6/9 September 2012 – The 2012 World Championships took place in Austria, precisely in the Leogang Bike Park. They were the winners Greg Minnaar e Morgan Charre. Minnaar returned to win a world title after Lugano 2003, 9 years later. In Lugano it seemed that he was the first of many but for one reason or another the South African was never able to repeat.
The weather didn't seem to be the best with rain and mud during qualifying but on the day of the finals the skies opened allowing the track to dry. After days of rain and a gloomy early morning, the sky opened wide for the downhill races.
The most awaited man is Aaron Gwin, dominator in the World Cup for two seasons, but never winner of a world championship race. In the first part of the race, Sam Dale remains firmly in the lead waiting for the big names. Steve Peat he is the first to take the lead in the first 2 half-times but a mistake puts him far behind. For Peat it is his 20th consecutive world championship and the UCI presents him as a prize with a rainbow jersey (won in Canberra in 2009) with the writing 20: "Twenty years old, but that's exactly how old I feel inside" is his comment.
The Frenchman crosses the finish line in the lead Florent Payet, but then it is Michael Hannah (best time in qualifying), to set the best time. Important time but the Canadian Steve Smith lower further. It's the turn of Sam hill, multi-world champion, e Brook MacDonald, winner of the World Cup stage in Val d'Isere, but they fail to do well.
It's the Brit's turn Gee Atherton and by a whisker he is ahead of Steve Smith. Goes down Greg Minnaar, a great interpreter of the last ten years of Downhill with "only" one world championship under his belt, won on Monte Tamaro back in 2003 (Lugano). He sets the best time after a perfect run! Now it's time to Aaron Gwin but mechanical problems with the bike made him slow down immediately: "I can't understand what happened", says Gwin at the end of the race, "...I warmed up the brakes as usual and they seemed to work perfectly and instead they abandoned me after a few race meters. I fell as soon as I felt that the levers touched the handlebars, I immediately got up and tried to pump for a while, but to no avail." Among the Italians the best was Lorenzo Suding, ranked in 25th position.
Among the women, a surprise victory with the Frenchwoman Morgan Charre who won his first victory that counts at the World Championship. The British Manon Carpenter, Junior last year, she has the best time in the upper part but fails to get ahead of the Frenchwoman, and is second. It then goes down Emmeline Ragot, outgoing world champion, and she also does not pass the cart, more and more incredulous. But it's missing Rachel Atherton, World Cup winner. Her time is not good, she is behind and at the finish line she takes a bitter 5th time. The 2012 world champion is therefore Morgane Charre, ahead of her compatriot Emmeline Ragot and the British Manon Carpenter. This year Morgane Charre had fifth place in the World Cup in Val di Sole as her best international result. The Italian champion Elisa Canepa closes in 31st position.
Among the juniors, the Frenchman wins Loic Bruni, an athlete with great potential who dominated the World Cup this year with times close to the Elite. Silver medal for the American Richard Rude while the bronze medal goes to the Australian Connor Fearon. Something to complain about for Richard Rude who caused the rider in front of him to fall and had to repeat his run thus losing concentration. Italians growing with the good performance of Francesco Colombo who finishes the race in 14th position.
Among the women, victory for the strong Canadian Holly Feniak, ahead of Britain's Tahnee Seagrave and Australia's Danielle Becroft. The times of the 2 Junior winners are incredible, in fact Holly Feniak and Loic Bruni would have finished 8th and 17th respectively if they had raced in the Elite race.
| EL-M | ||
 |  Greg MINNAAR | 3:21.790 |
| 2 |  Gee ATHERTON | 0.581s |
| 3 |  Steve SMITH | 1.214s |
| 4 |  Michael HANNAH | 2.140s |
| 5 | Sam HILL | 3.406s |
| 6 |  Damien SPANISH | 3.859s |
| 7 | Florent PAYET | 4.227s |
| 8 |  Brook MACDONALD | 4.861s |
| 9 |  Markus PEKOLL | 5.774s |
| 10 |  Marcelo GUTIERREZ VILLEGAS | 6.064s |
| 11 | Sam BLENKINSOP | 6.375s |
| 12 | Sam DALE | 6.504s |
| 13 | Bryn ATKINSON | 6.794s |
| 14 | Marc BEAUMONT | 7.101s |
| 15 | Rémi THIRION | 7.167s |
| 16 | Cam COLE | 7.283s |
| 17 |  Johannes FISCHBACH | 7.430s |
| 18 | Andrew NEETHLING | 7.980s |
| 18 | Mitchell DELFS | 7.980s |
| 20 | Joshua BUTTON | 8.198s |
| 21 | Justin LEOV | 8.534s |
| 22 |  Luke STROBEL | 8.582s |
| 23 | Boris TETZLAFF | 8.886s |
| 24 | Matt SIMMONDS | 8.904s |
| 25 |  Lorenzo SUDING | 8.915s |
| 26 | George BRANNIGAN | 9.065s |
| 27 | Neko MULALLY | 9.713s |
| 28 |  Lutz WEBER | 9.850s |
| 29 | Aurélien GIORDANENGO | 10.062s |
| 30 |  Robin WALLNER | 10.240s |
| EL W | ||
| CHARRE Morgane | 3:50.654 |
| 2 | RAGOT Emmeline | +01.199 |
| 3 | CARPENTERManon | +01.490 |
| 4 | PUGIN Floriane | +01.617 |
| 5 | Rachel ATHERTON | +05.894 |
| 6 | CAT Micayla | +09.537 |
| 7 | BROWN Casey | +09.611 |
| 8 | RUCHTI Miriam | +12.558 |
| 9 | BUCHAR Claire | +13.920 |
| 10 | MOSELEY Tracy | +14.145 |
| 11 | ROSSER Lauren | +14.750 |
| 12 | BERNHARD Petra | +16.867 |
| 13 | JONNIER Sabrina | +17.226 |
| 14 |  CERNILOGAR Zarya | +17.440 |
| 15 | HARMONY Jacqueline | +18.377 |
| 16 | MOLCIK Anita | +18.405 |
| 17 | MILLER Miranda | +19.818 |
| 18 | PUGIN Melanie | +21.527 |
| 19 |  DE SOUZA OLIVEIRA Luana Maria | +25.738 |
| 20 |  SUEMASA My | +26.077 |
| JUN M | ||
| BRUNI Loic | 3:29.139 |
| 2 | RUDE Richie | +03.121 |
| 3 | FEARON Connor | +04.944 |
| 4 | NIEDERBERGER Noel | +06.029 |
| 5 | MOIR Jack | +07.836 |
| 6 | MCGLONE Fraser | +07.856 |
| 7 | CAUVIN Guillaume | +08.051 |
| 8 | ATWILL Phil | +09.455 |
| 9 | KLEE Felix | +10.134 |
| 10 | WARREN Austin | +10.826 |
| 11 | LANNES Pierrick | +11.294 |
| 12 | LUCAS Dean | +11.579 |
| 13 | JONESMichael | +11.675 |
| 14 | COLOMBO Francis | +11.688 |
| 15 | BOUVET Jacques | +12.428 |
| 16 | CABIROU Rudy | +12.436 |
| 17 | CHAPUIS Maxime | +12.653 |
| 18 | POTTER Reece | +13.310 |
| 19 | LITTLEFIELD Kevin | +13.365 |
| 20 | TRUMMER David | +13.451 |
| 21 | VEJVODA Joe | +13.987 |
| 22 | CONNELL Joe | +14.809 |
| 23 | SAHLEN Anders | +15.071 |
| 24 | THUNELL Jakob | +15.942 |
| 25 | I CAN Forrest | +15.991 |
| 26 | ODENDAAL Tiaan | +16.081 |
| 27 |  URUBA Jan | +16.582 |
| 28 | VAN DER MERWE Adi | +17.252 |
| 29 | CAIRE Charles | +17.465 |
| 30 | LANGEVIN Hugo | +17.633 |
| JUN W | ||
| FENIAK Holly | 4:01.622 |
| 2 | SEAGRAVE Tahnee | +08.095 |
| 3 | BEECROFT Danielle | +17.945 |
| 4 | FINK Geraldine | +21.011 |
| 5 | GALLEAN Chloe | +21.240 |
| 6 | OURDOUILLIE Fiona | +23.214 |
| 7 |  RUUD Marianne | +28.715 |
| 8 | TYAS Sophie | +30.919 |
| 9 | KREUZER Lisa | +51.309 |
PICTURES
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