Santa Cruz Syndicate's Josh Bryceland brings home the gold at the UCI World Championship Junior Downhill race today at Val Di Sole. Steve Peat is the bridesmaid once again placing second in the elite men's downhill to Gee Atherton's first place run.
Gee was the man to beat all week and this race was his to lose, and he pulled through with a run as stellar as his practice had been all week. Sam Hill was on a winning time, over 6 seconds faster at the second split time and gaining speed on the last section when he slid out and crashed in the second to last corner throwing away the win. His time was still good enough for a bronze medal. Greg Minnaar followed them all in for a fourth place finish.
Josh was happy to win saying, "I just had a smooth run and held it together and it came together perfectly. It was mint, I’m so happy." Josh's dad and mechanic, Iain Bryceland embraced Josh at the finish and says, "He was in a Slovenian hospital six weeks ago being told he needed surgery and that his season might be over. Up at the top of the hill Josh was just cool as a cucumber and he said to me, 'Don't worry dad, I'm in the zone."
An emotional Rob Roskopp said, "I'm happy for Josh that he got the monkey off his back from last year. To win with that big of a gap is total domination and he is deserving of it." Rennie comments, "It was great to see Josh win. We all had faith in him and he did it in great style and it makes up for last year. I'm really happy for him." Peat chimes in, "It's about time!" Josh's time of 3.23.55 would have placed him 10th in elite men.
In the elite men’s race Peaty had a good run but made a mistake. His feet blew off and it took awhile to get them back in. He was satisfied with his run and as he sat in the hot seat he was hoping for a little luck and had some when Sam wadded it up. But his luck ran out when Gee came across the line. He was happy for Gee but disappointed with his result. He has been the silver medalist four times in his career. He says, "I'm stoked Gee won but I wish it had been the other way around." Bryceland comments, "I'm gutted for Steve. I wanted it so bad for him and after Sam fell I thought he had it. It's not over, he's got a few years left and there's a chance for the old dog yet."
Greg Minnaar was not pleased with his run. Over coming his injury from the week’s practice he started smooth and fast. He says, "I wouldn't say I’m happy. I knew it would be a tough race and I did just what I didn't want to do and that was losing rhythm. I battled to get back in to a rhythm and I knew I had lost time so I went faster to make time up but it was the wrong thing to do. I’ll be back next year and I’ll focus on the world cup's now.”
Rennie did not have a good run. It started off fine and he felt good, but right after the first split he hit a tree, carried on and got arm pump, had a hard time holding on and just didn't hit his lines and he finished 21st.
Practice recap:
Practice on Friday and Saturday was a mixed bag for the boys. Minnaar wadded it up in a gnarly section and strained his neck badly, and race morning Brycleand bent his ISCG mount. The mechanics noticed this as Josh was napping before the final and they made the decision to swap everything off of his race bike and build up his number two bike and they didn’t tell Josh as not to distract him from his race. Josh had a hunch, but didn’t ask, as he really didn’t want to know. After some therapy, Minnaar’s race morning practice went well and he hit all his lines. On a practice run through a rocky section Rennie was overheard calmly talking to his bike saying “come on little machine, you can do this."
Roskopp said this about the track, "It's a course no one will have a perfect run on. It's a boxing match, that's what that course is. The person who is fit and makes the least mistakes will win. They were doubling things up, like super cross and the consequences are so big in those sections. Josh found a few new lines on Friday and was pretty happy about it. It's his race to lose."
Some fun was had the night before the race with Bryceland and Rennie getting new race hair cuts. Rob Roskopp shaved off Rennie's V-drive Mohawk to the skin, leaving the just the sides and Iain Bryceland calls it the Ren-Hawk. Bryceland shaved the middle of his V-drive out and we call it the Miami Slice. Looks like the Miami Slice paid off.
DOWNHILL FINAL RESULTS:
1 Gee Atherton 3:12.12
2 Steve Peat (Santa Cruz Syndicate/SRAM) 3:14.74
3 Sam Hill 3:15.27
4 Greg Minnaar (Santa Cruz Syndicate/SRAM) 3:17.34
5 Fabien Barel 3:17.92
6 Justin Leov 3:17.96
7 Mickael Pascal 3:20.12
8 Julien Camellini 3:21.31
9 Fabien Pedemanaud 3:21.46
10 Ivan Olego Moreno 3:26.86
21 Nathan Rennie (Santa Cruz Syndicate/SRAM) 3:31.73
Junior Downhill Results:
1 Josh Bryceland (Santa Cruz Syndicate/SRAM) 3:23.55
2 Sam Dale 3;31.06
3 Remi Thirion 3:32.13
4 Aari Barrett 3:32/47
5 Brook Macdonald 3:32.77
6 Danny Hart 3:33/71
7 Yannick Colomb 3:35.23
8 Shaun Connor (Santa Cruz/SRAM) 3:36.24
9 Rhys Willemse 3:37.40
10 Boris Tetzlaff 3:39.58
Thanks to the Syndicate sponsors:
Santa Cruz Bicycles
SRAM
RockShox
Truvativ
Avid
Maxxis
DT Swiss
WTB
Crankbrothers
Lizard Skins
Clif Bar
Troy Lee Designs
Chris King
Five Ten
www.santacruzmtb.com
