New Stars, Old Stars excel at Windham for the UCI Downhill

July 13th, 2011 12:38pm

Nothing fires up a crowd like seeing Steve Peat take the hot seat in a UCI world cup downhill race. And that is what the crowd got at Windham for this weekends round as Peaty got to hold the hot seat all the way until the end to see if the legend could be beat.

Under perfect weather conditions, Peaty managed to set the fastest time on the hill over Giant's Andrew Neethling, Steve Smith (Devinci Bikes) and Brook MacDonald (MS Evil). With one rider to go Peaty had done all he could do and had to sit and wait to see if the fastest man in the UCI Downhill series could replace him. On home soil and his family at the race, Aaron Gwin was able to handle the pressure and put in a championship run that saw him extend his overall points lead over injured Greg Minnaar.

Gwin, who has been nothing but consistent all year managed to put 2.3 seconds into Peaty on his last run down the hill for the win. It was unfortunate that Gwins closest competitor in the points, Greg Minnaar is nursing a wrist injury received in his hard crash at Mont Saint Anne. Even injured Minnnaar was able to capture 12th place. With todays results, Gwin has all but locked up the UCI World Championship points title as he leads Minnaar by 340 points.

But the real story was Steve Peat's second place finish. Always popular and the winningest downhill racer in history, Peat was able to string together a solid run on his Santa Cruz V-10 and show the young guns that he is not quite ready to call it quits. We couldn't agree more that Steve Peat is far from finished and love to see him continue to push pace.

So while the UCI series moves back across the Atlantic, this season has been nothing short of exciting. With a perfect mix of new stars shining every weekend, old stars showing their savvy and a series where there are ten to fifteen legitimate contenders capable of winning in every field, this years world championships are going to be spectacular.

UCI PRO Men - Downhill Results

UCI PRO Women - Downhill Results

On the womens tilt, Rachel Atherton successfuly stamped her return to the top step of the podium over Floriane Pugin and current point leader Tracy Moseley. Jill Kitner took the top american honors with a solid tenth place finish.

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