World Champs Commentary

I’ve never regretted getting up early or staying up late to watch a World Cup downhill race. But I do regret getting up early to watch the World Championships. Forgive me if this sounds too negative – perhaps it is the lack of sleep – but I just wish I’d stayed in bed a little longer. It’s not that the World Championships wasn’t that exciting to watch… it was that 90% of the race wasn’t.

The World Championships are different from the World Cup in that riders are selected from their domestic talent pool to represent their nation. The number of spots available to national cycling organizations varies (confusingly, see Section 9.2.034 in this PDF) and the selected riders are representing their national cycling organization and not their commercial teams. This means that there are some interesting and unfamiliar names on the start lists and we are treated to some amazing displays of riding, like Alexandr Zubenko of Khazakhstan who raced to second to last place in skin tight white jeans (does that get around the UCI “pinch test” for close-fitting attire?) and Kim Schwemmer of Germany who fell out of the start hut barely breaking the beam in what must be the worst start to a downhill race ever.

 18 seconds of video that Kim Schwemmer is wishing she could take back…

There is no qualifying or seeding runs for the World Champs, meaning the wheat certainly wasn’t cut from the chaf. In the men’s race there were 115 starters rather than the 80 we are used to for World Cup races. This extra bandwidth was taken up by a lot of riders who look to have very little experience on such a big stage, meanwhile there are very experienced and talented riders who did not manage to make the team selection for their nation and were probably sat at home laughing their bellies off at the scenes of have-a-go heroes throwing themselves down the Austrian hillside.

One look at the Scott 11 camp brings this peculiar process into light. Brendan Fairclough did not make it into the British squad. He might not be having the best few years of racing but he could still rank pretty well up there and certainly wouldn’t be nodding his way down the course (or causing me to nod off). Meanwhile, Claudio Caluori, the Scott 11 team manager who retired from racing in 2009 to concentrate on managing the team, running his trail building business, and competing in Red Bull Crashed Ice competitions around the world, turns up at the Swiss Championships a few weeks ago, takes fourth place and makes the selection criteria for the Swiss national team. Weird.

But this isn’t all bad. Yes, we viewers might have to endure hours of crash reel fodder but there are riders whose first experience of top flight racing might be the World Championships and it could lead to great things. Justin Leov, for example, raced for New Zealand in 2002 at Kaprun, Austria. It was his first taste of international, top flight racing and he went on to become a solid fixture in downhill racing for the next ten years. Leogang was his last race and even though it is sad to see him step down it is quite humble of him to step down so graciously in order to make way for the next generation.

  Micayla Gatto had the best run of the Canadian elite women. 6th place on the day. Photo ~ DirtTV / Orpheus Productions

The Canadian women selected to the World Championship didn’t embarrass anyone. Far from it. At one point the hot seat area was swamped with maple leafs and familiar faces. Lauren Rosser came down the hill with the Squamish square shoulder squad style and took the hot seat first. Then Buchar tipped Rosser off but was then knocked off by Micalya Gatto, who narrowly kept the sat warm when Casey Brown just slipped behind her. Canada’s top rank female, Miranda Miller, didn’t have such a great time of it but a 17th should be ample disappointment for her to shake whatever it is that has plagued her from achieving the promise she showed a few years back. Either way, as a nation Canada ranked third in the female elite category. Not bad for a bunch of bike park cruising left coasters (yes, all of Canada’s female racers reside in BC, just saying). Congratulations to the Canadian ladies on all being bloody brilliant.

  Holly Feniak took home gold for Canada in junior women. Photo ~ DirtTV / Orpheus Productions

The real result was Holly Feniak’s easy gold in the junior female category. I say easy but only because she made it seem that way when she knocked eight seconds into Britain’s great white hope Tahnee Seagrave. Ms. Feniak has certainly worked hard to get the funds together to go to the main stage to prove herself (yes, even though you are selected to race for your nation doesn’t mean they front up all the funds to do so) and must have worked hard to take the result she most wanted. Leogang was the World Championships starting point for her and I’m sure there are many more stamps on her career card.

  Morgane Charre of France sent the last jump farther than most on the way to her elite women win. Photo ~ DirtTV / Orpheus Productions

In the female elite race, the French powerhouse team dominated the top steps yet again. The French cycling organization must put a lot into the World Championships each year as they always do very well as a team and the only non-French woman to win the title in recent times has been Rachel Atherton. Unfortunately, Rachel, suffering from a bad back sustained in Whistler, was unable to ride well enough to keep the fortified French front at bay leaving only young Welsh lady and first year senior, Manon Carpenter to mix up the red, white and blue colours on the podium flags. The top spot went to Morgane Charre, who…well, I don’t really know a great deal about. She seems to be a relative privateer (Is it Velo Passion that make the saucy XC women calendars each year?) who is placed 9th overall in the UCI World Cup standings after Val d’Isere. But all that might change now that the colour of money and success is rainbow coloured.

  Steve Smith with the bronze medal. His time is yet to come. Photo ~ DirtTV / Orpheus Productions

Gee Atherton must be getting really wound up with World’s as this is his third consecutive silver medal. Hill showed that he still has something to give by placing fifth on a track some people said didn’t play to his strengths. Team mate Troy Brosnan came back to the track that claimed his spleen earlier in the season and was carted off in an ambulance within sight of the start hut. Bryceland binned it on a turn, as did Peaty, and Hannah had a good solid run but it wasn’t enough. However, the most disappointed rider was Stevie Smith who looked like he did everything he could but still wasn’t good enough for the title, not yet anyway. He had a blinder of a run and sat in the hot seat getting teased as rider after rider slipped just outside of his time and he must have been thinking that maybe, just maybe this was his time. But when Gee’s time flashed in green the sadness was plain to see.

  Minnaar with a smooth run to take the win from Gee Atherton by just over half a second. Photo ~ DirtTV / Orpheus Productions

In the men’s elite race the real news is that Greg Minnaar finally took the stripes after a nine year gap. It was in 2003 at Lugano, Switzerland that he won his second World Championship title and the years since might have been agony. Nonetheless, in the intermittent years he has become one of the most consistent and successful racers of all time, winning the World Cup Overall twice (2005 and 2008, as well as in 2001 for his first) and having the most amount of World Cup podiums ever.

  Minnaar, Atherton, and Smith on the podium. Photo ~ DirtTV / Orpheus Productions

Minnaar would no doubt have gratefully taken any of the rainbow jerseys in years past, but arguably his focus is more on being consistent and dominant across all the UCI World Cup rounds. Aaron Gwin has been quite open about how much he values the World Cup overall title over the one-off World’s title. The argument being that one race doesn’t make a champion but a full season of racing and results does. A fair point perhaps. There are not too many mainstream sports that have such a one day (or one run) title and when viewed from the outside it might seem peculiar. Gwin has a worldly outlook on racing and didn’t seem at all bothered when some kind of mechanical scuppered his rainbow chase. According to Jill Kintner’s Twitter feed “@TraceyHannah: Mick said gwins brakes came to the bars”. Gwin didn’t seem bothered though as he whipped, played and even gooned his way down the course. He has already found the One and is in no rush to get the one result.

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Clearly it pays to make it down the track in one piece. Least mistakes wins?