All hail the new champ!
Ric McLaughlin Monday, Sep 7, 2009 10.55am
Peaty is your new Wolrd Champion (Torsten Blackwood/AFP/Getty Images)
Whilst most of us were tucked up sleeping one off on Saturday night something very special was happening on the other side of the world.
In the dust and heat of Mount Stromlo just outside Canberra, Sheffield's Steve Peat finally won the DH World Championships.
To say that the Worlds has been unfinished business for Peaty is an understatement of monumental proportions.
Even when the Santa Cruz Syndicate rider was crowned the most successful World Cup rider earlier in the season the shadow of the World Champs hung heavily in everyone's mind. Sunday's victory at the biggest race on the calender came on Peat's 16th attempt. Second places have haunted him throughout his attempts to gain the covetted rainbow stripes as he took silver on no less than four occasions, the most recent of which being just last year.
It was Animal Commencal's Gee Atherton who had pipped Peaty at the post in Val Di Sole. It was also Atherton who rolled out of the start hut as the last man on the hill on Sunday too. Peat had already sneaked inside Aussie charger Mick Hannah's previous fastest time by just under seven tenths. Specialized Monster Energy's Sam Hill had also failed to dent his time.
Peat's team-mate South African Greg Minnaar came closest however just five hundreths outside the big Yorkshireman's time, all eyes were fixed on Atherton.
At the first split he was two seconds down, the noise level in the finish area increased ten-fold, this was looking like finally being Peaty's year. Atherton crossed the line nearly four seconds down and the crowd went berserk.
Steve had done it! The result that had been written off so many times as 'never going to happen' had happened; Steve Peat is the new World Champion.
Congratulations go to Steve, his family and everyone at Santa Cruz Syndicate from all of us here at MBUK. It was worth the wait guys!
More on Steve's remarkable win in an MBUK near you very soon. In the mean time though don't forget ti follow all the latest mountain biking news, reviews and gossip on our Twitter site.
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