Double World Champion Rachel Atherton will miss the first World Cup in Pietermaritzburg with her shoulder still not healed from that nasty training accident in California in January.

We hope she will return to racing as soon as possible, if only to score points for everybody who has picked her for their Dirt Fantasy Downhill Team.
Here’s the official word from the Atherton newsletter.

Despite more than a month of rest and rehabilitation, we are sorry to say there has been no major improvement with the nerve damage in Rach’s shoulder.

Rach has visited a number of specialists over the last few weeks who have all been unable to give a clear indication on her recovery time.

The current view is to wait a further four weeks to see if the nerve improves – which obviously means that Rachel will miss the first World Cup round.

She is continuing to train with the view of returning as soon as she can.
Follow Rachel’s recovery on the animalcommencal webber.

In some more positive news Dan and Gee have been hooked up to a gizmo that converts there pedalling efforts into electricity to power team manager Dan Brown’s espresso machine. Read on.

Dan and Gee have just under gone a serious set of tests in the depths of British Cycling’s HQ.
Headed by British Cycling’s head physiologist David Bailey the unique tests devised by the coaching staff in Manchester outlines the riders peak power, how quickly they can produce that power and for how long.

The results were pleasing and proved the guys training has been doing its job, Dan whose training has been focussed more on 4X this year saw a significant improvement in his raw power out put while Gee sustained a slightly lower output for a longer period.

double world champion rachel atherton misses the first round of he uci downhill world cup with a shoulder injury