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Course record falls at the Nordkette Downhill

Sebastian Brust

 · 11.09.2012

Course record falls at the Nordkette DownhillPhoto: Veranstalter
Course record falls at the Nordkette Downhill
The World Championships in Leogang were less than a week old when the downhill elite met up on the Nordkette Trail in Innsbruck. One of them had come to break Brook MacDonald's course record: Sam Hill. And Greg Minaar, the newly crowned world champion from Leogang, was also there.

4.2 kilometres in length, 1030 metres in altitude downhill, a gradient of up to 36 degrees - perhaps the most difficult downhill course of all once again challenged the international downhill elite at the unique Nordkette Downhill.Pro team competition at the weekend. The particular difficulty is traditionally due to the long riding time compared to other Donhill races: the almost 10-minute approach takes its toll and does not forgive any mistakes.

MS Mondraker, which had won the World Championships last year, provided the runner-up in Emmeline Ragot and the best-placed Austrian in Markus Pekoll (9th place). Team-mate Brook MacDonald from New Zealand (8th place at the World Championships) finished one place higher. Last year, he set the undisputed fastest time of 9:26 minutes.

The competition was fierce: with Steve Smith (CAN, 3rd place in the World Championships), Michael Hannah (AUS, 4th place in the World Championships), Sam Hill (AUS, 5th place in the World Championships) and Marcello Gutierrez Villegas (COL, 10th place in the World Championships), almost the entire top 10 in the World Championships had travelled to attack this best time. The teams were supported by licenced young riders from Austria, who had previously qualified for the race as part of a youth downhill camp at Bikepark Tirol.

Sam Hill was in top form this year: very smooth, always controlled and very fast, he wound his way down the selective course without making a single mistake - resulting in an absolute best time. With a time of 9.21.83 minutes, he beat Brook MacDonald's record from last year by almost five seconds. Despite Hill's record time, however, the MS Mondraker team was ultimately able to beat last year's victory.

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He came, saw and won: Sam Hill from Australia beat the course record for the Nordkette Downhill set by Brook MacDonald (NZL) in 2011 by almost five seconds.Photo: Veranstalter He came, saw and won: Sam Hill from Australia beat the course record for the Nordkette Downhill set by Brook MacDonald (NZL) in 2011 by almost five seconds.

Here are the top 3 teams:

  1. MS MONDRAKER TEAM (AUT) ULMSCHNEIDER, Till (GER) RAGOT, Emmeline (FRA) FALKNER, Martin (AUT) MACDONALD, Brook (NZL) PEKOLL, Markus (AUT)
  2. MONSTER ENERGY SPECIALISED (USA) VÖGELE, Andre (AUT) MOSER, Hanna (AUT) KLOTZ, Matthias (AUT) SCHMIDT, Thomas (GER) HILL, Samuel (AUS)
  3. DIRT NORCO RACE TEAM (IRL) LANTSCHER, Samuel (ITA) GATTO, Micayla (CAN) SCHUHMANN, Max (GER) CISSE, Domink (AUT) REID, Ben (IRL)
On the right, the third-placed riders from the Dirt Norco Race Team (IRL). In the foreground, the MS Mondraker Team (AUT), who defended their title as the fastest Donwhill team on the Nordkette.Photo: Veranstalter On the right, the third-placed riders from the Dirt Norco Race Team (IRL). In the foreground, the MS Mondraker Team (AUT), who defended their title as the fastest Donwhill team on the Nordkette.

Greg Minaar, the newly crowned downhill world champion from Leogang, was also there, making him the seventh top 10 rider in the World Championships. However, the Australian did not start as he did not have a suitable bike with him. Santa Cruz had shipped it to the USA directly after the World Championship race with the original World Champion dirt. Minaar allegedly did not have a spare bike.

In second place: Team Monster Energy Specialized with Sam Hill (2nd from left).Photo: Veranstalter In second place: Team Monster Energy Specialized with Sam Hill (2nd from left).

At this point, we would like to mention two TV reports that were produced on the occasion of the Nordkette Downhill. Both ZDF and ORF reported on the event. The almost 6-minute ZDF sports report is particularly worthy of praise, as it uses the example of Sam Hill to objectively portray downhill sport as a high-performance sport and not as a breakneck time trial by death-seeking maniacs.

The contributions are currently still online:


ZDF SPORTreportage from 9.9.2012: Sam Hill, the new Nordkette king


ORF "Sport am Samstag"; 8.9.2012: Spectacle and record high above Innsbruck

Further information and the results lists can be found on the official event page: http://nordkette-downhill.at

MS Mondraker - the winning team again in large.Photo: Veranstalter MS Mondraker - the winning team again in large.

Sebastian Brust was born in 1979 and was originally socialised on his grandmother's folding bike, but has mainly been riding studded tyres since his fifth birthday. Loves all kinds of bikes - and merging with nature. Believes that disc brakes are much safer today than they were 15 years ago and thinks he has helped with his brake and pad tests. However, the trained vehicle technology engineer very much regrets that the bicycle industry is orientating itself on what he considers to be the wrong ideals of the car industry. At BIKE, he corrects, produces and organises digital content on the website.

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