World Championships - the return of the "granny" ring and long race times!

After the relay on Wednesday the weather steadily improved, by Friday the course was idea for racing. The trouble was the race was not until Sunday. The Downhill was held with prefect conditions on Saturday, the Brits did exceptionally well - two silver Elite medals. Steve Peat only missed the gold by half a second to finish 2nd for the third consecutive year.

As with many sports TV rules, because of this the women were up and out on their bikes before the sun had decided to rise! Their start time was brought forward to 8:30 am. On Saturday the weather forecast for Sunday was rain... all day. It was right. What had become a good circuit now became a test of endurance and extreme bike handling. There were large sections of the steep descent that became un-ride and even a few reasonable flat sections that were quicker to run. Half way around the circuit was an adverse camber grass field that was a challenge when it was damp, with rain it produced some good offs! I found that the best way was to start as high as possible and try not to steer to aggressively or touch my brakes!

Gunn-Rita Dahle won the women's event in her strong style, Caroline Alexander finished in 13th place. In the U23s, which started at 11:30 am., Liam Killeen finished 19th, I'm not sure where Phil Dixon or Phil Spencer finished, but they did.

The Elite men's race was reduced to 4 1/2 laps from 5 as the U23 winner did 4 laps in 1:50 hrs. Everyone was called to the line, we were all ready to go with 10 minutes to go before the start time - it was lashing down. We were were give the "two minute warning" everyone took off their warm clothes then it was announced that there would be a 5 minute delay due to TV..... you can guess how well this went down!!! We finally started  and all charged down the road, we hit the muddy field and all the bottle necks we were off and running. On one of the sections that I required my little ring my chain came off, so I lost a few more  places. The first time down the descent was not too frantic, there was a bit of pushing and shoving - but no fighting! After the opening 1/2 lap I was in the 70s. After the second full lap ex-World Champion Bart Brentjens came by, I don't know where he had been!? I spent most of the race with Ireland's Robin Seymour. I was not sure if I was too far back and might get stopped (by the 80% behind leaders time rule) before having to complete the last lap - but no such luck. I moved up 7 places on this lap though to finish in 52nd - not great but I was still the second Brit to finish. Nick Craig produced his best Worlds result to finish 24th. Oli Beckingsale cashed out of the race and Zak Toogood came in 59th. The best bit was my finishing time..... these days races are meant to be around the 2 hour mark... well how does 2:45 sound?.... this is getting back to the early 90s race time!

1st     Rowland Green            Canada
2nd    Philip Merhygre           Belgium
3rd    Thomas Frischknecht    Switzerland

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