Mountain Bike World Championships: Gee and Rachel Atherton will remember June 21, 2008 for a long time

While Great Britain has never won the Downhill Elite World Title, both members of the British siblings made it for the first time in their lives! In Four Cross, Alvarez de Lara and Buhl created the surprise ...

It had to happen one day. And after what we saw in Vallnord, is it surprising? Not really. While Sam Hill and Sabrina Jonnier won the last two editions of the Championships, the Australian and the French had a very bad day under the heat of the sun Valley. Sabrina Jonnier finished second at 11''99 from the British and had difficulties to hide her disappointment: "I don't understand why I get punished like this since the beginning of the season. I made some mistakes in the Downhill, but I really given everything I had. I lose my jersey but there are still things to win before the end of the season, but it's a little bit hard to accept ..." For Rachel Atherton, three years after winning the Juniors World Championship (also in Italy, Livigno), she has become the boss of the Downhill. The French Emmeline Ragot was on the podium.

And if one man can be angry at himself, it is Sam Hill. The Australian from Perth signed an intermediary time almost five seconds ahead… But in the final schuss he arrived too fast. He jumped far. Too far and fell in a lower section… Even if he carried on, this was not be enough to win a third title in a row. He finished in third place, just behind the eternal Steve Peat who wins a fourth medal in the World Championships at 34 years old. Respect Mr Peat.

Note that Josh Bryceland (GBR) and Anaïs Pajot (FRA) were the best in the Juniors category.

A little later in the evening, the Four Cross gave a great show. Lopes (2007 World Champion), then Tschugg (leader of the World Cup) but also Wichman (European Champion) are out rounds after rounds. And for the final, Graves took the lead but in the first turn, he went out of the track with Mickaël Deldycke (FRA) and Roger Rinderknecht (SUI). The Spanish Rafael Alvarez de Lara took advantage of the situation and won the World Championships to everyone's surprise. In early May, before his victory in Maribor, nobody would have bet on the massive Spanish. Big suspense also among women with the domination of Anneke Beerten (NED)... but the victory of Melissa Buhl (USA)! Czech Republic was on the podium with second place for Jana Horakova and third place for Romana Labounkova.

Today, Women Cross-Country at 11:00 and Men at 14:15

(Credit: UCI. Click here for further information.)