Trackwalk - Mont St Anne DH World Cup 5
Steve Peat, Chris Kovarik, Sam Hill, Greg Minnaar, Aaron Gwin and Stevie Smith all walk into a bar.... And they raise it. These are the names to have stood on the top step of the mighty MSA podium in the last 10 years of Quebecoi race history. Some of them more than once. What's more, just about any one of them could do it again at the weekend, as we get back to business after what feels like some kind of apocalyptic eternity (actually just 6 weeks) of World Cup hiatus. Ok Peaty would be a long shot and Karver would be at least a thousand to one seeing as he hasn't entered. In fact it's going to be no stroll for any of the others either, with the new guard- Brosan, Bryceland and Hart to name a few, all ready to take it down to the wire. So pull up a chair for a front row seat as we boulder our way down the legendary race course for the first time since Smith blazed the trail in 2013 and join us in beginning to fantasize about how it might look to see some of these great names in action a-top it this season. Welcome to Mont St Anne and the beast's new look.
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 After a long spell of World Cup down-time it was finally time to hit the road and find our way to the action once again. From Maryland to the last state line before Canada; headed into Maine under the cover of twilight. |
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| For others it was a trans-Atlantic long haul into Montreal or New York and a fairly brutal overnight commute. |
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| Welcome to your final destination of immense MTB heritage. Iconic scenes from the most iconic of race tracks. Mont St Anne first hosted a World Cup in 1991 and hasn't skipped a DH beat since1996. |
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| Rachel Atherton in the gate with the classic MSA photo. No luck here for her last year with 2 crashes in her run, she'll try to take her revenge this weekend. |
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| The maple leaf, kind of familiar looking in these parts |
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| Welcome to the Mont St Anne World Cup |
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| Raw and natural. The way it should be. |
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| This is perhaps the only bit that resembles the last World Cup in Leogang, and it's for spectators. Between the tape things are rowdy and anything but groomed, especially after first runs tomorrow. |
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| Missing the first two rounds with injury and losing the chance to defend the title has taken the lime-light well away from Smith. No one will have forgotten the momentous run he put down after the heavy rain shower to turn the season around last year and it's likely he plans to relive the victory all over again this time around. |
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| Welcome to North America. First stop Wal-Mart for propper attire. |
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| Nice and buffed out rock pile vs the chicane stepdown pile. |
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| Eliot and Bernard are already claiming tricks and style for their first run off what will be a prime photo spot . |
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| The high speed hips and turns under the gondola are a signature of MSA, and they look rough as ever this year. |
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| This section below the famous hip was buffed out the past few years. One of the many improvements to this years track is that everything has been kept RAW. |
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| Classic step-down has been toned down a bit with a negative lip, but probably it only means it can be ridden even faster. |
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| PB photog, Dave Trumpore, has raced World Cups on this track 5 times himself and the memories clearly live on. |
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| Heavy rain early this week and sunshine forcasted for the future means the track is going to be golden! |
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| Ol' rusty steel cane to look out for just by the tape. |
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| An extremely rare, large, male Stevie Smith patrols his territory. He will fiercely defend his home rock gardens at all costs from rivals. Stay back! |
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| Nigel getting things set up and ready to go for the Devinci crew. Stevie looked like he was still getting back up to speed in Leogang, but could he come back to MSA this year and do some real damage? |
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| Sam Hill has won here countless times and a major threat as always here. |
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| Just out for a rip eh! |
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| After over 20 years of racing here, some sections are completely void of dirt. |
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| Jumps and piles of rocks seem to be a theme out of many corners up top. |
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| This is the only part of the track that has been left natural since this tracks inception in 1996 |
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| In the dark woods, the orange paint on all the snipers is a huge help for riders traveling at race speed. |
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| Asian lady in a sombrero in Quebexico. Nothing else to say here. |
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| Laurie Greenland has had a solid break, will Trek's young-gun show some brilliance here on the rugged track at Mont Ste Anne? |
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| Troy Brosnan at the bottom of the screen and Aaron Gwin up top are sitting #1 and #2 in the series and were some of the first riders to hit the course when track walk opened. |
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| Getting a feel for the track |
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| After a month off many riders used track walk to catch up, or in the case of Micayla and Boris, to inspect the results of their tattoo skills. |
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| It's Canada so of course we need one wooden bridge shot. |
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| Rider's will be feeling the contrast of smooth boardwalk kickers landing into rough rock gardens with some new well-placed hucks scattered about. |
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| Danny Hart checks out the options. |
 | As the race in Livigno was cancelled we decided to stay in Morzine for week or so to ride a couple of trails... it rained every day but it was good practice. Before that we were over in America riding at Big Bear and we had The Link, which is Giant's big dealer event. So I've basically been training and riding in America before we came here and I'm now ready for the second half of the season. I had a couple of podiums here in the past and I like the track now because they took out the long straight at the start which was always a bit boring and easy. Now as there are more turns in I am looking forward to ride it. Mt. St. Anne is wide open and fast with a couple of jumps and I always have a good time here - Danny Hart - Giant Factory Off-Road Team |
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| Hashtag selfies with (at)svenmartinphoto |
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| Signature MSA on the face of it. Hardcore set in stone. |
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| Vans: rubber you can trust. |
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| For years there has been a berm through this corner... not anymore. This is one of a few off cambers sections that will change the rhythm of the track up this year. |
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| Some of the rocks have seen enough abuse that the orange paint is all but gone. |
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| Ratboy fresh off his win in Leogang and hungry for another bite. |
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| Wyn Masters of WynTV quite likes the noise filtering quality of fruit microphones. He also assures us they are UCI approved. |
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| Pick a line any line... left or right. But avoid the middle. |
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| Wednesday is setup day in the pits. Here SRAM unpacks and organizes all the spare parts for the weekend. |
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| Last day of rest and relaxation for Needles before practice starts tomorrow. Might as well drive a few golf balls. |
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| Needles is on form this season with top tens in the last two World Cups and has a strong track record at MSA. |
| I came here every year since 2003 and I get a bit over riding the exact same track again and again to be honest so the changes are gonna give the riders something to think about. The track here is always really good and a true test. I did struggle here in the early days with the length of the track but it's kick-started a lot of my seasons before with some been in the Top 10's in the last three or four years. We've been hanging out with Danny a lot lately as we had been to Morzine for some good riding and skill training and then to the Link where we had the idea that once we are on this continent lets stay in America and check out California. Danny had never been to Big Bear so we went there, checked out the beaches and just living the dream - Andrew Neethling - Giant Factory Off-road Team |
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| Giant is one of the few teams that has a full size support rig here in North America. |
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| 13th place last year, Marcelo, tests out his XC skills. |
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| Nigel and Sir Warner catch up after the long five week break. Rob said it's too early for big predictions, but he might have mentioned that he thought Ratty is on fire and could be hard to beat. |
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| Boris Beyer is practicing for next weeks round in America. Big truck, big beer, and no sleeves. |
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| The Kiwi's have arrived. 10 strong and at a discount. |
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| Greg Minnaar in open-face mode, but ready to dirty up the all-new V10 in the morning. He's been making some big-timer buddies in the recent downtime... How's this for a surreal first sentence: |
| After the race in Leogang I got to London in time with the helicopter to go to Samuel L Jackson's Charity Ball. He's actually a really nice guy and they followed most of the race before because they knew where I was coming from before going to London so that was really cool. I then went back to San Francisco and to Italy afterwards where the Wideopen was cancelled. After that I went back to South Africa for a cross-over event where they had mountain-biking, surfing and golf and I ended up third. I won the biking and got second in surfing behind Jordy Smith but my golf was awful... All in all it was a pretty cool event. There are some really good changes on the track and also some really different ones. You look forward to this awesome, tough, rutted-out, gnarly left hand berm... and it's gone, but it's such a big mountain with so much variation it's always good to ride. It's really hard to screw it up with the track. My first year was 1998 as a junior in the World Champs and have been here every year since. It is one of my favorite venues because the XC track is really nice to play around and there's a little wall-ride to hit outside the press room, good swimming pools, the creek to jump off the cliffs and nice close condos - Greg Minnaar - Santa Cruz Syndicate |
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| Prepping for tomorrow's torture session. |
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| Still, everyone is pumped to ride after the long travel over from Europe or big American road trips. |
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| Leaving Maine this morning the rains came down in sheets. Apparently it was all headed northeast... |
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| The stage is set, but as the sun sets today that could be the last we see of it... If that's the case, expect things to get damp, misty and torn up in double quick time. |
By Nathan Hughes
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There's no CRC team on the UCI entry list yet either.
It's such a shame that all these athletes don't get the mainstream recognition they deserve.
My prediction:
1st: smith
2nd: Ratboy
3rd: Gwin
4th: Brosnan
5th: Bruni
Wild Card: Fearon
Well said. 6 weeks is terrible! It's left me scared that I was missing things.
then at the end
"The stage is set, but as the sun sets today that could be the last we see of it... If that's the case, expect things to get damp, misty and torn up in double quick time."
So which is it?