June 10/00 10:26 am - French Win Close Junior Mens Downhill

Posted by Editor on 06/10/00
 

Mountain Bike World Championships - Juior Men

A spectacular finish to the Junior Mens downhill race just a few minutes ago, when the clear winner, Filip Polc of Slovakia crashed into the barricades at the last turn of his run. Julien Poomans of france was sitting in the Hot seat, but Polc came over the last jump and through the switchbacks, and into the last turn with only a 100 metres to go and at least 3 seconds to do it.
Poomans was already starting to vacate the leaders throne when the entire crowd let out a groan as Polc went flying off the course and into the bails. He quickly got back on his bike, and will still finish in the top 15, but the damage was done, and another French victory was chalked up in the downhill.
Besides polc accident, probably the most interesting story is from second place finisher Michael Hannah of Australia. At 5:30 this morning he was throwing up, a victim of a stomach bug he has had since Thursday. "I didnt pedal at all at the top, because I had to conserve the little energy I had.". Hannah was 10 seconds down on Poosman at the first time check, but blazed through the lower half of the course to take the silver. At the finish, his team manager was holding him up.
Canadian Jordie Lunn was also the victim of bad luck, breaking the little finger on his left hand yesterday in training. "I tried not to think about it, but I couldnt grip the bars properly, or use the brakes well." Lunn was on a good run, one of the fastest at the top, but had trouble in the corners lower down. Nevertheless, Lunn should make the top 15.
Unofficial Results
1. Julien Poomans FRA 4:08.19
2. Michael Hannah AUS 4:08.42
3. Jean-Paul Labossiere FRA 4:10.65
4. Julian Camellini FRA 4:11.30
5. Christopher Hatton FRA 4:12.64