Gee wins Red Bull Gold Mine

Red Bull’s UK mountain biking ace, Gee Atherton, has taken gold – literally - winning the very first Red Bull Gold Mine event in Brazil! To win this unique downhill race, starting at the surface, and finishing deep inside a real gold mine, Gee overcame some of the world’s greatest international riders, completing the 650-metre downhill in blistering time, less than 60 seconds! A confident Gee got off to a great start in what he said he knew was going to be ‘his weekend’, coming out top in the qualifying round. This gave Gee the advantage of going down the track last, although he chose to ignore his opponents’ times: "From the moment I started the downhill I knew I was going to win. Yesterday, after the qualifying rounds, I was almost sure nobody would beat me". Not even his biggest rival, two-time world champion, Nathan Rennie (AUS), although it was a close call, with less than a second between their times. "Nathan is a strong, big guy and usually pedals more than I do", admitted Gee, "But today when I got in there, I did my best, used all my strength". And this paid off, leaving Nathan in second place. Local hero Markolf Berchtold, a regular competitor of Gee on the World Cup circuit, was also happy with his result, finishing in third, in front of his home crowd. The event, held in the "Mina de Passagem" gold mine, in Mariana, Brazil, was truly ‘one of a kind’, as the first downhill mountain bike contest in history, to take place inside a goldmine. Congratulations to Gee for his amazing race, confirming his position as one of the best mountain bikers in the world. You can see Gee's Gold Mine victory on Freesports on 4 (Channel 4) at the following times: Saturday 7th May, 8am Sunday 30th July, 8.30am www.redbull.co.uk