Sam Hill was set for a perfect season ender but that ended with a big crash in the last rock garden in Hafjell. Clearly gutted from the commentary box his team manager Nigel Page takes up the story from the CRC blog:

Practice couldn’t have gone any better as Sam was hitting all his lines and looking like the man to beat with a quiet confidence about him that you know is dangerous for any of his competitors. But this is the World Championships and a one run only race, no points involved, no series overall just one run for the gold medal – all the fast guys going for it 100%.

The track in Hafjell is a worthy World Championship course with high speed sections, really technical sections and not a great deal of pedalling, a
real downhillers’ track, so no excuses.

Come finals time and Sam Hill was out of the gate like a rocket and into his run. In contention at split one and looking super fast and in control, just gaining speed as he skilfully picked his way down the course. With precision riding and a line in the main rock garden that only Sam can do, he was looking good and into split two he was up! The fastest in the race.

Then it was one last rock garden which he had dialled in practice with all the top riders copying his creative line choice, it looked like he had his fourth senior gold medal in the bag when disaster struck! Sam dropped into his line and for the first time all week tagged a rock with his front wheel flipping him over the bars and scorpioned head first into a big pile of rocks. Amazingly Sam was back up and on his bike in no time and carried on to the finish line where he was greeted with a round of applause with so much respect from the fans and fellow competitors. It was like a rerun from his famous 2008 World Championships in Val Di Sole, Italy, where he was the fastest man also until blowing up in the final section.

We all wanted Sam to win as badly as he did so it was hard to swallow, but all we can be grateful for is he was not badly injured and gave it 100% and left nothing on the hill, the mark of a true champion and hero. That is why Sam is always the people’s champion.
Condolences mate as we all know you wanted this so bad, but congratulations on an amazing season and getting back to where you belong! The fastest downhill racer in the world 🙂

So that’s it, what an incredible season we have had, thanks to all our great sponsors and everyone involved in our amazing team.
Let’s do it all again in 2015.
Cheers for now!