The Vuelta continued on Sunday with Contador being challenged in the lead finally by Chris Froome and the other contenders as the mountains reared their heads with serious intent.
At the same time Liverpool saw the start of the Tour of Britain, with bigger names than ever lining up behind Wiggins who is riding to defend his title. Today would be a sprinters’ stage and went as expected, in that a break went out and was brought in in the closing kilometres to set up the sprint. With favourites undoubtedly Kittel and Cavendish the stage would go to the German with the recovering Brit in third. Look out for more sprints between these huge names in other stages of the race. Wiggins stayed safe at the front of the race and avoided a crash.
More thrilling than any of this was the Downhill World Championships from Hafjell in Norway on a big bikepark track that gave huge jumps and brutal rock gardens. The women’s race was dominated by the British stars and it was no surprise to see Rachel Atherton and Manon Carpenter up there. What we got was an all-British podium:
.@rachelatherton @ManonCarpenter @tahneeseagrave make it an all GB podium in the women's downhill final #MTBWorlds pic.twitter.com/77hc0E0vjl
— British Cycling (@BritishCycling) September 7, 2014The men’s race was even more exciting, with more riders who could make a race of it and create a surprise. After an early swapping of hot seats amongst the lower riders, with the usual selection of bigger crashes as riders who aren’t usually on the World Cup circuit plunging down the mountain. Later even the big names like Sam Hill and Danny Hart would crash and ruin chances of a top finish. Another rider looking to have finished before he started was Neko Mullally who lost a chain on the first jump. However his commitment and talent took him down the course surprisingly up on every split, and eventually surprising everyone by taking the lead by a considerable margin. With no chain.
The surprise continued as he held this position through the field, only being beaten by Gee Atherton on an absolute flyer into first, and then Troy Brosnan who slotted in behind the leader. All that was left was the stunningly on-form Josh Bryceland, who looked incredible all the way down the hill and was a solid good few seconds up at all splits, leaving him with just the last jump and the finish. The final bridge jump was huge and Ratboy went way too massive off it and landed flat off the backside with such force that his ankle gave way. In clear pain with a broken leg he finished and came in behind Gee Atherton to take second.
All in all one of the most dramatic races I’ve seen demonstrating the depth of talent in the field, and providing British riders on five of the six elite podium spots. Highlights are here.
A thrilling weekend of racing and there is more to tell you as the Tour of Britain gets going and I can tell you about a ride I had at the weekend as well.
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