The annual Wheels of Speed festival is now in its 11th year and the event, which takes place at Willingen, Germany on 12-14 June, was this year won by Gee Atherton.
The event is held on the same track used for the World Cup a couple of years back, but is a little different with a demanding pedally top section, huge jumps and drops and a fast final section, with speeds regularly up to 40mph.
Gee Atherton took the win over Mick Hannah by 100th second and Chris Kovarik finished third. Gee headed home €6000 the richer. In the women's race Louisa Steen was the highest placed Brit in third place.
Other Brits had varied success in the men's race, with Chain Reaction Cycles tema manager Nigel Page adding: “Matt Simmonds had a good ride to place 13th but unfortunately Ruaridh's [Cunningham] run of bad luck continued as he came into the final field on a great run, he threw his bike into a rut in a corner only to find that the rut had completely gone and he had a big spectacular crash. Ruaridh was fine though apart from a few more grazes and he delighted the crowd with a huge whip over the massive table top.”
Results
Men
- 1. Gee Atherton (Gbr) Animalcommencal.Com 1:51.2
- 2. Mick Hannah (Aus) GT Bicycles 00.01
- 3. Chris Kovarik (Aus) Chain Reaction Cycles 01.15
- 4. Filip Polc (Slo) Kenda Tomac 01.33
- 5. Matti Lehikoinen (Fin) MS Evil Racing 01.60
- 6. Andrew Neethling (RSA) Trek World Racing 01.97
- 7. Steve Smith (Can) MS Evil Racing 02.00
- 8. Kyle Strait (USA) Specialized Team America 02.02
- 9. Johannes Fischbach (Ger) Team Ghost International 02.60
- 10. Bryn Atkinson (Aus) GT Bicycles 02.83
Women
- 1. Claire Buchar (Can) Chain Reaction Cycles 2:09.1
- 2. Antje Kramer (Ger) 06.68
- 3. Louisa Steen (Gbr) 34.21
- 4. Ana Raecke (Ger) 48.86
- 5. Krisztina Szabo (Ger) 50.66
www.wheelsofspeed.de
