Junior Downhill Worlds highlights by Matt Rousu
From behind the lens of Matt Rousu for the Junior Downhill World Championships, plus a chat to Remy Meier-Smith.
Photos: Matt Rousu
The Junior women's and men's downhill World Championships finals kicked off on Saturday with Junior women and Junior Men. The gallery above was shot by Matt Rousu, catching the 9 Australian riders in the final. You can get the full report and gallery, with results, right here.
Matt caught up with Remy Meier-Smith at the finish, when he had finished in the Silver medal position!
'It was good. It was a lot more slippery than I thought it was going to be' admitted Meier-Smith after his run.
'It honestly wasn't much different from the last practice run. When I got into the woods I had to start taking it a bit steady. When I was getting to the bottom I just wanted to get to the finish – it was a good clean run. Maybe I could have pushed a bit harder but I don't think I would have had 5 seconds on Jordan.'
Jordan Williams from Great Britain won gold in the Junior men's event, and race favourite Jackson Goldstone crashed in his race run.
'Unfortunately Jackson crashed, so there was a bit of luck my way,' admitted Meier-Smith. But that's racing, and making it down in one piece put Meier-Smith into silver – a huge ride!
Remy Meier-Smith's Propain Rage CF
Remy and his brother Luke race the Propain Rage CF downhill bikes. With a whopping 215mm of travel these rigs swallow the bomb holes and soak up the big landings that are typical of World Cup Downhill.
The full carbon frame can be run as a 29er or as a 29" front, 27.5" rear mullet setup. There is also adjustable geometry via a flip chip.
Remy runs a SRAM 7-speed downhill group set, and what looks to be a massive 220mm rotor on the back and 200mm on the front to reign the rig in.
The SRAM Carbon cranks have grip tape for… grip and protection, to aid in feeling what the bike is doing and finding the pedal if things get wild.
There is also an OChain spider, it helps the suspension run more smoothly with less pedal kickback, as the chain ring can oscilate around the crank on impact, instead of pushing through the pedals.
Remy also has Schwalbe First Ride tyres on, marked as the Magic Mary model. The First Ride marking indicates they are prototypes, or at least for supported riders only. There could be a new compound or casing in the works – but it's hard to tell.
