Sam hill has ‘zero responsibility’ written into his contract. He does not care how he makes the fastest bike riders in the world feel. He is neither a pedaller or a pinner. He is simply the best rider in the world. Period. Here he took the leaders jersey off Steve and with a 32 point lead over the man of steel heading for Schladming, the pressure is on Sam to keep hold of the jersey, but also on Steve heading for a track which he has a not so good track record on.

There was an air of discontent among the riders. There seemed to be something not quite right. It seems to be a tough one to get right these days. Maybe it’s the riders being forced to race after the downhill event, or maybe it’s the riders pursuit of the impossible perfect track. Whatever it was, something just didn’t feel right in Mont Sainte Anne.

In the women’s field Jill Kintner should have walked it, but instead had to chase hard after a nightmare first round where she was taken out by Melissa Buhl on the second corner. Picking up her bike in fourth place, easily catching back up by the finish line to go into the final. But it was to be Anneke Beerten’s night as Jill went down on the first corner leading, and left the keys in the front door for Beerten to walk in and take the silverware for herself.

Brian Lopes looked good all evening. He seemed comfortable and took the win. Things might have been a bit different had Prokop shown up, but there’s no point going into that. A bit of controversy in the men’s semi final however as Scott Beaumont crossed a flag to go from third place to second place, taking out Ross Milan in the process. It wasn’t until after the final that this was pointed out to UCI officials by which time it was too late for anything to be done about it. It seems that the UCI accept ‘zero responsibility’ for riders crossing the flags, instead they told protesters to tell Scott to ‘ride inside the flags next time’.

With the penultimate round in Schladming only two weeks after MSA, the leaders will have their jerseys printed up, sponsors logo’s in place and will be hoping to hold onto them heading for the infamous course in Maribor, Slovenia for the World Cup finals in September.>>>