Brit thrills home crowd in the Highlands

Fort William, Scotland – 6th June 2010

Brit thrills home crowd in the Highlands

Gee Atherton of team COMMENCAL thrilled the home crowd to take an inaugural win at the second leg of the UCI Downhill Mountain Bike World Cup in Fort William, Scotland.

In a nail biting finish to a superb weekend of racing the middle Atherton sibling avenged his brothers and sisters bad fortunes and solidified his chase on the overall World Cup title.

The weekend looked to be a sad affair for the Atherton family as Dan the eldest exited Saturday night’s 4X event in the quarter-finals. This was then followed by little sister Rachel, she got pipped to the win by just over a second by French woman Sabrina Jonnier.

This left Gee with it all to do and he didn’t disappoint.

Atherton’s time of 4.35.70 set the mark with only 5 riders left to descend, although all came close at the intermediate times it was Gee’s lower section that really set him apart from the rest of the field. Cameron Cole of New Zealand the number two seed came closest to toppling the Brit in front of the 15,000 strong crowd, just two tenths of a second down at the intermediate split, Cole could not regain enough on the Brit to take over the lead.

This left South African Greg Minnaar the only person capable of silencing the home crowd. Greg trailed only four tenths at the last split and was looking good, but the current World Cup leader and former World Champ did not quite have enough in the tank to topple Gee. As the South African crossed the line to claim third, Gee stood up to salute the masses and a deafening noise erupted at the Nevis Range resort.

“Winning in Fort William means so much to me, I honestly can say that it is right up there with winning the World Championships in 2008. It comes almost as a relief to me, all the hard work, not just this winter but the last few years - today made it all worth it. The crowd were just un-real and I’d like to thank every one of them for making me push that little harder up there.”, said Gee.

The Brit is now biting at the heals of Minnaar in the overall just 15 points behind, while the youngest in the Atherton family, Rachel is mirroring the same situation in the women’s event as she chases down Jonnier.
Next stop for the World Cup circuit is Leogang, Austria where the family will look to continue the great start to the season.



MEN'S DOWNHILL #2 RESULTS

1 Gee Atherton (GBR) 04.35.70
2 Cameron Cole (NZL) 00.00.46
3 Greg Minnaar (RSA) 00.01.21
4 Aaron Gwin (USA) 00.02.01
5 Michael Hannah (AUS) 00.02.05

A great weekend up in Scotland for the Athertons!

Brit thrills home crowd in the Highlands

Gee Atherton of team Commencal thrilled the home crowd to take an
inaugural win at the second leg of the UCI Downhill Mountain Bike
World Cup in Fort William, Scotland.
In a nail biting finish to a superb weekend of racing the middle
Atherton sibling avenged his brothers and sisters bad fortunes and
solidified his chase on the overall World Cup title.
The weekend looked to be a sad affair for the Atherton family as Dan
the eldest exited Saturday night’s 4X event in the quarter-finals.
This was then followed by little sister Rachel, she got pipped to the
win by just over a second by French woman Sabrina Jonnier.

This left Gee with it all to do and he didn’t disappoint.
Atherton’s time of 4.35.70 set the mark with only 5 riders left to
descend, although all came close at the intermediate times it was
Gee’s lower section that really set him apart from the rest of the
field.
Cameron Cole of New Zealand the number two seed came closest to
toppling the Brit in front of the 15,000 strong crowd, just two
tenths of a second down at the intermediate split, Cole could not
regain enough on the Brit to take over the lead.

This left South African Greg Minnaar the only person capable of
silencing the home crowd. Greg trailed only four tenths at the last
split and was looking good, but the current World Cup leader and
former World Champ did not quite have enough in the tank to topple Gee.
As the South African crossed the line to claim third, Gee stood up to
salute the masses and a deafening noise erupted at the Nevis Range
resort.

“Winning in Fort William means so much to me, I honestly can say that
it is right up there with winning the World Championships in 2008. It
comes almost as a relief to me, all the hard work, not just this
winter but the last few years - today made it all worth it. The crowd
were just un-real and I’d like to thank every one of them for making
me push that little harder up there.”, said Gee.
The Brit is now biting at the heals of Minnaar in the overall just 15
points behind, while the youngest in the Atherton family, Rachel is
mirroring the same situation in the women’s event as she chases down
Jonnier.
Next stop for the World Cup circuit is Leogang, Austria where the
family will look to continue the great start to the season.

MEN'S DOWNHILL #2 RESULTS

1 Gee Atherton (GBR) Commencal : 04.35.70

2 Cameron Cole (NZL) Team Maxxis Rocky Mountain : 00.00.46

3 Greg Minaar (RSA) Santa Cruz Syndicate : 00.01.21

4 Aaron Gwin (USA) Yeti Fox Shox : 00.02.01

5 Michael Hannah (AUS) GT : 00.02.05

Fantastic season for Remy ABSALON

After having won the renowned Alpe d'Huez Megavalanche race few weeks
ago with the brand new 2010 Carbon Meta 5 (1st race = 1st victory!!),
Remy ABSALON don't stop winning all the important races of this season !
He used his META 6 to stamp his authority at this weekends 2009
Glacier Classic at the Deux Alps in France, meaning he is the overall
2009 Enduro Series winner!

The Saturday results from the rider himself:

"During the morning session I was out front, but I had a pretty big
wipeout which meant I hurt my shoulder. This meant that I struggled
all afternoon, and Jerome Clementz and Karim Amour were able to catch
me up. I still managed to get a good result in the final special
stage of the day, 15 seconds behind Clementz for second place, and
10-12 seconds ahead of Karim. My shoulder still hurts but it's only
muscular."

Sunday was the final face-off between Remy ABSALON and Jerome
CLEMENTZ. There were four rounds running across a special stage that
was longer then the previous day (about 15 minutes), with more
"enduro" type riding. Remy managed to put himself ahead in each
special, meaning that he was able to not only win the Glacier
Classic, but take the overall win for the 2009 Enduro Series. The
podium celebrations will take place at the Roc d'Azur in the south of
France this October.

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Dan Atherton putting the new Absolut SX through it's paces

http://dirtmag.co.uk/news/category/videos/the-atherton-project-episode-six/dirt-1235467.html

Meta 5.2 in Bike magazine

New MX wheels-Spinergy

Travis Pastrana doing a backflip on them at the St. Louis Supercross the other week...pretty