Hannah and Minnaar both admitted to making mistakes at the beginning of their runs. Hannah was able to spend more time recovering than Minaar.
Hannah said that my run started out reasonably well. I did make a slight bobble at the top, but the rest was good. Although I felt like I had done well, I wasn’t sure I would be able to keep up with Greg. He’s very strong right now and just won the World Cup last season. It worked out all right, it was only one tenth of second but it worked out great.
Hannah compared Sea Otters’ downhill course to Canberra’s, Australia, where the world mountain biking championships will be held later in the year. Hannah’s focus was on the world title so she trained a mix of BMX, road and downhill.
Hannah’s time to beat today came in a white-hot.
Gee Atherton (Animal/Commencal), the world downhill champion, was unable to make it onto the podium after he suffered a serious injury in a crash which took him out of contention for the podium. After losing narrowly to Hannah, Thats Racing, Atherton may have agreed with Greg Minnaars comments.
Although power and fitness were dominant in the downhill, one racer was hampered by her racing skills. After winning yesterday’s dual slalom, Melissa Buhl (KHS), was looking to double her wins. However, she was impeded by her rival on the final stretch as she tried to make it to the top of podium. Buhl, visibly upset, finished.6 seconds behind Moseley who returned to Sea Otter after a four-year break to claim the top spot on the podiums.
Everyone is fairly equal on this track, and there’s not much technical information to distinguish you from everyone else. Moseley stated that it all comes down to who can push the pedal where it needs. This track is a great example of how you can keep your speed.
Moseley ran to the finish in the fastest time despite not clipping some jumps close to the start.
Although I wasn’t happy with the run, I did my best to pedal as hard as I could. Moseley stated that I was just good enough. Maybe Melissa got too close to someone, so I guess I was lucky. It was a great race, and I’m happy to have won at Sea Otter.
Top 3 Females:
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-Tracy Moseley, (Trek).
Top 3 Men
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-Mick Hannah (GT)
Click HERE to see a complete listing of results.
