2012 MTB World Championships At Leogang Drama

Gwin has been almost unstoppable in the World Cup, and officially his slower run at the World Championships was put down to brake failure, with winner Greg Minnaar, also one of only two men to deny Gwin in World Cups this season, sympathising about ‘mechanicals’. But in fact Gwin did extremely well even to finish after hitting the dirt hard, as our exclusive video footage above shows.

The disappointed American was 83rd, while South African Minnaar enjoyed a long-awaited follow-up to his Rainbow Jersey in 2003: “It’s been nine years, man!” he exclaimed.

"It was very hard, but I didn’t make any mistakes"

The hunger to win can bring out the best in downhill riders, and women’s winner Morgane Charre was the prime example.

“It was very hard, but I didn’t make any mistakes,” said the shocked Frenchwoman, who beat a raft of riders who’ve won World Cups this year and past titles, including the form rider of the year Rachel Atherton, whose back injury from a practice crash earlier in the weekend left her struggling back in fifth.