Team Chain Reaction Cycles World Championships!

Well this past weekend was the World Championships in Val di Sole Italy. It was Earlier in the year than normal as the Olympic games are later on in the year and some of the disciplines are in the Olympics.The track was super hard and technical all the way down and very hard on the bikes and the riders.Chris Kovarik and Julien Camellini both competed for their respective countries and they both placed pretty well 12th for Chris and 8th for Julien.

Chris struggled a bit on his race run not able to get into a good flow and said he was on his brakes too much. He was still suffering a bit from his big crash the week before in Willingen but never moans too much and just gets on with what he has to do.


Julien had a pretty solid run and gave it everything and had a good first split time but made a mistake further down but still 8th in the World for the day is pretty good on a track that didn't suit the pair of them as much as some others. All the bikes were getting a huge beating every run but the Intense M6s held up great with a lot of work from Dave Garland our top mechanic and even Cord came to help out on his week end off.

Big congratulations to Gee Atherton who rode so fast all week to take Great Britains first ever DH senior Gold medal and hard luck to the amazing Steve Peat who took the silver again at 34 years old. Steve is an amazing athlete to still be at the top of the sport after so many years. So close to winning the Gold at last but the worlds just don't seem to be kind to him. I think everyone there was so pleased for Gee but gutted that Steve didn't get that elusive gold medal he should of won on many occasions throughout his career. Rachael Atherton also won the womans race by a massive margin to 2 World Championship gold medals in one family. Pretty amazing.

Also it was so good to see Josh Bryceland take gold in the Junior mens race with a big margin also. He rode so smooth and fast on the very hard track. He made it look easy on the big screen hitting all his lines perfectly and making no mistakes. Josh's time would have put him 10th in the senior mens race!


Then there was Sam Hill. As we watched him on the big screen he was going so fast on that track it didn't seem real! He was hitting sections so fast and riding on the limit it was amazing to see how fast it is possible to ride. It looked like he was going to have a huge crash at any point on the track as he seemed to be just riding too fast but he held it all together until the high speed section at the end and just lost the front wheel on the inside line he took and had a big crash but got up had to start on the flat section with no speed and still managed to finish in the Bronze position. It was great to see what is possible on such a difficult course and gives everyone some motivation for the upcoming World Cups.


This week we are back at the chalet in St. Jean D'aulps doing some riding and filming on some of the great tracks in the woods next to the Pleney. Look out for some footage on our site www.crcintense.com.