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Worlds Champs DH - Les Gets

Fabien Barel pinned it into first place to take the World Championship title last weekend, just in front of Greg Minnaar and Sam Hill. Vanessa Quin, riding for DIRT, took the title over the womwn. Barel had an anxious wait in the finish, made more nervous as Steve was over 1 second up at the spilt. However, a huge crash saw Steve wash out on a loose left hander. Driving the front hard, a huge rear wheel slide put Peaty over the bars and into 11th place. Check the the forum to read Col's updates from the event. Both Fabien and Steve's runs can be seen online from freecaster.com.

by zoom.at on 12th September 2004.

Fabien Barel today became the Men's Downhill World Champion with a time of 2:40.78. Despite a modest qualifying time the frenchman stormed down the 2100m (1.3 Mile) course on race day to take the hot-seat from last year's World Champion Greg Minnaar. Averaging 47.02 Kmh (29.22 Mph) down the course, Barel was determined to improve upon the 3rd place he got at last year's World Championships in Lugano, where he was still recovering from injury.

The 2003 World Champion, Greg Minnaar (RSA), missed out on the top-spot by only 0.58 of a second (2:41.36) with last year's junior Mens World Champion, Sam Hill (AUS), taking third (2:42.20).

The most exciting run of the day went to Steve Peat (GBR). The 2004 European and World Cup Champion missed out on adding the World Championship to his list of titles this year. Fastest in qualifying meant Steve was last man down the mountain. The Orange bikes rider put in a blistering run and was looking unstoppable until a spin-out on the penultimate corner dashed his hopes of the title once again.
Despite the crash, he still managed to finish only 4.69 seconds behind the winner.

Watch the MTB downhill clips on freecaster.com Check out the winning runs and Steve Peats unfortunate fall on the webs premier free freesport movie platform.

For general info and results of this years MTB worlds go to www.LegGets2004.com.

Side event: Braun Open Air Movie Nights The brandnew MTB movie "The Collective" could be seen every night between 8 and 9pm on the Braun Giant Screen staged in the center of the village. Literally hundreds of people sat in the street and watched the stylish performance freeride athletes showed in the best locations around the world. Though not only the action was mind blowing, but also the film direction, the soundtrack and especially the tricky camerawork blew peoples mind. The trailer for this movie can also be watched for free on freecaster.com.

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