Steve Smith starts season on right note, on the podium
(Fort William, GBR – June 09, 2013) On a sunny Sunday in Fort William, Great Britain, were held the first official downhill races of the 2013 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, and Canadian riders fared well on this opening weekend of the 2013 season.
Steve Smith started off the 2013 World Cup season on the right note, taking the third place for his first podium of the current World Cup season. After qualifying with the fifth fastest time on Saturday, Smith bounced back on race day, and posted a time of 4:38.073, less than two seconds from the victory, and two-tenths of a second from the second place.
Ultimately, it’s Great Britain’s Gee Atherton who took the win stopping the clock at 4:36.712, faster that Brook MacDonald of New Zealand in second at 4:37.854 and Canada’s Smith in third.
Throughout his career, Smith won two World Championships medals, as well as one victory coming in 2012.
Remi Gauvin significantly improved his position from his qualifying round, moving from 71st to take the 50th position. Kyle Sangers, who had the 67th qualifying time Saturday, finished in 57th place of today’s race. Matthew Beer did not finish the race.
In the women’s race, all four Canadian riders qualified for the final day of racing in Fort William, among the Top 20 of the qualifying group. Micayla Gatto was the fastest Canadian in Saturday’s qualifiers, and also posted the top Canadian results of the Finals in twelfth place with a time 4:45.155 (+36.309s).
Vaea Verbeeck finished the race in fourteenth place, while the 2012 UCI World Junior Champion Holly Feniak (Hutchinson UR) placed 22nd, just before Canadian ChampionCasey Brown in 23rd.
Great Britain and France dominated the women’s race, with the Top 2 podium spots hailing from the host country and the following four placing coming from France riders.
In the junior men race, Mark Wallace (DeVinci Global Racing) improved one rank from his qualifying rank, jumping from seventh to sixth. Wallace stopped the clock at 4:55.766 after 2.28 kilometer of racing, just 5.8 seconds slower than the victorious time of 4:49.931 posted by Noel Niederberger of Switzerland.
The Canadian Downhill Mountain Bike Championships will be held in Panorama, BC, on July 13 and 14.
OFFICIAL RESULTS, UCI WORLD CUP – FORT WILLIAM, GBR
MEN ELITE
1. ATHERTON, Gee (GBR) GT FACTORY RACING 4:36.712
2. MACDONALD, Brook (NZL) TREK WORLD RACING 4:37.854 +1.142
3. SMITH, Steve (CAN) DEVINCI GLOBAL RACING 4:38.073 +1.361
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50. GAUVIN, Remi (CAN) 4:53.039 +16.327
57. SANGERS, Kyle (CAN) 4:54.569 +17.857
DNF. BEER, Matthew (CAN)
WOMEN ELITE
1. ATHERTON, Rachel (GBR) GT FACTORY RACING 5:08.846
2. CARPENTER, Manon (GBR) MADISON SARACEN DOWNHILL TEAM 5:18.985 +10.139
3. RAGOT, Emmeline (FRA) LAPIERRE GRAVITY REPUBLIC 5:20.219 +11.373
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12. GATTO, Micayla (CAN) 5:45.155 +36.309
14. VERBEECK, Vaea (CAN) 5:50.020 +41.174
22. FENIAK, Holly° (CAN) HUTCHINSON UR 6:27.538 +1:18.692
23. BROWN, Casey (CAN) DIRT NORCO RACE TEAM 6:28.794 +1:19.948
MEN JUNIOR
1. NIEDERBERGER, Noel (SUI) GSTAAD-SCOTT 4:49.931
2. JONES, Michael (GBR) FMD RACING / INTENSE CYCLES 4:53.395 +3.464
3. LUCAS, Dean (AUS) AUSTRALIA 4:53.590 +3.659
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6. WALLACE Mark (CAN) DEVINCI GLOBAL RACING 4:55.766 +5.835