Windham World Cup – What a race!
Crazy as usual from the massively intense track out in America. Here’s what went down…
Juniors
Taylor Vernon put in one hell of a run to see off the stiff competition and take his FIRST EVER World Cup win! Great stuff from the young Welsh rider, especially after his massive crash and ensuing injury last year. He brought it home with a 2:31.7, beating Luca Shaw by .844 of a second.
Standings:
1. Luca Shaw – 214
2. Loris Vergier – 200
3. Taylor Vernon – 181
4. Amaury Pierron – 90
5. Neil Stewart – 69
Women
Also a hell of a race with a lot of expectations. Manon has been storming it this season but it wasn’t her day today. She had a huge crash here a few years ago, but managed to put 6.5 seconds into the previous riders when she came down. That was quickly blown out of the water, though, by Ragot, who went another 7 seconds up again! After the massive crash Ragot had here last time, it was good to see her pinning it.
Katy Curd put in a strong run as well, as did Tahnee Seagrave, who had to have a re-run after Micayla Gatto crashed. Rachel Atherton qualified fastest but couldn’t quite match Ragot’s time, leaving her second. Tracey Hannah 3rd, with Carpenter 4th.
Standings:
1. Manon Carpenter – 1180
2. Emmeline Ragot – 1110
3. Rachel Atherton – 1060
4. Tracey Hannah – 792
5. Myriam Nicole – 662
MEn
Nothing of the action in Windham can be said to be boring. Ruairidh Cunningham set the trend with a MASSIVE over-the-bars up top, and carried on flying with style all the way down, until nearly taking a second crash in the rock section, when he calmed it down. Andrew Neethling also had crash, but young gun Mike Jones had a hell of a run, coming down straight into the hotseat. Amazing riding from him – barely out of Juniors, and knocking seven bells into most of the older guys!
Dean Lucas put in a bonkers run, but didn’t manage to top the leaderboard – and neither did Gee Atherton, who put in a massively aggressive run, but ended up 4th (down from his 3rd here in 2012). Sam Hill didn’t repeat last week’s win, coming down 2nd by 0.1 seconds, losing out to his 19-year-old team mate!
Results consistency hasn’t happened this year, and least of all today. Greg Minnaar came down 6th – no disaster, but he and Sam Hill were beaten by a 19-year-old from South Wales! We had a bit of a disaster with the live feed and aren’t quite sure what happened to a few riders (Danny Hart for one) – I’m sure we’ll learn soon enough.
It was Josh Bryceland who took home the glory though. One hell of a run with what we thought was nowhere near enough pedalling compared to the rest, but he won it! Just about pipped Gwin… although that pipping was by 2 seconds. Run of the season!
1. Josh Bryceland – 1007
2. Troy Brosnan – 964
3. Aaron Gwin – 925
4. Sam Hill – 802
5. Gee Atherton – 688
MEN
Women
Junior
Catch up with all the previous action from Windham here!
