Mont Saint Anne Day 2 - UCI World Cup 2012
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 Sender Steve had a huge wreck yesterday but was crushing it today and slid into 7th place. No flats, no wrecks and a big old smile on his face through the finish. |
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| Aaron Gwin. What more can you say? Perfect form through the last woods. |
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| Lots of changes for Sam Hill of late: Fatherhood, and a new sidekick (for two weeks) with Mitch Ropelato on board vs an injured Troy Brosnan. It seems he wears it well: he's getting stronger after two injury plagued seasons and has more than a bit of gas left in the tank after today's quali run. Sam's won here before. Finishing 8th in quali just serves to remind the rest of the field that he's still a threat. |
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| Gee may have binned it horrifically yesterday, but you'd never know. He's a tough one, and even though he's a protected rider, he opted to race the quali vs. rolling the start and resting to heal up for the final. And it paid off with a sixth place in quali. |
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| Patrick Thome of Lapierre Racing stepped it up today: 12th on the day. The new kid on the team marched past Cam Cole (16th) and Blenki (18th) to put his own stamp on Mt St Anne, and proved Lapierre to be as shrewd in his acquisition as they have been with other riders they've picked up (Danny Hart--the one that got away; and Loic Bruni). |
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| Tracy Hannah launching the booter that sent down a couple riders yesterday. It's been a long time since she's raced full tilt all season long. South Africa proved she's got the the horse power to make it happen. But expect her to keep getting faster. Fourth on the day for Hannah. |
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| Sabrina Jonnier had a rough South Africa injury: a broken hip. Val di Sole went down a week after getting out of bed. Now she's looking for the confidence that drove her to numerous wins. By her own admission, she's nervous, and her riding shows it. +29 on the day; but it's a rebuilding year for her and I'm confident she'll get her legs back under her before the season's over. |
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| One of the best rides of the season for Pom Pom, cutting almost to the head of the class, but 4.17 seconds behind Rachel. |
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| Rachel Atherton is back, and after missing the win by a tiny margin in Scotland she's back with a vengeance. First in qualifying today by 4 seconds. |
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| This is NOT how to hit this berm at 60km/h. Luckily he rode away but it was checkers or wreckers for a lot of people today. |
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| Not to be. He's won here before, but Chris Kovarik had a mechanical, and finished 41 places out of the money. Look for Kovarik to be pushing hard in Windham. |
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| The dust was hanging heavy under the chairlift. It took a fair bit of massaging this shot to even be able to see Bryn through the haze. |
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| Greg Minnaar moved into second for qualies and was on the gas in every single section today. Watching the big man through the high speed rocks was impressive. |
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| Minnaar's owned this mountain for years. Only 2 seconds and change down to Gwin's qualifying time... The man should not be ignored on Sunday. Gwin is not unbeatable, and if anyone can do it, it's this man. |
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| Finally - no mechanical's for Bulldog and he has the time to prove it, qualifying in fourth place and only six seconds back. |
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| Some of the woods are extra tight here, and it seems like you're on an Ewok speeder bikes as you blast between the trees. |
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| What would Myles do? Rockwell doles out the advice to Gwin on the final practice run before qualifying. |
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| Gwin is once again in first after qualifying. No one is really surprised, but there's another few seconds under his belt as he opted not to take a few of his more risky lines in qualies. |
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| Locked in. Steve basically cruised this qualifying; the kid's got loads left in the tank and with the rain falling outside, and Steve's love for NW mud, Sunday is shaping up to be an interesting race. |
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| Brendog is back in the hunt this week. 15th is a big step up from 29th, and Brendan is looking to crack the top 10 this week. |
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| Marcelo Guttierez is holding it down for the brigade well CG is in hospital recovering from surgery. 36th today but always smiles. |
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| Ben Reid checking the roost opportunities in the woods on his final practice run. |
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| How fast are the straightaways up top as of this morning? Fast enough to get some decent air off of 1" rocks. |
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| Any mechanic will tell you; the devil is in the details. Eli Woody of Trek World Racing |
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| DH tracks wreck bikes, pure and simple;but very few track ruin wheels so readily as Mt St Anne. |
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| Sabo pulling onto the track for one last run before qualifying. |
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| ...a brief update from Fraser, it's raining so hard the parking lot is flooding right now. (7:30PDT) |
Complete Qualifying results can be found here
Words and Photos by Colin Meagher and Fraser Britton
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/nerd alert
Ehhh, Hustler, did you read what was under the picture? My comment was posted well before that update, and nonetheless the track was dry as hell except for some muddy spots in the woods.
what race has gwin won in the wet? other than fortbill because that wasn't really that wet. i mean like the proper worldcup slop.
"until he crashed" he himself said somwhere that he isn't into the mud, and he crashed, end of story really.