Stttttttttteeeeeeeeevvvvvveeeeeee Ppppppppeeeeeeeaaaaaaattttttt

Santa Cruz Syndicate rider Steve Peat takes an amazing win in France.
Old Skool Steve Peat ruled the entire weekend in La Bresse.
His win puts him equal with the Nico Vouilloz record of 16 World Cup wins.

All hail to the king…Dr Peat.

Hill in 2nd, Hannah in 3rd, Fairclough 4th and Gee Atherton in 5th.

Sabrina Jonnier took the womens win, with Tracy Moseley 2nd and Myriam Nicole 3rd.

What an amazing weekend.

Doctor and father of two Steve Peat of the Santa Cruz Syndicate stomped everyone with a truly amazing old skool display of attacking riding.
Peaty looked relaxed and confident all weekend, starting as he meant to go on by taking the qualifying win on Saturday.

Come Sunday everyone was talking about the weather. Dirt predicted rain at 15.00pm. The rain came at 14:30pm just after American Kyle Strait had set a hot seat time of 2.12.33.
Strait sat there for some time as the rain fell, until, first Leov then Neethling and Pascal set faster times. Minnaar then put down a 2:11.36 to take the hot seat but stated that it wasn’t a clean run.
Next man down Brendan Fairclough was on fire nearly 2 seconds up with a 2:09.99.

Blenkinsop couldn’t match the pace and ended up 9th.

All eyes were on Hill, up at the first and second splits, maintaining the pace to set a flying 2:08.41.

Three left to go.

Hannah had been attacking the course all weekend and set the fastest time through the top speed trap, 60.606kmh. But somehow he lost some speed on the lower quarter of the course and slotted in behind Hill with a 2:09.00.

The two fastest qualifiers still to go.

Gee Atherton was down on both Hill and Hannah at the first split and couldn’t make up the time on the greasy track.

The rain was still sporadically spitting down.

A huge air of expectation went up as Steve Peat left the start hut at 15:50pm.

Recording a 58.9kmh through the speed trap showed the Yorkshire father of two was going for it. He had talked earlier about how good it would be to win a race for his new son George.

The second split time of 1:27.01 put Peaty up by nearly a second from Hill.

The crowd were going nuts.

Dr Steve Peat stopped the clock on 2:07.14, jumped off the bike, ran around like an aeroplane then skidded to his knees in celebration and was promptly mobbed by a huge ecstatic crowd.

If I’m right, that 16th World Cup win puts Peaty on a par with Nico Vouilloz for the most number of race victories.

The women’s race was full of drama too, Myriam Nicole got the power down and set a benchmark of 2:34.67. Next up was Emmeline Ragot, who qualified 4th fastest despite having a huge over the bars. There was quiet talk that Ragot had the skills to take the win here, but in the end the physical nature of the French track took its toll and she couldn’t do better than 5th.

Mio Suemasa was down at the first split and dropped in to 4th.
Sabrina Jonnier had been looking strong all weekend and spurred on by the strong home support set a blazingly fast 2:28.57. Moseley was last to leave the start hut at 13:50pm, slightly down through the speed trap, looking at the big screen Tracy didn’t look to be flowing that well and the splits showed she was slower than Jonnier. She finished with a 2:33.59 over 5 down on Sabrina who was stoked with the win.

Peaty photos here.

DirtTV were in the finish arena and filmed a great scene with Peaty (this is screen grab), stay tuned for the finish line video and the full Dirt TV highlight film tonight.

1 3 PEAT Steve GBR19740617 SCB 2:07.14
2 4 HILL Samuel AUS19850721 MER 2:08.41
3 2 HANNAH Michael AUS19831121 GTB 2:09.00
4 33 FAIRCLOUGH Brendan GBR19880110 MER 2:09.99
5 5 ATHERTON Gee GBR19850226 ANC 2:11.15
6 1 MINNAAR Greg RSA19811113 SCB 2:11.36
7 26 PASCAL Mickael FRA19791011 MSC 2:11.70
8 11 NEETHLING Andrew RSA19840805 TRK 2:11.98
9 25 BLENKINSOP Samuel NZL19881028 YET 2:12.15
10 6 LEOV Justin NZL19841020 TRK 2:12.28
11 105 STRAIT Kyle USA19870404 STA 2:12.33
12 45 DELFS Mitchell AUS19890725 KMT 2:12.37
13 10 CAMELLINI Julien FRA19840107 CRC 2:12.76
14 19 GWIN Aaron Holmes USA19871224 YET 2:12.96
15 24 SMITH Steve CAN19891125 MSE 2:13.20

Full results here

Photo:Keith Valentine

Womens Final results La Bresse, France.

Photo:Scott Cartwright.

http://mpora.com/videos/x9LjWk3uk
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Funny Peaty video from La Bresse.

Steve Peat of Santa Cruz Syndicate wins in La Bresse for round #2 of the UCI downhill World Cup in France