Wet and wild and then dry and rough, Bromont didn't disappoint.
---
Words and Photos by Fraser Britton
Greg Minnaar (RSA - Santa Cruz Syndicate) and Sabrina Jonnier (FRA - Maxxis) have taken home the gold at the 7th round of the UCI World Cup Downhill at Bromont, Canada. Minnaar and Jonnier both dealt with rough conditions and tight competition today as the course changed dramatically from earlier practice sessions, drying out and getting extremely rough. It was beating riders into submission, and making sure that lines that worked well in practice, were now way too fast to get through cleanly. This was noticeable by the sheer amount of massive crashes suffered by some top riders.
Jonnier stormed through the field after feeling off in qualifying on Friday and in the process created an insurmountable world cup overall lead to cap off her streak of 6 straight world cup wins.
"Yesterday was bad. I didn't crash but I was slow. I have been useless and super tired and sick all week. No energy in the gate. I couldn't do sprints on the wind trainer and was aiming for a top 3 to save the overall. I can't be more happy than I am with winning right now. I went back home yesterday and had some really smelly cheese, I think that's what made it for me. It was like home [in France], I got a really nice Camembert, pretty expensive over here but it was worth it!"
Minnaar is not known to be one to crack under pressure, and after a loss last week at Mont Ste Anne to rival Sam Hill (AUS - Monster Energy-Specialized), Minnaar knew he had to take home the win in order to keep the overall title in sight going into the final round in Schladming, Austria in September. After having a minor mishap in the lower woods sections and almost throwing it out the window, Minnaar put down the horsepower he is known for and made up the lost time.
"Barel was a second and a half down and brought it back to a tenth of a second. That's the sort of thing Barel can do, he rode it bloody well. I was nervous. I was feeling pressure in Mont Ste Anne. I wanted to leave here with a decent lead to take to Schladming, but it's not going to happen now and I am going to have to fight for it. I needed to pull off a good one, and I got some inspiration from Josh's [Bryceland] whip barhump in qualies. I'm glad to put it together, it was so rough. It was rough when it was wet and muddy but the ground was spongy. Now it's gone hard and you are getting hit from all directions and bouncing all over the show. I'm stoked to be on the [Santa Cruz] V10 or else things might have been different!"
Minnaar is now 16 points back in the overall, trailing Hill. A win is worth 200 points, and top seed in qualifying is worth 50. It really is anyone's game going into the monster of a course that is Schladming, a track that Minnaar has never beaten Hill on.
The injury report from this round is ridiculous. No one left Bromont without a few new scrapes and bruises, at the minimum. Knuckles, shoulders and backs took a beating this weekend. Canadian gun Steve Smith managed to somehow stay on his bike in the rocks under the chair after some circus maneuvers, but got bucked a hundred yards down course and went over the bars for a disappointing 40th place and a full body bruising.
If Matti Leihikoinen had any luck, it would be bad. The Flying Finn flew off in the rocks and managed to injure his collarbone, and possibly his pelvis. He was carted off on a quad, but was sitting up on the back, not on a backboard.
The big story of the week though was the flu and or a massive headcold. It looks like the annual World Cup plague is now upon us, with Jonnier, Hill, Bennett and about 2 dozen more suffering from it.