Korbach (GER), September 7th 2015 – You can’t stop this young lady! After winning the UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Cup overall title earlier this season, Rachel Atherton is now (again) wearing the highly coveted rainbow jersey. Last weekend, she once again dominated the mountain and rode to glory. Her GT Factory Racing team-mate Martin Maes claimed second in the Junior DH category, and Julien Absalon also crossed the line in second place in XCO.
Oops!… She did it again! Rachel has earned her third Elite rainbow jersey in Vallnord, Andorra and the prestigious World Champion title that comes with it. Needless to say, Rachel worked hard to take the victory and surpassed several of her closest competitors which was no stroll in the park. Myriam Nicole was considered by many to be the biggest threat to Rachel for the title. Indeed it looked as though that might be the case when she went up a huge 7 seconds at first split, but some problem off camera left her with a twisted seat and put paid to her hopes. Tracey Hannah put in a very proficient run to take the hotseat and there were just three women left on the hill – all from Great Britain. First down was Tahnee Seagrave who risked it all on a fast run but came unstuck on a rut in the woods, she ended up off track with her front wheel over the top of a berm, crossing the line into 3rd. Reigning Champion Manon Carpenter also came out of the gate red-hot, she was up by 4 seconds at split 1, had extended that to 4.5 seconds up by split 2, a slippery root looked dangerous for her lower down but she recovered, finally going into the lead by almost 7 seconds.
And then it was all down to Rachel. She looked careful and in control all the way down, totally mastering the course with her Conti Mud King 2.3, but her speed was deceptively fast. She was up by 3.5 seconds at split 1, then up by nearly 5 seconds at split 2. As she had prophesied she did lose time to Manon at the bottom of the course but her technical prowess had ensured she had plenty of room to do so, she kept the jumps squashed and low to maintain speed in a demonstration ride to cross the line a convincing 3.2 seconds clear of the field and take her 4th World Championships and her second “World Cup Overall/World Champs season double”. Rachel said: “Wow I can’t believe it! I’m totally stoked. I knew it would be hard; you have to hang on so tight! I so wanted this title back, being beaten by Manon last year really kicked my ass. I’m so happy, having a Brit 1, 2 is awesome!” You can find Rachel’s winning run here:
Rachel’s young team-mate certainly kept the thrills coming in Andorra, Enduro rider Martin Maes who has already demonstrated his downhill skills with a win at World Cup Round 2 Fort William. The Belgian kept cool under the enormous pressure of finals to put in a great run for 2nd place. Martin said: “I’m stoked, I love to ride downhill with such brilliant team-mates and the atmosphere at Vallnord is so awesome – for me it’s unreal. It’s always a little difficult to come second but I’m still very happy! Thanks to GT and all of the team.” For an experience living legend like Gee Atherton, there is only one result in sight – first! So straight out of the gate it was clear his race was going to be an “all or nothing” run. In a game of inches, Gee was 3rd at the first split (down by 1.5 seconds) and then in a turn of events, clipped a pedal and came down hard. The Brit finished the weekend in 77th place.
Out of the gravity scene, the most ‘decorated’ Cross Country athlete Julien Absalon made the most of his grip to power across the line in second place on the Andorra XCO track. The hard head-to-head battle with Nino Schurter was a great spectacle. The Frenchman was just 0.10 secs behind Nino. The Czech rider, Ondrej Cink came in third.
Here are the final standings:
DHI Men Elite
1. 
BRUNI Loic, Lapierre Gravity Republic – 4:19:585
2. 
MINNAAR Greg – 4:21:950
3. 
BRYCELAND Josh – 4:24:361
DHI Women Elite
1. ATHERTON Rachel*, GT Factory Racing – 5:08:488
2. CARPENTER Manon*, Madison Saracen Factory Team – 5:11:726
3. 
HANNAH Tracey, Polygon UR – 5:18:461
DHI Junior Men
1. GREENLAND Laurie, Trek World Racing – 4:32:839
2. 
MAES Martin, GT Factory Racing – 4:36:102
3. FREW Jackson – 4:44:424
XCO Men Elite
1. 
SCHURTER Nino, Scott-Odlo MTB Racing Team – 1:29:22
2. ABSALON Julien*, BMC Mountainbike Racing Team – 1:29:32
3. 
CINK Ondrejv, Multivan Merida Biking Team – 1:30:37
XCO Women Elite
1. FERRAND PREVOT Pauline, RaboLIV women cycling team – 1:52:44
2. 
KALENTYEVA Irina, Möbel Märki MTB Pro Team – 1:53:42
3. 
BELOMOINA Yana, Betch.nl Superior Brentjens MTB Racing Team – 1:54:20
* – Continental Athletes
Continental congratulates its athletes for another great season! For all further information regarding events, Continental’s athletes and mountain bike teams supported by the German tire manufacturer, please visit their Facebook page: facebook.com/ContinentalMTB
For additional information concerning Continental’s involvement within the bicycle industry, please go to: conti-online.com/www/bicycle_de_en
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Photos: Sven Martin