showfeatures
Show features
articles
Sabrina Jonnier wins Fort Bill World Cup

Sabrina Jonnier clocked up yet another victory today in Fort William DH and 4x World Cup 2009. The two-time world champ tops a podium made entirely of French riders, which must be some kind of record. And it would have been tough for the Brits getting thrashed like that on home soil – it’s often a tight battle between these two nations in DH, and not normally this one-sided. Hopefully the UK riders will be back on it at the next round!

$filename

The closest rider to Sabrina was Emmeline Ragot, who seeded second and took over the hot seat from third placed Celine Gros by finishing nearly 4 seconds up. Despite racing the 4x as well as DH, Emmeline charged down the course and her time was ahead of Sabrina’s qualifying time. But Sabrina came down a phenomenal 9 seconds faster again, beating her own qualifying time by 12 seconds. Emmeline’s response: “It was incredible, I need four legs to beat Sabrina!”. Floriane Pugin riding for Playbiker/Ironhorse got her first podium of the ‘09 season in fourth place, and Myriam Nicole finished 5th.

$filename

What happened to Tracy Moseley? She had a crash on the second wall ride in the lower half of the track, and couldn’t make up the lost time. I’m sure the home crowd were bitterly disappointed that she only managed a 7th place on a track that she normally loves, finishing behind the French top five and Japanese rider Mio Suemasa. The other four Brits were all outside the top ten, with Fionn Griffiths managing a 12th place after her impressive 3rd in 4x last night. This unfortunately drops her from 5th down to 8th in the overall standings, while the others mostly remain in the same order.

Greg Minaar took out the Men’s, keeping the Santa Cruz Syndicate at the top of the Teams tables, with top qualifier Gee Atherton dropping back to 4th.  Sam Hill had a good run for 2nd after his disappointing crash in Andorra – must be the good karma generated from donating his pink race kit to breast cancer charity auctions. Nice! Kiwi rider Sam ‘Blinky’ Blenkinsop finished third.

Results from the UCI website:

$filename