Gee Atherton on 4 Podiums at Fort William World Cu...
Gee Atherton of Team Animal Giant found himself on 4 out of 4 podiums at the finals of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup held in Fort William, Scotland last weekend. The 20 year old from Oswestry had a 5th place in the Downhill, a 3rd place in the 4X after qualifying 1st, and both of these results meant podium appearances for the overall season results finishing 5th overall in both the Downhill and the 4X.
Gee�s sister Rachel also made two appearances with a career equal best 2nd place in the Downhill, and a 3rd overall for the 2005 Downhill season.
Having these six podiums at the end of the season is a great result for Team Animal Giant, which was formed at the beginning of the year, and augurs well for an even stronger season in 2006.
In the 4X on Saturday evening, Gee had an impressive night after surprising many of the favourites with his fastest qualifying time of 24.52secs, thus giving Gee the first gate choice for all of his heats. Brother Dan qualified 8th only half a second behind and looked set for a strong showing. Both got through easily to the quarter finals where they met each other, but unfortunately only Gee went through as Dan finished 3rd behind his brother and Guido Tschugg (GER). Gee then proceeded through his semi final with Tschugg to make the final with the already crowned World Cup Champion Brian Lopes (USA) and Norwegian Leiv Ove Nordmark who as 18th qualifier was not considered the favourite. All eyes were on the other three. Unfortunately Gee broke his chain out of the start and could only roll the race. Tschugg went down and so 3rd place was Gee�s behind Nordmark and Lopes, but there was no hiding the disappointment.
�After qualifying first I really wanted to take it to the guys in the final and go for the win. I was feeling great on that course but that�s the way it goes. I�ve had a much better 4X season this year, my Giant was brilliant, so to have 5th overall is a good way to end up.�
Dan�s 9th place gave him 11 World Cup points giving him a final overall ranking of 12th place.
Making her first appearance in the 4X World Cup this season, Rachel qualified 5th but in her semi final crashed into a fallen Joey Gough (GBR). After cutting her wrist quite deeply, Rachel went to first aid to have it bandaged up before her consolation final, but before she could head back, she was taken by a British Drug Agency official who told her she had to go for a random drug test. This was before her race was over, but unsure of the regulations and not given a chance to check, Rachel complied. By the time someone found her, it was too late to make the start and the officials scratched her from the race, which was a huge disappointment as there was a chance to win the consolation final and take the podium in 5th place.
In the Downhill though it was a much better story with Rachel mixing it up with the World Cup leaders Tracy Moseley (GBR) and Sabrina Jonnier (FRA). In the semi final Rachel rode close to her maximum and recorded a 5m 01.18secs for a third place behind the aforementioned contenders. In the break between the semi final and final, Rachel gave her run a lot of thought and looked for time to be made up. In the final later that day, the times slowed, as the course got rougher and the winds picked up. Tracy Moseley was 7 seconds slower and Sabrina Jonnier was 5 seconds slower, but Rachel managed to beat her semi final time by half a second to ultimately finish 2nd only 0.92sec off the win.
�Tracy was a little sneaky and wore a skin suit and I reckon that�s my 1 second right there. The wind picked up and it was definitely tricky in some parts. I�m still happy to have not lost time from this morning and to be 3rd overall in my first full season is great for me and also my main sponsors, Animal, Giant and Adidas Eyewear.�
In the men�s Downhill, Gee and Dan had been quick all week in training. For the timed training sessions, both had times in the top 10 and were ready to do well in the semis and final. Unfortunately Dan made a couple of mistakes in his semi and finished out of the points in 23rd but Gee had a solid run coming in 4th only 1.88sec off Steve Peat (GBR) who took the win.
For the final Gee pinned it and looked super fast on all sections but despite being back in 8th place at the half way mark, put in a scorching lower half where the course is flatter and fitness really counts. His lower course split was 4th fastest and enough to get him back up to 5th by the line, and this pushed Gee from 7th to 5th in the overall standings, earning him number 5 for season �06. Dan improved on his semi to finish 16th in the final and ended up with a series overall standing of 15.
For more information www.athertonracing.co.uk