Crankworx Les Deux Alpes - Polygon Air DH - Finals
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 The sun also rises. Riders waiting for the course officials to clear the track. |
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| Before we go on why don't we just give everyone this sneak preview of today's mystery winner... Ah you already knew, even without seeing the results post. |
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| Brendog roosting high above town. |
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| Nicole and Ruffin on a chin-wag at the start of training this morning. |
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| Italian national champion Lorenzo Suding made it into the top ten today and looking fast. |
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| Snowboards are still a funny sight around here, it should be a biker riding through the frame.. but this sight has not been abnormal. |
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| Brendan Fairclough warming up for the day with a little bit of roost for breakfast. |
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| Marcelo Gutierrez taking in the view form the top of the lift. |
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| Vernon aquaplaning his way down the first run of the day. |
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| Rachel firing on all cyclinders, as you'd expect, during laps with the rest of the Atherton Racing crew. |
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| Wyn Masters is one of the most fun riders to watch. 8th place and loose as a goose. |
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| Nick Beer warming up in the early morning cold. |
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| Andrew Neethling taking a massive crash up top. This part of the course is fast, loose and steep. Not the most ideal place to fall. He's ok, but also took another digger on the stepdown later on this run. Little bit boggled, but enough to pull himself together for his race run. |
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| Guillaume Cauvin man handling the turn after a massive road gap. Might I add again, the views here are epic.. |
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| Brendan engaging race mode, safe in the knowledge there was a nice outlet for his whip frustrations organised for later in the day. |
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| Full media show around here. The track is slick and extremely difficult to walk down. Media has two different options; either slide their way down the hill or rip down between runs. Harrison Mendel demonstrates his ability to ride a DH track with a full camera bag. Pinkbike media hard at work. |
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| Filip Polc weaving through the tape. |
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| Myriam Nicole getting rough with her fluorescent Commencal. |
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| Taylor Vernon blasting his way down the course during practice. Taylor crashed during his race run and had to get airlifted off the course and flown to Grenoble. All we know at this time is that he may have some broken ribs. |
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| During Taylor's situation on the hill, the course was closed for some time so most of the riders rode down instead of waiting up top in the wind. Brendog shows up and warms up for the Whip Contest. Check out the full feature for more. |
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| Not a good sight to see. Rumors had been going around about Taylor breaking a pelvis, then a leg. Last we had heard he had only suffered from some broken ribs. Taylor had fallen in a difficult spot for medics to reach, as well as the heli. Took a few tries to get him out and flown to Grenoble. |
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| His gear had to finish the course without him. |
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| This was possibly the fastest section of the course. Riders came into this flat grass turn at warp-speed before hitting a pretty enormous step down (if you took the right-hand line), into a huge compression and then over the whip-off tabletop... hard falls abound. |
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| Sik Mik and Marc Beaumont plotted out a bit of the course a few years back. Some of the sections in the trees has been there before they had input but the wide open loose terrain such as this was all designed by Hannah and Marc. You can thank these guys for flat out roosty turns. |
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| Sik Mik flying high over the village of Les Deux Alpes. |
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| George Brannigan up in the alpine scenery, gunning for fourth place. |
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| Rachel Atherton pulling together yet again another Atherton domination here at Crankworx. With Andorra coming up within a few weeks, will the siblings keep up their winning streak? |
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| Marcelo Gutierrez took third against the big field. The Colombian native has been doing extremely well this year and hope to see more of his smooth riding style. |
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| Danny Hart cruises the alpine meadows before ending the day in 5th spot, but on the same second as Gutierrez and Brannigan. |
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| Pom Pom landing into the second spot against Rachel. |
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| In between great drenchings of rain, it's been pretty savagely hot at Deux Alpes. |
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| Rachel didn't hit the road gaps and told us she gives maybe as much as 50% less push at races outside world cups. How then did she still finish +9.86 up? Well Nicole had an off and Rachel thought it was also seeing some of the other girls take on the jumps in their runs... making her fight back a little harder elsewhere. |
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| Brendan flies over the lengthy road gap at the end of the Air DH into the finish area. |
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| Gee pinned into the off camber before a massive step down. The man finally has the season he has been working towards. Will it continue in Andorra in 2 weeks? We sure hope so. |
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| Marcelo hoped for a top 5 from this week so was stoked with the upgrade to third. |
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| Second for the fastest rolling Polygon on Earth. |
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| Gee Atherton Demonstrates his unfaltering, steady hand to the media. It was a tough day for the top 20 pros with such a delayed and disjointed schedule due to the heli-lift. They were left stranded at the start of the track, an extremely long and steep push back up to the lift, unsure when racing was going to resume. It all impacted on Gee that bit harder as it was his team mate in trouble. Still Atherton rode out the day clear by 4 seconds. |
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| Mike Jones looked scary fast today... The future looks British. |
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| Elite Women Podium. Team GT was having a bit too much fun celebrating to get to podiums in time. Luckily, Gee walked by right in front of Rachel's champagne shower. |
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| There's a glitch in the Matrix here somewhere, cos we've seen this all before. |
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| Elite men podium |
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| Another day, another vintage grape wasted by 'the One'. |
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| Make way, Les Deux Alpes, winners coming through. |
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30 Comments
- 41 0
dhftw1231
FL (Jul 10, 2013 at 20:42)
Geesus cannot be stopped. Welcome to athertown.
- 4 2
goulldy
(Jul 11, 2013 at 1:52)
don't forget about Rangel.
- 1 4
shuwukong
(Jul 11, 2013 at 5:23)
Geesus... not bad!
- 2 5
rossbellphoto
(Jul 11, 2013 at 5:51)
Taylor Vernon just posted that he fractured 3 vertebrates and broke two ribs.
- 1 0
KennyKillsIt
(Jul 11, 2013 at 5:53)
got my vote
- 1 1
downhillolly
(Jul 12, 2013 at 12:48)
gee athercake does it again...
- 2 0
dingo-dave
(Jul 13, 2013 at 7:09)
Bummer about Vernon... and he was wearing armor.
- 1 0
adnan17
(Jul 16, 2013 at 20:23)
maybe he also can walk on water
- 7 0
garrss
(Jul 10, 2013 at 22:04)
Congrats to Marcelo Gutierrez... the guy is digging his way throughout the big names of DH
- 3 0
smoggytom
(Jul 11, 2013 at 3:24)
Word from Taylor Vernon is that he has fractured two ribs and three vertebrae, one seriously. He is going in for surgery today. Sending some healing vibes and hope to see him on it again as soon as possible.
- 4 2
norcocensored
(Jul 10, 2013 at 20:30)
I know it's been said before,but Im happy for gee and the season he's having so far,after the 2011-2012 season,with being so close all the time,it's nice to see him be up there where he belongs.....on a different note in hoping Sam hill would give gee a run for his money,id be super stoked.
- 5 0
mpitt
(Jul 10, 2013 at 20:58)
POD to all those riding photos
- 5 0
pablomezuena
(Jul 11, 2013 at 10:24)
COLOMBIA !!!
- 1 0
yxbix
(Jul 12, 2013 at 4:05)
i am very glad for his results this year. I remember the time when his name started coming up, mostly in results of Urban DH in South Am, and I thought, it would be great if this guy added some Latin-american spice to the WC circuit some day.
- 5 2
MTBfreak612
(Jul 10, 2013 at 20:25)
those spank bars have the most rise I've seen on somebodies dh bike in a while
- 2 0
Paking
(Jul 11, 2013 at 15:26)
Congrats for Marcelo, he's introducing South America to the world through DH, that's being an ambassador. Props and all the best wishes to him in the world cups.
- 1 0
Texanhog
(Jul 10, 2013 at 23:36)
damn hope Taylor gets better soon, hasn't had the best of luck so far this season.
- 2 0
SeeDaneSleep
(Jul 10, 2013 at 20:32)
Gee wiz... Never would have guessed the winner.
- 1 0
glenno
FL (Jul 10, 2013 at 20:32)
Yea George Brannigan ! Getting back up to speed nicely ! Yeeeewwww
The views ............. wowza!
- 2 0
kaibrabo
(Jul 10, 2013 at 21:07)
Where the hell are the spectators?
- 2 0
jor4s
FL (Jul 10, 2013 at 22:28)
Mike jones is the one to watch.
- 1 0
TrailShredCL
(Jul 12, 2013 at 6:04)
Marcelo just getting better and better!
- 1 0
treymotleyDH
FL (Jul 10, 2013 at 23:54)
That last shot for some reason is soooooooooooo epic
- 1 0
Eyon
(Jul 11, 2013 at 1:10)
I still think the Athertons look funny not in blue...
- 1 0
neimbc
(Jul 11, 2013 at 4:43)
No doubt - it must be the GeeT.
- 1 0
narobike
(Jul 10, 2013 at 20:30)
buena buena
- 1 0
om1wan
(Jul 10, 2013 at 21:55)
Congrats CeLo
- 1 0
RayEpicon
(Jul 11, 2013 at 8:18)
awesome,,for Hannah
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