Gwin takes second consecutive downhill title

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Aaron Gwin (Yeti Fox) raced to his second consecutive national championship victory in Granby, Colorado, on Sunday afternoon. The World Cup racer took the win with a convincing margin in excess of three seconds.

Gwin had plenty of time to get toasty in the hot seat as he went early in the finals after a less than stellar qualifying run.

"I wanted to have a good qualifying and get down, but it ended up being a really sick run and I crashed super hard and got a bunch of dirt in my goggles. I tried to keep going, then I ended up crashing again and I messed up my thumb," said Gwin.

"I didn't know if I was going to race the finals or not. I need to go get my thumb checked out. We ended up taping it up to the bars. I managed to put the run together. It wasn't the best run but it was pretty good."

It was good enough for the win.

Second place went to Logan Binggeli (KHS) in his best finish yet. "It was a fast run. It went by as a blur. I'm so stoked I can't really think. I've been training hard for this."

"The course was fun and gnarly. It wasn't way technical, but you had to have good flow and rhythm," said Binggeli, whose best previous finish at downhill nationals was 24th.

Tyler Immer took third place in his sixth race as a pro. The first-year elite rider is just 19, but he wasn't fazed by the 10-minute delay after Sean McClendon crashed and had to be carried off the course.

"I started out of the gate hard and came into the first rock garden really fast," said Immer. "I kicked loose and a little later, I almost took it into some trees, but from then on down, it was a good run."

Gwin certainly had the best conditions of the favorites. His early start meant he was done with his run before the winds picked up and light rain started falling on the last men down the mountain.

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