UCI DH 4 Results

Mont Sainte Anne has been on the World Cup DH tour since 1991. Steve Peat has won here four times and he’s enjoyed the podium ten times. There’s a lot of history here and the riders like the course for its challenges, length and consistency. The rocks don’t change much year to year. It’s also a course you don’t need to be perfect on – because it’s likely your opponents are going to have some bobbles as well.

  With Sam out and Brendan riding without an ACL it was all on Troy Brosnan’s shoulders. He handled the pressure well.

After some early mornings it was nice to have North American Event on Freecaster. The coverage of the early riders is a little slim – consisting of the last ten seconds or so of the course – but for the top riders we got a pretty good view of the track. It seems though that the coverage we get of the top of the course is pre-recorded still. Aaron Gwinn talked about having a problem on the second corner of the course and coming to a complete stop – something the coverage we saw didn’t show. Still it’s the only game in town and we can see it anywhere there’s a connection – for free. If you missed the coverage you can see the replay of the men’s race here and the women’s race here.

On the women’s side Tracy Moseley took the win followed by Floriane Pugin and Rachel Atherton.

  With Minnaar and Peaty as teammates Josh Bryceland hasn’t had many opportunities to post his team’s best result. This may be changing for good.

The men’s side of the bracket has been upset by young riders like Brook MacDonald, Danny Hart and especially Aaron Gwinn. This time Josh Bryceland got into the act as well with his best finish ever climbing to the second step on the podium.

  Another disappointment for Gee Atherton. It appeared his tube was still inflated but everything had come off the rim.

Gee Atherton’s tire came off the rim and jammed into his spokes so he couldn’t continue. His hopes of repeating as overall champ are done it seems.

  These days a mediochre result for Steve Smith is still a top ten. He was seventh.

Canada’s best hope, Steve Smith, didn’t have one of his better races but the good news is that these days that still means a top ten for him.  He ended up in seventh.

Josh Bryceland put together a tight run to follow up his win last weekend and his third place qualifier and with Minnaar’s crash he managed a second place finish.

  Greg Minnaar – the most consistent man on the circuit – had an extremely rare crash. He was in striking distance of Aaron Gwinn’s time before he came unglued.

Minnaar was 7 hundredths back of Gwin at the split before he crashed and this may have been his best chance to beat him considering Gwinner’s big mistake.

  A rare moment in the hotseat for Aaron Gwinn. He had to wait for Minnaar’s result before claiming his third victory in four races. Who can name the last North American to win on North American soil?

Aaron Gwin slid out in the second corner (although we didn’t see this) and came to a complete stop. Thinking it was all over for him he put his boots back on and still managed a win. I was told by Mark Fitzsimmons of Fox Shox that Aaron runs a 2.7″ front tire – the widest on the circuit. Clearly he’s on to something.

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Did you watch? What did you think of the coverage? Can Gwinn be beaten by anyone other than himself? Call it here…