Gwindham World Cup Final Results

Erik Timmerman

August 13, 2015

Loris Vergier in the Graveyard section of the course. Most of the tombstone rocks have been tipped over in years past, but it’s still loose and fast with a tricky exit.

A blown out and dusty track was the perfect venue for Aaron Gwin to take a popular and well deserved win on Sunday. Loris Vergier spent a good hour plus in the hot seat waiting for the big guns to fire and it wasn’t until the 4th from last rider Greg Minnaar came down the hill that Loris would have to step aside. Loris Vergier had a shockingly fast time of 2:42.398 improving on his 32nd place qualifying time by some 8 seconds and instilling some serious doubt in the heavy-hitters who were just heading up the lift to warm-up for their own runs.

Gee exiting the Graveyard

After seeing Aaron Gwin best him by 5 seconds in qualifying, Gee Atherton and other like him had done some major homework on the track walk and in reviewing their GoPro footage to try and find the 5-6 seconds they’d need to challenge for the win. After seeing Loris’ time, they had to wonder if even 10 seconds would be enough to get the win.

Steve Smith rides the bucking bronco through the rock garden.

Steve Smith of Devinci Global Racing has been having a difficult time this season with most of his finals results marred by crashes. In Windham he finally had a problem free run and was able to finish in 5th place. That has to have him feeling good heading to the final round of the World Cup in Val di Sol, Italy.

Back in control, back on the gas.

A mistake in the first split cost Ratboy any chance of a win. 7th would have to do.

Finally! Starting fourth from last, Greg Minnaar would remove Loris from the hotseat with a steady run clocking in at 2:41.613.

Greg ran the first two days on Maxxis Shortys for grip in the deep dust. After Gwin’s dominating qualifying run, Greg switched to a faster rolling set of High Roller 2s.

Troy Brosnan started fast. Maybe a little too fast, with only two riders remaining, Brosnan went over the handlebars but still was able to finish in 7th place.

A flat tire would keep Loic off the podium, but it would not keep him from going huge on the finishline jumps.

Loris Vergier’s teammate Loic Bruni has been threatening a win all season. A flat tire would deny him his win once again.

Last man down the hill, Aaron Gwin does a perfect ride to victory @ 2:38.108. Just one second faster than he qualified the day before. The highly partisan home crowd could not have been more pleased.

After a scary moment at the road gap, Missy holds on and rides the whoops section.

Earlier in the day, former World Cup racer Missy Giove had kicked things off with a wild ride to 16th place.

First of the top-5 qualifiers down the mountain would be Tracey Hannah who rode into the hot seat for an eventual 4th place.

The next rider down was Manon Carpenter. She finished with a time of 3:10.082. A 5 second improvement from her qualifying, but still slower than Rachel Atherton and Myriam Nicole’s qualifying times.

Tahnee Seagrave qualified in 3rd and would finish there too. She just keeps getting better.

Myriam Nicole qualified in 2nd place, but a fall would cost her and push her to 5th at the finish. She is unhurt though, and focusing on the World Champonships in Andorra.

Rachel Atherton surfing the dust cloud into first place.

After locking up the World Cup Overall the day before, Rachel all pressure was off and Rachel wondered if she could break 3 minutes. Nope. But she couldn’t have come any closer. She took the victory by nearly 10 seconds over Manon Carpenter. When Rachel is healthy, she cannot be beaten.