Jared Graves podiums at World Champs.

Yes, not quite a World Cup moment… but as this was a pretty bonkers moment in the year of world level DH racing, it seems only fitting we include it.

When Jared Graves was selected for the Aussie team to race World Champs, we were a little surprised, as he had been focusing his efforts on racing enduro for the season. This surprise was of course reaffirmed when we heard he was racing the World Champs on his enduro race bike… However, if there’s a man for any job on the circuit, it’s Graves.

When Graves came down the hill in timed session in seventh place, we were pretty amazed, although we probably shouldn’t have been – the man’s an animal. Mitch Ropelato coming down the hill in 2nd place on his 29″ Specialized Enduro put all eyes on the ‘enduro’ race bikes.

Unfortunately for Mitch, he crashed on the first corner in his race run. Graves, however, showed his experience and certainly wasn’t slowed by any mistakes, coming down the hill straight into the hot seat, only to be pushed into third place by Greg Minnaar and Mick Hannah. A staggering result for a racer no longer focused on the downhill circuit and racing at stupendously high speed down the South African course on that ‘little’ enduro bike.

Let’s just say it again: Graves finished just 3.3 seconds back from the win at the DH World Champs on an enduro bike! Staggering.

To read into the split times in-depth check out our Geek Stats post here.

DirtTV: World Champs PMB