Aaron Gwin Wraps Up The World Cup Title With One Race Remaining

By taking 5th place at Round 6 of the UCI World Cup, Aaron not only won his 2nd World Cup Overall title in as many years, but he also maintained his 100% record of World Cup podium results, 13 from 13 starts with Trek World Racing, and a record 14 in a row when the final round of 2010 is taken into account. Furthermore, the Trek Session race bike has scored an impressive 35 World Cup podiums since the start of 2009, more than any other bike model.

Having won 4 of the 6 races on offer so far this season, it seems logical that Aaron Gwin would have wrapped up the season early, and become the f irst to score back-to-back titles since Nico Vouilloz (FRA) in the late 90's, but mathematically it wasn't that straight forward. Both Greg Minnaar (RSA) and Gee Atherton (GBR) have been equally consistent so it was a matter of trying to limit the damage after a qualifying run crash nearly brought Aaron’s weekend to an early close.

The penultimate round of the 2012 UCI World Cup in DH was at a brand new venue, Val d'Isere (FRA) on a course which presented a number of challenges. It was short, at around 2mins 20secs, and this means errors of any kind were not forgiven. The limestone strewn down the length of the course was sharp and sliced many a tire and rider. Aaron and Justin both suffered injuries requiring stitches. Justin's injury on his left arm actually required the handy work of a plastic surgeon to stitch torn muscle inside the injured arm, as well as stitches to close the wound. Aaron's right hand was cut deeply and required 5 stitches, an injury he played do wn before the final but in reality, was a tough one to cope with on this course.

Aaron said: "I have no excuses for my 5th today. I had a pretty good run. For how I felt with the hand injury, I'm happy. To win the overall again, it's so amazing, especially after this weekend. I came in feeling good and kinda had a bonehead moment in qualifying—hurt myself a little bit with that. It was better than I thought it was going to be in the finals but I just got a little tired at the bottom. So I had to back it down to make sure I stayed on and I kinda backed it down too much, but it still worked out. Everyone loses some and wins some. I have lost many more in my career so I'm just stoked to be up here in the black leader jersey for 2012."

Aaron takes a 260 point lead into the finals in Norway in mid-September, with a maximum 250 points available. Between now and then, there are the World Championships. The Men's Downhill World Title hasn't been in the hands of an Americ an since his team mate and Trek World Racing staff member Myles Rockwell in 2000, so it's understandable that the goals for the season have now shifted to Leogang, Austria, in about 4 weeks from now.

Full results: http://www.uci.ch/templates/BUILTIN-NOFRAMES/Template1/layout.asp?MenuId=MTYzODg&LangId=1

2012 Snowshoe Race 2 By Dirt Passion

Back to the State West of Virginia – Snowshoe Race 2

Round 2 of the Snowshoe Series followed the four day weekend of the US Gravity Nationals putting some strain on those pennies that racers and teams watch ever-so closely. No matter, 141 riders would register for the race weekend at the “Southeast’s” favorite bike park in the West Virginia Mountains.

Friday was the “unofficial” day of practice or simply just a day to have fun on the miles and miles of trails Snowshoe has to offer. With 40 trails and 1,500 vertical feet of descent, one could get lost in everything the park has to offer and easy fall into the trap “Oh wait, don’t I have a race to get ready for?” Day one wasn’t looking promising in terms of conditions, but we all remind ourselves this is Snowshoe and it is a race weekend (they typically don’t play well together). It went like this….fog, sun, fog, rain, sun, rain, fog, sun….. forcing the trail crew to keep race course closed to protect the integrity of the soil in some newly remodeled sections of the course. That just meant a morning trail walk, some afternoon fun on Cupp Cake, BallNJack, Missing Link, Powerline, and topping off the evening with your favorite Brew and grub at the Fox Fire Grille in the village, pretty damn good food with the best of friends.

A light rain continued into the night sure ensuring that trail conditions for the first day of official series practice would be, Slippy-do! Even walking down the course was challenging for this Dirt Passion photographer, anything buried in the canopy resulted in sliding two or three feet per step on what felt like peanut butter, either that or it was spending time on your rear. Round two would consist of the entire Pro DH course for the Weekend Warriors and Intro classes, with a split about three quarters down the course to the “Lincoln Log” out into the open slope, over lift line rock drop, and onto the finish for the Pros and Amateurs.

Race day weather was forecasted for the best of the two day weekend, but yet still the coverage in the canopy offered no change in course conditions. It just simply wouldn’t be enough time, wind, sun light for the track to start to dry out. Ladies Elite was just comprised of two lady rippers. It would be Rae Gandolf with an impressive lead over Amy Leishear by 18 seconds. Elite Men would yet again become the battle of “old” versus “young”. The young guns would sit atop the podium just as they did in Race 1, with Luca Shaw (Specialized) over Jay Fesperman(GROM Racing) by 1.2 sec (impressive considering that he finished with a failed chain) and Trevyn Newpher 3.6 sec back.

Pro Men’s Top Ten:

• Luca Shaw – Specialized 04:31.5
• Jay Fesperman – GROM Racing 04:32.7
• Trevyn Newpher – Snowshoe Resort/Rental/Dakine/Hopey 04:35.1
• Sam Pensler – Zoic/Zerode/Hawk Racing/POC 04:39.5
• Ethan Quehl 04:40.6
• Justin Gregory 04:46.5
• Will O’Brien – East Coast Gravity Pros 04:47.1
• Matthew Fitzgerald 04:48.1
• Ryan Taylor – Team BGB-Mountain Khakis 04:48.8
• Kyle Grau – Santa Cruz 04:50.1

Pro Women:

• Rae Gandolf – Team TRD Edge Intense 05:46.3
• Amy Leishear – Spoke Apparel 06:04.1

Shout out to Snowshoe Resort, the trail crew, the Ride Patrol, the volunteers for a great round two of three. Be sure pencil into your schedule the Chomolungma Challenge August 25, the GES (Gravity East) round September 8-

2012 Val d'Isere UCI World Cup Round 6

Round six of the Downhill at the Rockyroads.net UCI Mountain Bike World Cup presented by Shimano in Val d'Isere, France, turned out to be a much more difficult course than anyone anticipated, with many top riders crashing and performing below expectations.  Rachel Atherton (GT Factory) took her fourth win of the season to extend her lead in the women's standings, while Brook MacDonald (MS Mondraker) took his first ever World Cup win in the men's race.  Aaron Gwin (Trek World Racing), despite finishing fifth, locked up the men's overall title with one round remaining.

The rocky, open, alpine run was very different from most that the racers face on the World Cup circuit, and more than a few riders crashed in both training and qualifying.

In the women's race, Petra Bernhard (Alpine Commencal Austria) was the first to record a sub-2:50 run, but Myriam Nicole (Commencal / Riding Addiction) immediately took nearly seven seconds off the leading time, good enough to eventually finish fourth.  Floriane Pugin (Scott 11) then knocked a further second off, but the final two riders were in a class of their own.

World champion Emmeline Ragot (MS Mondraker) was 1.6 seconds faster than Pugin, but Atherton, the fastest qualifier, once again showed that her return this season, after struggling with injury, is complete - finishing a second and a half ahead of Ragot and recording the only sub-2:40 time of the day.

"I am so happy," stated Atherton.  "I think this is the most nervous I have been all year. This track is very, very difficult.  One day it's dry and then it's really, really wet, so tire and suspension changes are so important, and you don't know how it's gonna be on your race run.   Everyone was just playing it like a guessing game.

"I almost crashed today [in training]; I landed on my seat.  My stomach was hurting really bad, but I thought, this is like Fort William:  I need to just switch off and then switch back on for the race.   I have learned that from racing and crashing."

Atherton now holds an 80 point lead over Ragot, with Nicole a distant third at 892 points.

The men's competition for the last two seasons has been completely dominated by World Cup leader Aaron Gwin and his usual rival, Greg Minnaar (Santa Cruz Syndicate).  Between the two of them, they have won every single World Cup in last season and this, until Val d'Isere.  Every rider struggled on the fast, rough and rocky terrain, which was completely unforgiving of mistakes.  Gwin crashed in qualifying, injuring his hand and finishing well back.

In the Final, Thibaut Ruffin (Commencal / Riding Addiction) set the early best time, which stood for 16 riders until Matt Simmonds (Chain Reaction Cycles.Com / Nukeproof) bumped him by an infinitesimal six-thousandths of a second.  Simmonds in turn was displaced by Andrew Neethling (Giant Factory), who barely finished before Mick Hannah (Hutchinson United Ride) took the lead.  Gwin took the lead next by half a second, but Minnaar surpassed his rival by that same amount.  Gee Atherton (GT Factory) then recorded the first sub-2:20 time, but it wasn't quite enough, as MacDonald knocked a final half second off the lead to record his first victory.

"I can't even explain how I feel," exclaimed MacDonald.  "I had a solid run, no mistakes , it was one of those runs I was just pumped for.  I am over the moon about this one.  My early season has been a big struggle.  I was at a point where I was hating riding. So I changed a few things on my bike, and it has all paid off."

"This track was hard.  With the altitude, and being only two and a half minutes, you are just pushing the whole way.  If you make a mistake you lose time and you can't really lose time on this kind of track.  I put together a good run and I'm happy."

Despite having his consecutive World Cup win streak stopped at four, Gwin wasn't too upset.  "I have no excuses, I had a pretty good run.  For how I felt I am happy.  To win the overall again, it is so amazing, especially after this weekend.  I came in feeling good, and kinda had a bonehead moment in Qualifying.  Hurt myself a little bit.  It [his hand] was better than I thought it was going to be in the Finals; it didn't hurt too bad. I just got a little tired at the bottom. So I had to back it down at the bottom  to make sure I stayed on and I kinda backed it down too much, but it worked out.  Everyone loses some and wins some.  I have lost many more in my career.  I am just stoked to be up here."

Gwin now has 1260 points with one race remaining, an insurmountable 260 point lead over Minnaar.  The fight for second overall is far from over, with Atherton only 19 points out of second.

Brook MacDonald Wins The Val d' Isere World Cup

It’s hard to find words for was has happened today. After the last race we needed to focus on the words “that’s racing” as the competition was clouded by some bad luck. But we knew that our luck will be back some when, but we didn’t expect it that quick . Brook won his first worldcup race here in Val d’ Isere/ France and Emmeline got 2nd again.

The race week started with a course walk, where no one seems to be too happy about the track. It’s a bit short and the village of Val d’ Isere is on a sea level of 1821 meters, which means almost no trees and no roots at all. After a few runs, most of the riders get used to it and the MS Mondraker Team had some good fun during the training days.

The qualification was a tough one as the weather changed a few times and quiet a lot of top 20 riders came down with flat tires such as Steve Smith or Sam Hill. Markus had solid run and ended up in 22nd place, Damien came in promising 7th place and Brook stand out with a 3rd place. Emmeline showed her strength again and finished in 2nd place just behind all-time competitor Rachel Atherton. Like in Windham everything seems to perfect for race day, but with outcome of this past worldcup race in mind we were a bit more nervous than at other races.

The girl’s finals were again a competition between Emmeline and Rachel Atherton. Emmeline had a couple of mistakes right after the start and a little bit of headwind. In the end Emmeline was 1,8 seconds off Rachel, which was the 2nd place of the day.

In the men’s race Markus was the first rider to come down of the MS Mondraker Team. He had again a solid run and finished in 19th position. Damien came down with a decent run, which might have brought him on the podium. He was around 0.7 seconds off the current lead as he went over his bars and crashed hard.
Last men to come down of the MS Mondraker Team was Brook and we knew that he was hungry for a podium. He came crossed the finish line and got in lead ahead of Greg Minaar and Gee Atherton, but there were 2 riders still to come, which was Josh Bryceland and Cameron Cole. Both weren’t able to beat Brooks time and Brook won his first worldcup race.

The whole MS MONDRAKER TEAM is now pretty proud and happy about this win, as it is the first men’s victory for MS RACING since Chris Kovarik in 2006. Furthermore it’s the last win on flat pedals since the world championships in 2010.
“Thank you Brook for making this happen and congrats to your first worldcup win- there are more to come!”

With this strong performance the MS Mondraker Team became 2nd best team of the day, which brought us back in 3rd position of the teams overall.

A big “thank you” to all our supporters and people who are helping us out in the background- you guys are awesome and you are a part of this victory!

2012 Colorado Freeride Festival Slopestyle Results

2012 Colorado Freeride Festival Slopestyle Results