Wheels of Speed - Rollercoaster Ride For Filip Polc

The first year of the Wheels of Speed World Downhill Challenge wrapped up successfully, alongside the tenth year of the SYMPATEX-BIKE Festival. Crowds of people were wandering through the tents in the expo area and cheering on their favorite riders during Sunday’s downhill race. The world’s best riders interrupted their World Cup schedules to come to Willingen for a course that was, in their opinion, much faster and more fun to ride than previous World Cup courses. In addition to the course, the riders got to mingle in the atmosphere of the SYMPATEX-BIKE Festival, which celebrated its tenth year in 2007. In its first year, Wheels of Speed has already delivered one of the biggest prize purses in downhill racing history and an incredible story about a racer who overcame great obstacles to take the top spot of the podium. Filip Polc was debating whether to race in the finals, after a crash during qualifying left him unconscious for four minutes. Against the advice of his fellow racers, he strapped on his helmet and took to the downhill track. “Everyone told me not to race today, but I wanted to try some practice runs and see how I felt,” said Polc. Apparently he was feeling comfortable on the course that rendered him unconscious less than twenty-four hours prior, because he managed to snag the first place title away from top qualifier Greg Minnaar. Because of Polc’s crash in qualifying, he was one of the first pro riders to race in today’s final. He posted a time of 1:58.01 and proceeded to watch the rest of the race from the hot seat in the finish area. The crowd was intently watching each rider’s time as they came through the finish area, all in disbelief of the story that was unfolding before their very eyes. But it was the first place qualifier, Greg Minnaar, who gave Polc the biggest scare. Minnaar was looking fast and smooth through the entire course and came within .02 seconds of unseating him. Times for today’s final were much faster than the qualifying run. Greg Minnaar’s qualifying run would have only been good enough to finish seventh today. Minnaar and the rest of the racers were able to find new areas in the course to slash time from their race runs. In addition to that, the top six riders were within less than one second of each other! Wheels Of Speed – Final Results - Pro 1. Filip Polc 1:58.01 (SVK) Gravity Group 2. Greg Minnaar 1:58.03 (RSA) Honda G-Cross 3. Steve Peat 1:58.45 (GBR) Santa Cruz Syndicate 4. Sam Blenkinsop 1:58.74 (NZL) Gravity Group 5. Andrew Neethling 1:58.91 (RSA) Mongoose 6. Bryn Atkinson 1:58.92 (AUS) GT 7. Jared Graves 1:59.23 (AUS) Yeti 8. Marc Beaumont 1:59.38 (GBR) MBUK/Santa Cruz 9. Sam Hill 2:00.34 (AUS) Iron Horse/Monster 10. Nico Vink 2:01.16 (BEL) Trek The closing day of the Bike Festival in Willingen attracted thousands of people, all crowding the race course for a glimpse of the action. With 30,000 euros on the line, all of the riders were putting in some serious effort to take home a chunk of the prize money. Polc took the biggest chunk: 12,000 euros for his amazing comeback and lightning fast race run. Check soon for updates on the event website: www.wheelsofspeed.de