Surely we can take every medal available with this crop of riders! British downhill talent is unrivalled and we reckon there could well be some great results on the cards for these riders. We have depth and experience with riders like Peaty and some hot young talent with riders like Drew Carters and Laurie Greenland, it’s going to be one hell of a race. No pressure!
British Cycling have announced the team for the World Championships at Hafjell in September. After taking the National titles both Josh Bryceland and Rachel Atherton have made the cut for 2014. They are joined by Gee who won in a skin suit back 2008 on the same day as Rach and Steve Peat who will be attending his 22nd World Champs. Doing so at 40 when he can still pin it with riders half is age is an amazing feat! Nice one Peaty, we wonder how he will top the bike he had for his 20th Worlds…
Danny Hart has also been selected and after his demolition of the field in Champery in 2011 he knows what to do at Worlds. We recently saw him tearing up Morzine in the wet and he’s not slowing up! Joining these guys will be team mates from Saracen Sam Dale and Matt Simmonds. Both riders have shown their grit this season with Simmond’s best result in Leogang with 6th and never being outside the BDS top ten stands him in good stead in Norway. Sam Dale has had some superb World Cup results this year with three results in the top 10, the best of which was 7th at the first race of the season in PMB. Greg Williamson finishes off the Men’s team and with a 9th in Fort William this year he definitely has the speed to match his team mates.
Current World Champion Rach will be joined by current World Cup leader Manon Carpenter who is flying high this season. Manon has only had one result this season in double digits and that was with a flat in Fort William! Amazing consistency across the World Cups and National Series means Manon is the lady to beat in Hafjell. Tahnee Seagrave joins Rach and Manon, after her 5th place in Leogang she is another rider proving she can mix it up and especially in her first year out of Juniors!
The Junior Men are the future, these riders are up there when it comes to riding talent and with experience they are destined for great things. In his first year back after his spine injury it’s great to see Taylor Vernon in there and with the support of Gee and Rach the full Team Atherton force will be felt come September. Neil ‘The Whip‘ Stewart has been picked and he could definitely do some damage on a track like Hafjell.
Scot Drew Carters has made the team after some good results so far this season, 7th at the National Champs a few weeks back stands him in good company on the results sheet. Coupled with some solid results from the World Cups and IXS races along with a second place at the Tweedlove EWS Carters has got the speed to make a mark in Norway.
Not just a Whip Off winner Neil landed 3rd place in Cairns so he is definitely one to watch at the moment. Dirt #149 cover star Laurie Greenland joins the Junior squad and after taking some top ten World Cup results and two BDS wins under his belt he will be gunning for a win.
DH elite men
Gee Atherton
Danny Hart
Josh Bryceland
Sam Dale
Matt Simmonds
Steve Peat
Greg Williamson
DH elite women
Rachel Atherton
Manon Carpenter
Tahnee Seagrave
DH junior men
Taylor Vernon
Neil Stewart
Drew Carters
Laurie Greenland
Last year Greg Minnaar took the stripes on his home turf of Peitermaritzburg, if you want to relive that amazing race where Sik Mik Hannah lost out by the tiniest margin and Jared Graves took Bronze on basically an Enduro bike then check out the video here:
