Cycling: Last weekend, not only the races of the XC and XCE riders were on the agenda of the UCI MTB World Championship 2014. At the end of an eventful week, the downhill riders rode their final races yesterday, Sunday, with Great Britain with Gee Atherton and Manon Carpenter was able to win gold twice.
This year's UCI MTB World Championships in Hafjell held plenty of excitement for the last day of competition. The eventful World Cup season secured by Manon Carpenter and Josh Bryceland caused quite a stir in advance. Bryceland and Carpenter thus went into the race at Hafjell as big favorites, but while Carpenter lived up to her role and relegated her compatriot Rachel Atherton to second, Bryceland did not go to plan.
The men's first really fast time was set by Neko Mullaly. The young American's chain broke shortly after the start, but that didn't stop him from setting an incredible time. He sat in the hot seat for a long time and only Sam Hill became really dangerous. The three-time world champion drove a great season and accordingly went into the race for the title with self-confidence. After setting an unbelievable best time in the first sector, he got caught in the last stone field, where he fell heavily and his dreams of the rainbow jersey were shattered.
A short time later, Gee Atherton took to the track. After a somewhat messed up season, he went out on the track with a lot of anger in his stomach and proved in an impressive way why he has been one of the fastest riders in the downhill circus for years. He took the lead and none of the following drivers, neither Aaron Gwin nor Troy Brosnan, threatened him. Josh Bryceland was the last to leave the starting gate. In the usual Bryceland style, he picked up a lot of speed without pedaling much, which secured him the best time in the first sector. But in the end, things didn't go according to plan for him. Shortly before the target area, he jumped over a large table and broke his foot on landing. With only one foot on the pedal, he rolled to the finish and, despite this big mistake, finished second.
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The best German was Johannes Fischbach, who finished a good 24th place.