Aaron Gwin wins pre World Cup South African National
Aaron Gwin Wins Pietermaritzburg National, Mick Hannah 2nd, Neko Mulally 3rd, Troy Brosnan 4th, Justin Leov 5th
Mens Results
1. Aaron Gwin 4:14.93
2. Mick Hannah 4:17.06
3. Neko Mullaly 4;25.58
4. Troy Brosnan 4:25.69
5. Justin Leov 04:26.39
11.3.2012 Trek World Racing
Aaron Gwin lead the way today for all three Trek World Racing riders who ended up on the podium at the South African national race held on the improved Pietermaritzburg course that will host next week's World Cup opener. With a scorching time of 4m 14secs, Aaron was 3 seconds ahead of last year’s fastest World Cup qualifier Mick Hannah (AUS).
Youngest team mate Neko Mulally (USA) showed that his specific preparation for this event was paying off. After qualifying 7th due to a puncture late in the run, Neko stormed the course in the final and had a super solid run finishing 3rd with 4m 25secs just ahead of Troy Brosnan (AUS) and one second ahead of team mate Justin Leov who rounded out the podium.
The course in Pietermaritzburg has been modified to deal with wet weather, yet despite this, overnight rain made some of the sections almost unrideable in the first training runs of the day. Fortunately the thunder storms that had threatened all day held off and the racing got under way in sunny, yet blustery conditions. Neko set off 7th last and immediately went into the hotseat after a perfect run. He would stay in the lead until Mick Hannah knocked him out with his impressive 4m 17secs run (remembering that Aaron had qualified fastest with a 4m 25secs). Aaron appeared just under a minute later and record a stunning 4m 14secs, with clear signs of a fall on his right leg.
 | Yeah, I fell on the second corner, but otherwise I was really happy with the run today. The course dried out and the wind made for some extra pedalling, but all in all a good fun day. Great to see Neko and Jusso up there in 3rd and 5th. - Aaron Gwin |
| The improvements made to the track were awesome! I really enjoyed riding it this weekend. It felt good to score a podium today and that gives me confidence going into next week. - Neko Mulally |
| I had a productive weekend with no setbacks so that was positive. I learnt a lot about the course/setup and what needs to be focused on leading into next week. Great to see Neko so strong and Aaron sending a clear message to everyone!- Justin Leov |
Live coverage of next weekend's all important opening round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup can be seen at www.redbull.com/bike with the Men's Downhill starting at 1.00pm Central European Time next Sunday.
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Good result for Sick Mick too!
For me Brosnan shows true sportsmanship, but Gwin is way to focused on himself and always has to indicate that he can do way better, even though it doesn't matter, because I don't think that any of the top guys was giving 100%...
Either way, I'm not exactly sure where you're getting this idea that Gwin is being boastful about his win by vocalizing the fact that he felt he could have done better. Or even that he was too focused on himself... He congratulated two other athletes and noted that he had good fun out there. The order in which that's stated does not really matter... When someone wins and indicates that they made mistakes, that is because they're already thinking about the next competition, and how they may learn from that. It is not some sort of prideful statement that's intended to rub salt in the wound...
As far as the style thing... "loose" and semi out-of-control can be entertaining to watch, but to me Gwin's lines, the way he attacks and scrubs everything, and the resulting speed he manages to carry through sections is just awesome to watch. He may make it look easy, but there's no doubt he puts it all on the line. He had some really gnarly crashes before we started winning everything.
Maybe I'm oldschool (even though I'm young), but I think that sportsmanship is very important. There are athlets out there that are amazingly fast in practice, but never show that in a race, but that's just how it works, no one will give them a medal for that.
And Gwin actually did stuff like that at a lot of world cups last year.
About the congratualtion-thing... what else could Gwin have said after Danny Harts spectacular run? He had to congratulate him especially after people asked him about Harts performance!
Americans: Shut up until something else happens.
Everyone else: SAME THING.
LOL