Rain Man - DH World Cup 5 Finals - Norway
And so came the rain. The wind howled, the tear-offs flew and the crowds screamed their support and abuse under sagging ponchos. It ended up a nightmare day for tons of riders who hit the deck spectacularly in swathes of liquid mud. In particular, major players Mick Hannah, Gee Atherton and Loic Bruni all encountered serious misdemeanors mid session. Their loss was other's gain, however. Danny Hart, Andrew Neethling and Bernard Kerr all leaped up the rankings on incredible runs to headline the top ten. Tahnee Seagrave and Mike Jones claimed junior thrones and Rachel Atherton went and brought home the Fury flavored bacon once again in the ladies. Stevie Smith, presumed autistic genius, tackled the soaking Hafjell course with a vengeance, in a display of ignorance to the terrible conditions reminiscent of Mont St Anne last month. All eyes now rest on the final round where he will draw swords with Gee in Leogang to decide the overall series title in what could be described as (understatement alert) 'an exciting season finale'.
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 Dust and sunny skies, replaced by ominous clouds, driving wind and rain? The rug just got pulled. |
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| Splish splash... Little April showers. |
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| It's been awhile since we've seen grip wire. Luckily, a few mechanics still know how to use the old wire pliers. |
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| Sam 'me bike gets muddy' Hill preps his goggles for a very wet race here in Hafjell. |
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| Joe Smith gets his back number ready to go while working through the pre-race jitters. |
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| Water repellence was the top order of the day, by any means necessary. Rachel Atherton donning the silver suit of dryness plus 2. |
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| Makin' it rain. Smith gets taped up with John Cancellier. |
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| Cool wHip. Luca Shaw with a little dose of off-axis sailing in juniors. |
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| Smith's protege Mark Wallace kept his end up and did him proud, rolling home 3rd. |
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| Innes Graham drifting on a baller, but pipped at the post on the day. |
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| He nailed it on the toughest course of the year in Andorra and he repeated here in the toughest conditions of the year. Mike Jones leads the junior pack as of today, but deserves even greater credit for what would have been a top ten time in elite. |
 | Straight out of the start I got wild and landed to flat, bounced into the next corner and kept it wide open from there. I just tried to go steady when there was possibility of crashing from then and came down 3 and a half up. The weather made it way better than riding in the dry... So much slicker and more interesting! Yeah now I'm leading going into Leogang hoping for the result I need for the overall...- Mike Jones, FMD Racing |
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| Junior bath time. |
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| Mark Wallace, Innes Graham and Mike Jones represent. Niederberger and Vergier backed them up |
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| The weather actually got worse progressively throughout the day...as if that were possible. Somewhere up there lies a race track. |
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| Pom Pon getting nasty on the last corners into the finish. |
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| Manon Carpenter coming up in the ranks in second. Her day is coming soon... |
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| 'Are you stealing my lines Tahnee?' Britain's little and large discuss. |
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| Rachel Atherton takes home yet another win, this time decked out in the rainbows. |
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| Rachel Atherton #stoked. Probably she's confessing to nearly binning it into a telegraph pole after the last rocks. |
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| The Statue of Liberty by junior world champ, Tahnee Seagrave. Today she sealed the overall world cup victory for Great Britain as well. |
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| What do Ragot, Charre, Nicole, Manon and Atherton have in common with Charlie Sheen? |
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| Martin Soderstrom made an appearance making his away around the bottom on crutches. He is healing up well and in good spirits. Stoked to see him out and about! |
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| A long way from Miami beach for Bryce this morning. |
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| Leif Lorenzen found a roll of Shimano course tape and put it to good use turning Ray Syron into a mummy. Ray got some extra waterproofing out of the deal. |
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| What do you do once you're wrapped up like your'e going trick or treating? You cheer on Bren Dog! |
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| Mini-Wallner, Niklas, came in 16th right behind Sam Hill...not yanking your chain. |
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| The fastest section of track had a lot of riders taking a lazy trail nap. When riders fell they had to patiently wait until they stopped sliding and almost everyone kept hold of the bars the whole 30 yards. |
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| Try and guess where Nick Beer ended up today? THIRTEENTH... the omen strikes. |
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| Wyn & Boris showin' love. Shit happens... |
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| Troy Brosnan put down yet another top ten run today, but was keen for higher. |
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| "It was a bit slipperier in that one spot than I thought it'd be." |
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| Bernard Kerr takes home the Pinkbike personal achievement award (cheque is in the post)... 9th place on the Pivot. |
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| Husky mode. Nearly the whole of the World Cup photo core stayed huddled up to keep hypothermia at bay in the driving wind and rain. |
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| Matt Simmonds on a South Africa high, leading out team CRC for 8th. |
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| Sheffield steel on carbon, charging the woods. Everyone was blown away by Steve Peat at 39yo just one off the podium. The man still rips and still has a big fire in his career. |
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| All the waterproofing Blenky needs for 4th: a pair of gloves. |
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| The final tweaks that helped giant onto two of the top three spots on the podium. |
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| Marcello Guttierez had yet another great result this week to round out the Giant Factory Racing sweep. Here he jumps into the bottom rock garden all guns blazing during morning practice. |
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| Neethling dangles over treacherous ground on one of the best runs of his career into 3rd. |
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| When preparation goes out the window and you just have to ride it like you stole it, Danny excels once again, taking 2nd. |
| Everyone was saying 'oh it's your day it's your weather, but it's totally different to the last rain race that I won, the only race I've won. Champery was just point and shoot, where here there's lines and you have to think a lot more with the big rock gardens. I'm just really happy cos I've had a tough year you know, glad to be on the podium and I'll try and do it again next week. Leogang's often wet so we can see how it goes...- Danny Hart - Giant Factory Racing |
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| Minnaar up in the fray, but not climbing higher than 5th. The most reliable man in mountain biking? |
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| What a bunch of rowdy Swedes, banana stuffed skivvies and all. We have no idea what they were yelling. Pretty sure they were cheering for Boris at one point. |
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| Last year here in Hafjell was Stevie's first ever World Cup win, this year it could be the puzzle piece to Smith taking the WC overall. |
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| Bro fist to the masses... |
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| So many were rooting for Mick when they woke up this morning, but when they drew the curtains on Hafjell they knew deep down the game had changed entirely. |
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| Gee has looked infallible much of the this season. Unbelievably this time he crashed twice, including one mighty tree-hug. He just couldn't put down the run he wanted so badly. |
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| Gee Atherton hanging his head in sorrow as he crosses the line 8.4 seconds behind Stevie. Leogang is set to be one epic battle between these two heavyweights of 2013. |
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| The highs and lows of world cup racing. |
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| Stevie Smith FTW! |
| Last year was all hook and grip and it felt like you could fly everywhere, today it felt like I was on a slip and slide the whole way down. I was a 120 something points back at the beginning of the week and it's down to 17 today, it all counts now.- Stevie Smith - Devinci Global Racing |
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| Shiny happy people. |
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| Andrew Neethling reflecting his thoughts on the first podium he's seen since 2011... |
| I've just been focusing on trying to have a good time... I've put worlds behind me. The whole year I was working hard towards that and when it doesn't pay off it's tough so I kind of just hit the reset button to come here, ride my bike, do some whips and ride the course as fast as I can without worrying about who else is doing what, you know. My splits showed that which is good for the confidence when I look at the numbers, so I just need to keep it together and execute. It's just been one of those character building years this year, mentally tough!- Andrew Neethling - Giant Factory Racing |
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| To the victor goes the spoils. Only 17 points separate Atherton and Smith from the World Cup overall title this year. It all comes down to finals next weekend. |
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| Could this be the face of the 2014 world champion in Hafjell next year? Step aside, Hoffman...the new Rain Man coming through. |
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I remember watching him in seasons not that long ago, being shuttled up the mountain by him mom, guess hard work and determination do pay off, his mom will be after him for gas money if he wins.
Now you expect Gee to be nice and smiling, thus to be false. You seem to just want to be well entertained, you don't like serious people, it doesn't fit your idea of the sport. Well, I will put to you, that even if Gee was publicly talking sht about his opponents (as Greg, Lopes did with Fabien), you still have absolutely no basis for such expectations, as you don't even pay for watching the show. Then everyone having trouble with personalities of other riders should consider the fact that you guys don't meet any of those people everyday, you don't deal with serious people, and you are probably not related in any way to other riders in case they were insulted by the serious guy. You can just turn it off and don't watch recaps. Just don't ride with him anymore! I stood in the the queue to the lift, next to several different top riders I might not necessarily like, I had no intention to talk to none of them or ride with them. Because I don't know those people.
It is mountain bike racing not a reality show. For retarded emotions watch Nascar or Football, other than that: bugger off
The bullshiting over Gee's gotten to a point where even Si Paton felt he had to come in and give an actual founded opinion on him from somebody who actually knows him. Leave the man alone, and while you're at it go watch some Atherton Project vids to get a bit of insight on how he is. Being hard on himself doesn't mean he's a dick to others.
Now I will give you an example: Sam Hills memorable run in Champery in 2007, while riding in total wet, he came 2sec behind Lehikoinen who rode in the total dry. If you look at the vids when they show him seconds after crossing the line you will see how pissed off he is that he didn't win. I think that is worth more than a thousand of Peatys smiles.
I love cheerful guys like Peaty or Bulldog or Smith, but at the same time I admire the focus of guys like Gee. Btw, I haven't seen you bashing on Danny Hart, who's as sukly as they come post-race. Is it because he doesn't win so often or because he hasn't been the one (outside of Specialized or a mental lapse this summer by Tomac) knock your national hero Mr. Gwinn out of the top?
there was heaps of funny 'non-rideing' happenings that could have been thrown in this pictorial for a good laugh.
on rideing matters did anyone catch a snap of the young swiss juniors massive crash?!? and is he ok??
m.youtube.com/watch?v=KKC3W0awjm0&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DKKC3W0awjm0
m.imdb.com/title/tt0095953
GO STEVE! You got this!