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Peat And Atherton Battle Against The Rain In Canada
Posted September 5 2010
2010 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships Homepage
Full Result
British hopes for a second rainbow jersey at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships ended at Mont Sainte Anne today, as Australian Sam Hill took the final win of the week in the men's downhill competition.
Britain had four medal contenders, but none had luck on their side - the worst reserved for 2008 World Champion Gee Atherton and 2009 World Champion Steve Peat.
Both riders came down the hill in torrential rain, setting times well off of Sam Hill's winning run which was completed some twenty minutes earlier, when the track was drier.
Greg Minnaar - with which Atherton had battled throughout the season faced a similar fate, but finished third, three seconds down.
Atherton faired best of the British riders, at 4.71 seconds in fifth place, Marc Beaumont was sixth, having raced earlier still, but in similar heavy rain, while Steve Peat was seventh. Danny Hart pulled out the ride of his life, riding into eighth - albeit earlier in the day in the best conditions.
Joe Smith finished 17th, 2007 Junior World Champ Ruaridh Cunningham took 19th, Brendan Fairclough 29th - with a suspected wrist or hand injury sustained on his race run, while Matt Simmonds had a huge crash on the most technical part of the course.
