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Sea Otter - Sunday
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After a cold & blustery day
with slalom, speculation was that the winds would pick up even more & just
be a miserable day come Sunday. However, to everyone’s surprise,
the winds had died down considerably in the morning. Even though
the temperatures were nearly the same, the wind chill wasn’t nearly as
bad.
Unlike
most professional races, there is no qualifying. Riders had about
an hour or so worth of practice, in order to check out the course one final
time. From there, it was straight into racing.
Although there were a small number of women who could realistically win the event, it was no easy win. With a mix of world & national champions in the mix, it would be a showdown of who would take the women’s victory. When the dust settled, it was Melissa Buhl who would come out victorious. Rich
Houseman took the hot seat early on refused to give it up,… that was until a
hard charging Dan Atherton crossed the line. With no qualifying
and the seed list starting riders in a peculiar order, Dan would hold his top
spot for a good number of the race.
Rider
after rider would narrowly miss the fastest time, until Justin Leov crossed the
line. With a 2.12.0, almost 2 seconds ahead of Dan. Leov’s time
wouldn’t last too long as a revitalized Chris Kovarik charged across the line
with the same exact time! Officials had to go to the hundredths of
a second to determine who was faster… which would end up being Kovarik, by a
scant one hundredths of a second!
As fast
as Kovarik went into the lead, he was out of it, as Greg Minnaar (who won the
previous day’s Dual Slalom) blitzed Kovarik’s time by .8 seconds!
The only rider remained that would be considered a threat to Minnaar’s time would be Sam Hill. However Sam isn’t known for his stellar results at the Sea Otter Downhill. Although he charged across the line, he only managed a 53rd spot. Needless to say, Sam will be concentrating on the World Cup series & World Championships!
PRO WOMEN
DH
1. MELISSA BUHL 2.
FIONN GRIFFITHS
3. SABRRINA JONNIER 4.
RACHEL ATHERTON
5.
ABIGAIL HIPPLEY
PRO MEN
DH
1. GREG MINNAAR: 2:11.2 2. CHRIS KOVARIK: 2:12.0 3. JUSTIN LEOV: 2:12.0 4. STEVE PEAT: 2:13.0 5. NATHAN RENNIE: 2:13.4 6. JARED RANDO: 2:13.7 7. DAN ATHERTON: 2:13.9 8. JURGEN BENEKE: 2:14.1 9. ANDREW NEETHLING: 2:14.3 10. AARON GWIN: 2:14.4 |
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