Champery World Championships 2011 - Day 2
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 Christophe from Fox Racing Shox travels all over the world, and always with his gnome. He's got a thing for taking photos of his gnome engaged in a number fo fun activities. In Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, we came upon some "Alice in Wonderland" mushrooms in the woods and had to take a few shots. |
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| Christophe's shot. |
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| Sam Hill and Jon Cancellier comparing bike set-up notes. |
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| Steve Peat's mechanic, Ricky Bobby, giving Peaty's slab of Santa Cruz Carbon a thorough going over. |
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| Tricked out bikes have very much been on the down low here at Champery. But they are bouncing around the pits if one opens one's eyes to the subtle changes seen in the pits. What we have here is Sam Blenkinsop's Lapierre DH Sled. Jack, his mechanic, machined a spacer for the last few cogs, allowing the boys a modest weight savings. But realistically, riders on this track are only going to be using 4 or 5 gears at most; the two extras on here are for 'just in case' moments. |
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| A fair number of bikes are also running with the handle bars raised as high as they can to compensate for how bloody steep this track is. Cam Cole's bike includes bars with as high a rise as Easton sponsors could supply. |
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| Sam Hill is back to defend his title. Only time will tell if his shoulder will hold up. |
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| The coveted #1 plate. Monster Energy Specialized has 2 of them floating around their pits, not a bad start to the week. |
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| Lovely day in the Atherton's office... |
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| Gee Atherton dives into the first section of the track here in Champery. It's tight and fast up top and Gee is already flying. |
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| Spagnolo sending the hip with confidence. It didn't hurt that the French National team was training on this track 2 weeks ago... |
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| Hill looking over his line on the hip. Hill's here, but having just finished his PT following shoulder surgery, he's easing into a routine vs. sending it hard. He'll save that for race day. |
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| While Hill was cruising it, Brosnan--the other #1 plate in the Monster Energy pit--was definitely sending it with confidence. |
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| Luke Strobel of MS-Evil sending it off the hip near the top. The track may be gnarly steep, but the opening section of jumps is pretty spot on. It's only after this hip that the bottom drops out. |
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| Another angle of Strobel on the infamous hip jump. Last year this jump was eerie in the fog, this year there is a background (well, today anyways) |
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| Aaron Gwin has to be considered the number one threat for the win for the simple reason that his brake control is spot on. For this track, that control is what will win or lose the title for the simple reason that there are few places where one needs to pedal back up to speed. But there are loads of places for a rider to grab a bit too much brake, adding precious hundredths of seconds to their descent. |
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| This is what happens when you case the knuckle on the back side of the hip. Utter destruction. |
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| Danny Hart is focused and charging here in Champery. #6 is a bit higher than the #4 he was running 2 weeks ago. |
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| Diving into the first corkscrew set of switchbacks takes commitment. |
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| It's drop, drop, turn. Into an elevator shaft. |
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| Greg Minnaar makes his way into one of the insanely tight, steep berms mid track. |
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| It's amazing that Ben Reid isn't in the top 10 every week. The Irishman is always pinned through the roots. Hopefully he can keep it together between sections this week and get it done for Ireland. |
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| The most photographed bike of the week right here. |
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| Manon Carpenter is rolling with the #2 plate here and looking to upgrade this weekend. |
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| Ivan oulego Moreno. Still going strong after all these years. Yet another Worlds for the Spanish pinner. |
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| Marcelo Guittierez of Colombia pulled some amazing results this World Cup season, thanks to the help from Cedric Gracia and the Brigade. Here's hoping he can hold it down this week and get a top 20 at the very least, while Cedric heals up at home. |
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| Really, this shot is all about the background anyways. |
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| Practice is much shorter here at World Champs. Today saw the track open for training for only 5 hours. Post practice, with his bike washed and chain lubed up, Mitch Ropelato takes advantage of an iphone and the downtime. |
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| So Evan Warner of SRAM may have a wee bit of competition for Boxxer Worlds after all: last year's champ took a contract that has him on the scene. Yes, "The Crusher" is in the house... "Evan may have been training, but that's no match for natural talent..." Yowza, let the smack talk begin... |
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| Not a big deal for Evan; he's still all smiles. Even when he's armpit deep in slapping a new set of cranks on Anneke Beerten's full suspension 4X bike. |
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| After all, Evan's been in heavy training for Boxxer Worlds since Val di Sole. Not only was he busy training his liver off with the local hootch in the Dolomites, but Evan has also been training with a bit of butter for the hands on aspect of servicing a Boxxer. He'll be good no matter how greasy his hands get with fork oil flying in the heat of battle. |
Photos by Colin Meagher and Fraser Britton
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Sam turns up, clearly is not riding that well (conservatively) and everyone wants a Demo or Sam to win.
The same Demo that broke Hill and Brendon! They are just lucky that Troy could ride a bath tub fast and consistent.
Going from a Sunday to a V10, yes the bike can make you hit your foot on the ground if the BB is very close to the ground when static.
I won't insult your intelligence with the different riding position of your feet with clips (Tory) and Flats (Sam and Brendon).
Oh, and the picture of Sams bike after his crash at Fort Bill that was everywhere was taken by one of my pals (he owns a Demo), he did break his arm hitting his pedal and going OTB whilst riding it.....
Can;t wait for this one. This is a real DH race
Lets get ready to rumblllllllllle.....................
hill , smith or peaty (?) for the win and i'll be giving free drinks
in our local waterhole
Can't wait!