Throwback Thursday: Steve Peat’s Les Gets Heartbreak

With Les Gets back on the World Cup calendar next year, it seemed only right to look back at one of the classic downhill races from over a decade ago.

The Rainbow stripes had always evaded Peaty but coming into the 2004 World Championships he was the hot favourite. He was leading the series and had pocketed two World Cup wins, including one just round the corner at Les Deux Alpes, it seemed destined to be his year.

He put two seconds into the field in qualifying and was leading the race at the halfway point but disaster struck. Peaty tumbled to the ground in a cloud of dust within sight of the line and could only recover to eleventh handing the win to his bitter rival, Fabien Barel. It would be another five torturous years before Peaty finally clinched the Rainbows in Canberra.

Enjoy this classic section from Earthed courtesy of the lens of Alex Rankin.