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Hill, Atherton win Bromont DH titles
Sam Hill (Monster Energy-Iron Horse) regained the lead in the men's downhill World Cup on Saturday over Greg Minnaar (Santa Cruz Syndicate), after beating his South African rival by 2.7 seconds. In the women's race, Rachel Atherton (Animal Commencal) extended her lead over Sabrina Jonnier (Maxxis) with her second consecutive win.
American Luke Strobel (Maxxis) was the top North American man in 10th place, while Quebec native Claire Buchar (Intense) was the top woman in sixth place. Canada's top hope Steve Smith (Cove Bikes) had a very disappointing day, finishing well back in 36th place.
The good weather from the day before continued on race day, with sun drying out all but the wooded sections. However, the deep woods remained full of mudholes and extremely slick rocks and roots, which took down many riders.
Canadian Danice Uyesugi (Pink Bike) set the first sub-four-minute time with a 3:40.63 run, but didn't have time to take the Nissan Hot Seat before Anita Molcik (4 Elements) knocked five seconds off. Molcik was in the lead for four riders, when Floriane Pugin clipped 10 seconds off the leading time. Jonnier then quickly took another nine seconds off, but Atherton was right behind her, and 2.29 seconds faster. The final two riders, Tracy Moseley (Kona) and Mio Suemasa (MS-Intense), couldn't manage to top Atherton or Jonnier, though Moseley slotted into third.
"I was really nervous after I had a bad run in the qualifier, and it was even worse when I got to the top and saw that it had been raining up there, which I knew would make it slippery," explained Atherton. "My run was pretty good, but I made some mistakes. I just knew that it was important to never give up."
Said Buchar: "The track is a lot shorter than Mont-Ste-Anne last weekend, but it is just as tiring. It's super technical, and I was cautious, because there were a lot of places you could crash on the track, but it went pretty well for me."
Remi Thirion (France) set the early fast time for the men, at 2:55.82. His time would hold for 25 riders before his countryman Damien Spagnolo knocked off two seconds. After that, the times started dropping in quick succession by small increments, until Brendan Fairclough (Monster Energy-Iron Horse took it to 2:51.65. His time would hold up until the final six riders hit the course, with five of them beating it (Fabien Barel (Subaru) was the only one not to, and he flatted). Marc Beaumont took the lead below 2:50, but one rider later Minnaar dropped another five seconds off the lead. Minnaar's time would hold until the final rider, Hill.
"I wasn't really thinking about taking back the [World Cup] jersey," Hill said afterwards. "I wanted to just put together a good run and try for the race win. It was a tough course all the way down, and there were lots of places to make mistakes, so I just tried to be smooth and consistent all the way down."
In the World Cup standings, Sam Hill (Monster Energy / Iron Horse) has taken back the overall lead from Greg Minnaar (Santa Cruz Syndicate) and Rachel Atherton (Animal Commencal) has extended her lead over Sabrina Jonnier (Team Maxxis).
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