World Cup Return

Let’s talk about the weekend. There was racing action on the road for the Commonwealth Games road race. In the men’s event this saw a tough-guy’s win for Geraint Thomas in the rain.

Huge congratulations to @GeraintThomas86 for surviving a late flat to win the road race for Wales at #Glasgow2014!! pic.twitter.com/kkXMLMU0IV

— Team Sky (@TeamSky) August 3, 2014

With Luke Rowe in 6th this was a pretty successful day for Wales. Lizzie Armitage wont he women's gold ahead of an emotional Emma Pooley on her retirement race.

In Canada the World Cup picked up after a summer break and the downhill final was littered with injured riders. The women’s race highlighted the huge gap in the field as only Atherton, Ragot and Carpenter were anywhere near the pace, with a huge gap back to any other rider. It was close between them all with Atherton the fastest of the three at the top, but fading at the bottom to allow Manon Carpenter through to take her third win this year and put her even more solidly on top of the series. Atherton looked back on form and took second, with Ragot in third.

Before the men’s race even started there were big issues with Minnaar crashing in qualifying, Sam Smith ruling himself out of the final with an injured ankle picked up in practice and Gee Atherton setting out to ride with a damaged wrist after doing this:

Gee Atherton's 2014 Mont Sainte Anne Crash - More Mountain Bike Videos

The racing left everyone waiting for the top riders and it was only Loic Bruni who challenged Remi Thirian’s early fast time. Gee Atherton came down only marginally behind Bruni, an awesome performance considering his injury, but it was all set up for the faster top ten qualifiers. The changing of the hot seat procession began with Minnaar, then Blenkinsop, then Hart, and then Sam Hill. After them Simmons could only manage fifth, but highlighting the awesome depth of British riding. Gwin couldn’t trouble the podium and Brosnan could only make 3rd, with Brycelend still to come. Ratboy was fast but lost time somewhere in the middle section to come in second.

Behind the older Sam Hill it was a podium of young riders from Britain, with Hart and Bryceland up there. Gee Atherton wound up in tenth.

Elsewhere there was what might be a teaser for Danny MacAskill:

Post by Danny MacAskill.

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