row 17 - Cell 3 |
19 | Portugal | 116 | Row 18 - Cell 3 |
20 | Norway | 109 | Row 19 - Cell 3 |
21 | Colombia | 106 | Row 20 - Cell 3 |
22 | Hungary | 85 | Row 21 - Cell 3 |
23 | Finland | 54 | Row 22 - Cell 3 |
24 | Japan | 46 | Row 23 - Cell 3 |
25 | Ukraine | 44 | Row 24 - Cell 3 |
26 | Costa Rica | 42 | Row 25 - Cell 3 |
27 | Estonia | 41 | Row 26 - Cell 3 |
28 | Greece | 37 | Row 27 - Cell 3 |
29 | Russian Federation | 32 | Row 28 - Cell 3 |
30 | Croatia | 29 | Row 29 - Cell 3 |
31 | Brazil | 25 | Row 30 - Cell 3 |
32 | Chile | 23 | Row 31 - Cell 3 |
33 | Islamic Republic Of Iran | 8 | Row 32 - Cell 3 |
34 | Kazakhstan | 5 | Row 33 - Cell 3 |
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