MT Pro: Commencal Exclusive

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2 great reviews published in the last
Australian Mountain Bike, highlighting the Supreme DH and the Ramones.

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COMMENCAL off to a winning start in South Wales

With a field stacked of World Cup Pros the first round of the newly named British Downhill Series went off with a bang in South Wales this past weekend.

The technical drying course in Rheola proved a great test for the nations best with close racing in all categories, it was however the Elite catergorythat stole the limelight, with 2008 World Champions Gee and Rachel Atherton (COMMENCAL) taking commanding wins. Rachel despite crashing in her seeding run came back in full force for the finals and posted a time of 3m 24 seconds a clear 20 seconds ahead of 2nd place rider Aimee Dix.

In the Elite mens race it looked as if Gee Atherton had it comfortably sewn up in seeding, his time of 2m 46secs was 8 seconds clear of the rest of the field. Gee's brother Dan had other ideas come the final as he bettered his seeding time by six seconds to hold the lead ahead of Matt Simmonds (Chain reaction Cycles) who put in a great ride. Although he couldn't better his seeding time Gee still took the win by over 2 seconds with a time of 2m 49seconds.

Round Two of the series heads North to Fort William on the 8/9th May where the Athertons will look to continue their winning run. Before that the family head to California for the real season opener at the Sea Otter Classic, Monterey.

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Gee takes 2nd at the US Open

Duplicating his result from 2009 Gee Atherton (COMMENCAL) took 2nd place at the premiere US race of the year at the Diablo bike park in New Jersey. Flying in on a whistle-stop visit ahead of his home World Cup in Fort William Gee kept his consistent start to the year rolling finishing just 0.54 seconds behind South African Andrew Neethling.
The rocky and technical course threw up a few surprises over the weekend with Neethling surprising many with the win. Gee's focus now shifts to one of the biggest races of the year for the Commencal team, with Rachel leading the series and Gee just trailing the mens event, Fort William will prove the usual exciting stop for the Atherton family.

1- Andrew Neethling - 2:19.55
2- Gee Atherton - 2:20.09 - +0.54
3- Justin Leov - 2:20.36 - +0.81
4- Steve Smith - 2:21.00 - +1.45
5- Sam Hill - 2:21.52 - +1.97

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Brit thrills home crowd in the Highlands



Gee Atherton of team Commencal thrilled the home crowd to take an inaugural win at the second leg of the UCI Downhill Mountain Bike World Cup in Fort William, Scotland.
In a nail biting finish to a superb weekend of racing the middle Atherton sibling avenged his brothers and sisters bad fortunes and solidified his chase on the overall World Cup title.
The weekend looked to be a sad affair for the Atherton family as Dan the eldest exited Saturday night’s 4X event in the quarter-finals. This was then followed by little sister Rachel, she got pipped to the win by just over a second by French woman Sabrina Jonnier.

This left Gee with it all to do and he didn’t disappoint.
Atherton’s time of 4.35.70 set the mark with only 5 riders left to descend, although all came close at the intermediate times it was Gee’s lower section that really set him apart from the rest of the field.
Cameron Cole of New Zealand the number two seed came closest to toppling the Brit in front of the 15,000 strong crowd, just two tenths of a second down at the intermediate split, Cole could not regain enough on the Brit to take over the lead.

This left South African Greg Minnaar the only person capable of silencing the home crowd. Greg trailed only four tenths at the last split and was looking good, but the current World Cup leader and former World Champ did not quite have enough in the tank to topple Gee.
As the South African crossed the line to claim third, Gee stood up to salute the masses and a deafening noise erupted at the Nevis Range resort.

“Winning in Fort William means so much to me, I honestly can say that it is right up there with winning the World Championships in 2008. It comes almost as a relief to me, all the hard work, not just this winter but the last few years - today made it all worth it. The crowd were just un-real and I’d like to thank every one of them for making me push that little harder up there.”, said Gee.
The Brit is now biting at the heals of Minnaar in the overall just 15 points behind, while the youngest in the Atherton family, Rachel is mirroring the same situation in the women’s event as she chases down Jonnier.
Next stop for the World Cup circuit is Leogang, Austria where the family will look to continue the great start to the season.

MEN'S DOWNHILL #2 RESULTS

1 Gee Atherton (GBR) Commencal : 04.35.70

2 Cameron Cole (NZL) Team Maxxis Rocky Mountain : 00.00.46

3 Greg Minaar (RSA) Santa Cruz Syndicate : 00.01.21

4 Aaron Gwin (USA) Yeti Fox Shox : 00.02.01

5 Michael Hannah (AUS) GT : 00.02.05