Rachel takes back to back wins in North America

Jul 2, 2012

Rachel Atherton of GT Factory Racing has claimed her third win of the season and her third at the Windham Mountain venue in the USA.

The short and dusty track caused riders problems all weekend with lines changing constantly as tyres dug deep into the track to expose rocks and roots. Rachel went into Friday's qualifiers hot from a win last weekend in Mt St Anne, Canada. She delivered a strong ride to take the fastest time with World Cup leader Emmeline Ragot in second and round one winner Tracey Hannah in third.

The weather stayed dry for Sunday with temperatures soaring to 35 degrees as the finals rolled closer. Tracey Hannah was the first of the big hitters to take the final jump, posting the fastest time with two to go. Ragot was next up and she looked fast - two up on the first split, three up on the second. The final jump didn't go so well for her and she crashed hard just metres from the line, breaking the beam just 4 tenths up on Hannah.

All eyes were on Rachel who burst out of the blocks like her life depended on it. Split one looked good, 4.5 seconds clear of Hannah and 2.7 quicker than Ragot; stretching to almost five seconds by split two. But as she hit the step down things turned a little nasty - Rachel got bucked off line, blew through the berm and out of the tapes. Regaining her composure Rachel who had come to a standstill dug deep to clear all the jumps on the final section crossing the line just two tenths ahead of Hannah. The commissaries reviewed Rachel’s crash and deemed she gained no advantage awarding her third World Cup win of the year and the overall lead in the series by just 30 points.

Rachel said after the race "It was a wild run and I thought I had thrown it all away. It was such an exciting race and I'm stoked to have won here again" She now takes the leader's jersey to the penultimate round in Val d Isere, France which takes place in four weeks time.

Rachel's brother Gee was looking to repeat his great result in the men's event. After a disappointing qualifying run of 9th Gee was keen to step it up for the finals and that's exactly what he did. As Gee came out of the blocks Danny Hart was in the hot seat, by the first split Gee was within touching distance then a super strong ride through the middle sector put him fastest by 1.7 seconds at split 2. Launching the lower jumps Gee blasted across the line to take the lead a comfortable 1.4 up on Hart. With eight more to go it was a waiting game for Atherton. First up was team-mate Marc Beaumont who looked super strong until he got spat over the bars in the lower rock garden. Marc was lucky to escape injury but the super tight times meant that the crash ended his chances of a result. Gee's time was holding strong until the final two. Stevie Smith of Canada looked to be down and out of the running after split one but he came strong towards the bottom and pulled time back on Gee, crossing the line eight tenths ahead. Gee was guaranteed a top three finish, and that's how the rest of the race played out with home favourite and World Cup leader Aaron Gwin riding a faultless run which placed him just under a second faster than Smith and 1.7 quicker than Gee.

In the series rankings overall Gee pulled back some good points on 2nd place rider Greg Minnaar who could only manage a ninth on the Windham track. This leaves Gee trailing Gwin by 351 points and Minnaar by just 59 with up to 500 still up for grabs.

All photos: Sven Martin