Men's DH Finals, 4x Carnage, Takeouts, and Ridiculous UCI disqualifications...
It's Monday morning about 10:32 a.m and I'm in Ottawa. I woke up (5 a.m) with the bass still bumping from the party that started around 9 p.m last night. I'd put money on Rennie just making it home around that time. So here's how the DH went down yesterday.
So I think I already mentioned Sabrina winning and still being pissed off that she didn't beat her quali time. You can tell she wants it bad, but I think Mo is gonna start coming on stronger so we'll have to wait and see. Here are those other photo I wanted to put up earlier. I tried to get a shot of the Leatt brace that Vanessa Quinn was wearing as well.
As for the men Sam Hill came out on top again yesterday with Minnaar and Peaty right on his heels. I got the inside scoop on Peaty and I guess in his practice run before the quali's he had a bit of a crash in the very last woods section so in the final he slowed up a bit more than he should have and he thinks that's where he probably lost the time. Too bad cuz' he was flying! As for Minnaar he had some bad luck as well with his shoulder popping out in his final run before one of the rock sections. He had to take his hands off the bars and shake his arm out a bit to get it back in. That had to hurt!!
1. Sam Hill - 4:29.58
2. Greg Minnaar - 4:31.27
3. Steve Peat - 4:31.30
4. Matty Lehikoinen - 4:33.00
5. Fabian Barel - 4:34.64
Oh and I gotta give props to Luke Strobel from the U.S. He finished 15th with a time of 4:41.00 just behind Gee Atherton. Nice work! As for my Giant boys, Rando destroyed his rear wheel about 200 feet out of the start for his semi-final, which was the end of his day and Amiel finished 26th with a 4:46.40.
Now on to the 4x. First of all Mont Sainte-Anne used to have the best crowds in North America. I mean a few years back you couldn't even see the pavement between rigs in the tech zone because there were so many people. Unfortunately this wasn't the case this past weekend. It had thinned out a bit. On top of that they had the 4x finals at 7 p.m on Sunday night! Please explain to me why they would do that!! I seriously think the UCI is trying to sabatoge the sport. And it only gets better. There were disqualifications that were utterly ridiculous and then other riders that DEFINITELY should have got disqualified and weren't. In one particular case Scott Beaumont ran over a gate and apparently slammed into Jared Graves and went on to qualify for the finals. Not only should he have been DQ'd for the take out, but someone had him running over the gate and essentially missing the gate on film. Graves showed it to the UCI official and he still didn't DQ Boom-Boom! I mean what other kind of proof do you need!! These guys are idiots. I mean at half the races they don't even have "officials" if that's what you want to call them on the course at all and then when they do they don't know how to make a call because they've never raced a day in their life to know what's clean, dirty, or completely legit. Whatever.
So I qualified 2nd and was really having fun on the course. I felt strong I'm guessing from my BMX training. There was no pressure since I'm not in the points race and I just wanted to go out and kill it. I had Anneke, Fionn, and Joanna in my semi-final. We came out of the gate and I had the inside so coming into the first left hand turn it was quickly turning into carnage because of the where the gate was placed. I didn't want to come unclipped. Anneke and I were bumping elbows a bit, but nothing crazy. Just a little to let each other know where we were. The entire time I knew I was gonna hit the triple coming out of the turn. It was down hill and I'm thinking about 23-25 feet long. I had hit it in practice coming out slow because I knew that's what would happen in the race. However, I didn't come out of it at a dead stop about 6 feet to the lip. Anneke and I had sort of hit elbows and stalled a bit in the turn, but I just put my head down clicked gears and took about 2 hard pedals and just hit the triple. I never second guessed it. I KNEW I would make it. Ummmm....I didn't make it. Apparently I 50/50 the landing and just got launched on the ground. I immediately covered my head so nobody would run me over. Once I stopped rolling I just heard someone yell, "Get up!!" So I thought maybe someone else crashed I could still make it. I went to get up and all of sudden didn't feel so hot. I took 2 pedals and knew that was it. I was still trying to catch my breath and just rolled down to the bottom. I coughed up a little blood and wasn't sure where it was coming from. My left shoulder was really sore, and I got a bit of a concussion. I just kept thinking what went wrong. I mean I was so damn confident. Maybe too overconfident. Who knows? So that was the end of my day. I could have gone up and raced the small final and finished with a 5th, but my body just couldn't take it and my shoulder hurt so I called it a day.
In the women's final Jill had the lead into the first turn with Anneke right on her and as soon as Jill started to slide out Anneke passed her on the outside and took it home for a win with Fionn in second. I just shook my head and thought, "I NEVER have that kind of luck dammnit!!" Hey, luck is always part of the game and I haven't had any in quite awhile so it just made me shake my head.
As for the men I think Lopes won it, but I don't know who else was in the final.
So, I'll be boarding another plane in about 45 min. to Chicago and then finally home to L.A later tonight. Today will be another mini epic travel day. It's okay though...as long as I have my laptop, ipod, and good book I'm alright.
Here's to healing up! ( I think this is my new tag line!)
Oh and I have piccie's of the men's and women's DH final, but I put my USB cord in my checked luggage so no can do right now. I'll try to post them tomorrow.
Ciao!
So I think I already mentioned Sabrina winning and still being pissed off that she didn't beat her quali time. You can tell she wants it bad, but I think Mo is gonna start coming on stronger so we'll have to wait and see. Here are those other photo I wanted to put up earlier. I tried to get a shot of the Leatt brace that Vanessa Quinn was wearing as well.
As for the men Sam Hill came out on top again yesterday with Minnaar and Peaty right on his heels. I got the inside scoop on Peaty and I guess in his practice run before the quali's he had a bit of a crash in the very last woods section so in the final he slowed up a bit more than he should have and he thinks that's where he probably lost the time. Too bad cuz' he was flying! As for Minnaar he had some bad luck as well with his shoulder popping out in his final run before one of the rock sections. He had to take his hands off the bars and shake his arm out a bit to get it back in. That had to hurt!!
1. Sam Hill - 4:29.58
2. Greg Minnaar - 4:31.27
3. Steve Peat - 4:31.30
4. Matty Lehikoinen - 4:33.00
5. Fabian Barel - 4:34.64
Oh and I gotta give props to Luke Strobel from the U.S. He finished 15th with a time of 4:41.00 just behind Gee Atherton. Nice work! As for my Giant boys, Rando destroyed his rear wheel about 200 feet out of the start for his semi-final, which was the end of his day and Amiel finished 26th with a 4:46.40.
Now on to the 4x. First of all Mont Sainte-Anne used to have the best crowds in North America. I mean a few years back you couldn't even see the pavement between rigs in the tech zone because there were so many people. Unfortunately this wasn't the case this past weekend. It had thinned out a bit. On top of that they had the 4x finals at 7 p.m on Sunday night! Please explain to me why they would do that!! I seriously think the UCI is trying to sabatoge the sport. And it only gets better. There were disqualifications that were utterly ridiculous and then other riders that DEFINITELY should have got disqualified and weren't. In one particular case Scott Beaumont ran over a gate and apparently slammed into Jared Graves and went on to qualify for the finals. Not only should he have been DQ'd for the take out, but someone had him running over the gate and essentially missing the gate on film. Graves showed it to the UCI official and he still didn't DQ Boom-Boom! I mean what other kind of proof do you need!! These guys are idiots. I mean at half the races they don't even have "officials" if that's what you want to call them on the course at all and then when they do they don't know how to make a call because they've never raced a day in their life to know what's clean, dirty, or completely legit. Whatever.
So I qualified 2nd and was really having fun on the course. I felt strong I'm guessing from my BMX training. There was no pressure since I'm not in the points race and I just wanted to go out and kill it. I had Anneke, Fionn, and Joanna in my semi-final. We came out of the gate and I had the inside so coming into the first left hand turn it was quickly turning into carnage because of the where the gate was placed. I didn't want to come unclipped. Anneke and I were bumping elbows a bit, but nothing crazy. Just a little to let each other know where we were. The entire time I knew I was gonna hit the triple coming out of the turn. It was down hill and I'm thinking about 23-25 feet long. I had hit it in practice coming out slow because I knew that's what would happen in the race. However, I didn't come out of it at a dead stop about 6 feet to the lip. Anneke and I had sort of hit elbows and stalled a bit in the turn, but I just put my head down clicked gears and took about 2 hard pedals and just hit the triple. I never second guessed it. I KNEW I would make it. Ummmm....I didn't make it. Apparently I 50/50 the landing and just got launched on the ground. I immediately covered my head so nobody would run me over. Once I stopped rolling I just heard someone yell, "Get up!!" So I thought maybe someone else crashed I could still make it. I went to get up and all of sudden didn't feel so hot. I took 2 pedals and knew that was it. I was still trying to catch my breath and just rolled down to the bottom. I coughed up a little blood and wasn't sure where it was coming from. My left shoulder was really sore, and I got a bit of a concussion. I just kept thinking what went wrong. I mean I was so damn confident. Maybe too overconfident. Who knows? So that was the end of my day. I could have gone up and raced the small final and finished with a 5th, but my body just couldn't take it and my shoulder hurt so I called it a day.
In the women's final Jill had the lead into the first turn with Anneke right on her and as soon as Jill started to slide out Anneke passed her on the outside and took it home for a win with Fionn in second. I just shook my head and thought, "I NEVER have that kind of luck dammnit!!" Hey, luck is always part of the game and I haven't had any in quite awhile so it just made me shake my head.
As for the men I think Lopes won it, but I don't know who else was in the final.
So, I'll be boarding another plane in about 45 min. to Chicago and then finally home to L.A later tonight. Today will be another mini epic travel day. It's okay though...as long as I have my laptop, ipod, and good book I'm alright.
Here's to healing up! ( I think this is my new tag line!)
Oh and I have piccie's of the men's and women's DH final, but I put my USB cord in my checked luggage so no can do right now. I'll try to post them tomorrow.
Ciao!
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