George and Neko Both Finish Top 15 at World Cup Finals

Perfect sunny conditions prevailed for the final World Cup race of the 2013 season here in Leogang, Austria, where Trek World Racing’s remaining uninjured downhill riders Neko Mulally (USA) and George Brannigan (NZL) had solid qualifiers Saturday. Neko had a career best qualifier coming in 7th place, and George had top 10 splits on his way down the hill, but 400m from the line had a crash which cost him time. However both riders went into the finals today knowing they had top 10 pace.

George went off about 1 hour before Neko and had a great run going. His run put him into the hot-seat as fastest rider at that point but only after unclipping his foot on the approach to the same corner where he fell in qualifying, crushing the family jewels.

“Yeah that was a pretty uncomfortable way to finish the run, but overall it was going well until then. I’m sure I lost a few seconds and even though I’ve ended up 13th for the day, I was having a solid top 10 run until that mistake. Considering I also hurt my shoulder in the crash yesterday and it wasn’t that good today, I do know the speed’s there and I feel 100% back to my best now”, said George shortly after leaving the hot-seat, where he sat for close to an hour.

Neko was on a great run as well and would have slotted into 3rd at the end of his run, and a guaranteed top 10, but lost 3 seconds in the final sector after making an error while pushing hard.

Neko said: “I knew I was having a great run, perhaps my best ever in World Cup racing and as I got towards the lower section of the course I made the conscious decision to keep pushing. Sometimes it’s easier to back off when you’ve had a great run for most of the course, but really great runs only come when you push the whole way. It can be riskier and unfortunately for me I did make that one mistake, but I’m glad I pushed for the result rather than be conservative. Finishing top 15 overall for the season was my goal, and today I achieved that”.

Team Owner Martin Whiteley summed up the Downhill season. “Injury definitely played a big part in our 2013 season. Aside from George’s knee recovery which we were aware of coming into the season, Brook’s shoulder injury before Andorra had a big impact for us. Then with Greg fracturing his collarbone and separating his shoulder in South Africa, it made for a tough time. Having said that, we have an awesome group of riders and there is strong team unity, and for me that’s very positive. Neko and George have done a great job these last 2 World Cup races and I know we’ll be back very strong in 2014.”

Next month Neko and Greg are planning to race in Mexico at the Taxco Downhill, and some other events may be announced in the coming days.