Commencal Back on Top, Downieville and Angel Fire on Tap and World 4X a GO-Go

August 2nd, 2013 4:35pm

UCI Down Hill -

Bicycle race season is in full swing - there is no denying that. World Cup action turned it up a notch with a semi-surprise win in the Mens UCI Pro Downhill Scene by Remi Thirion. Remi won on his home course of Andorra and riding a Commencal - the local bike manufacturer who over the last couple of years got to ride the popularity of the Atherton Family before their departure to the big dollars at GT. I am sure GT bikes has been laughing all the way to the bank this year with Gee and Rachel winning every race up until this past weekend. Of course Rachel continues to cominate the womens racing scene but the mens has definitley reawakened after the past two years of domination by Aaron Gwinn. While winning is winning, Remi has been practicing on this track for weeks and probably has 100 runs on the course. An advantage for sure, but I don't want to take away from a seriously ballsy effort. The Andorra course was so steep it actually had some of the pro's using the word "scary".

Other great excitement was caused by Sam Hill - who was the top seeded qualifier about his Nukeproof machine. A huge crowd favorite, it has been a couple of years since the Sam Hill we all know has shown up at an event. Mostly due to injury Sam has been a bit less focused than during the days he dominated the scene. So after a little personal time to regroup, find a new team, get married and have his first child, Sam was back where he belongs; in the thick of the action and on a steep technical track where Sam Hill excells. Priving his qualifyer was no fluke, Sam took third on the day just 1.7 seconds from the win and .4 seconds behind Atherton.

View the race results the times here.

UCI XC-

Now I don't usualy watch the XC race. Not that I don't appreciate how damn fast these guys ride, but simply the courses are quite boring to me. But this past week at Andorra I also decided to watch the XC thoroughbreds in action and was not dissappointed. In fact it was down right exciting. That is becuase the two most dominant males in the sport had issues during the race. So instead of it being a two horse race with a cat -n-mouse finish it was a real horse race as new competitors stepped up to push the action when the opportunity presented it self.

And present itself it did right out of the gate when Olympic Gold Medalist Julian Absalon had some sort of drive train malfunction on the climb out of the gate. His bike threw a chain from a malasdjusted derailuer as he went off line to pass some of the crowd going up the hill. The tech issue would plague him most of the race making his day more challenging that normal. His major competitor - Nino Schurter -Scott Bikes mean while motored away with a lead group of about 8 riders until he suffered a rear flat on a climb. Schuter continued on all the way to the tech zone with the flat dropping over a minute behind the lead group.

Seeing the current world champ in trouble, the U23 world champ Ondrej Cink attacked the now splintering lead group. With each successive lap the lead grew to about 50 seconds over the chasers with Schurter and Absalon picking off riders in pursuit. With three laps to go (6 lap race) Both Absalon and Schurter where making up time but could get not closer than 35 seconds on the young pro. The earlier shifting issue with Absalon raised its ugly head again with Absalon within striking distance of Schurter and took away any of the momentum he had. Absalon would have to fight just to keep from losing points on this day. It was now up to Schurter to see what kind of energy he had left after putting on the chase.

Coming down to the last lap the young world champion started to show signs that riding solo at the altitude may have been too much as Schurter found yet another gear and reeled in Cink on the descent with less half a lap to go. I have never seen so much gound made up on an XC decent in my life as I did watching Schurter bomb down the single track. Catching Cink, Schurter passed easily but couldn't shake the younger rider until the small decent where he gained about 5 seconds and turned onto the final climb back into the finishing shoot.. Schuters descending prowess allowed him to win by just 6 seconds over Cink who was looking for his first pro win. It was a nail biter and super exciting to watch. Schuter won on a 650b wheel size.

Downieville

While everyone goes gaga over the Enduro World Cup series, Americas version of the All Mountian race is back on in Downieville California this weekend.
With 17 miles of downhill and 45 minutes of climbing on the cards just for the title of All Mountain Champion and 26.7 mile for the XC Adventure race, Downieville is a World Class event on our own soil. Its unique in that every world cup downhiller, 4x racer, XC racer and the like have tried to claim the title.

Yeah, you missed the sign up this year, but book mark this page and set your mobile reminders for late April of 2014 cause this party fills up faster than your beer bong..http://www.downievilleclassic.com and hits you twice as hard.

PEEP the Course map and start trainging here.

Angel Fire

One of the greatest venues in the US for legit downhill, Angel Fire is hosting the USA Cycling Gravity Championships. Featuring DH and Dual Slalom, the racers who feel the need to support USA cyclings lame efforts at supporting the gravity portion of the sport will at least be treated to lots of new spectacular trails developed by the resort and enjoy an epic weekend of riding. Love Angel fire yes, But give me the Downieville title over USA cycling any day....

4x - World Class -

Even though the UCI missed the point - 4x racing is probably the most exciting mountain bike sport to watch. It's bar banging, high flyin action from the gate to the bottom of the hill. And there is still a huge following in Europe for the events. So the 4X Pro Tour is alive and about to embark on round 4 this weekend. World Champion Tomas Slavik designed the course that includes a section through the trees which is pretty darn cool if you ask me. Here is a video of his pre-ride on the track. You can see the racing webcast live on Saturday morning at www.4xprotour.com.

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