It's a wrap in Schladming!

...and a damn tasty one! Today was the big day for the men's downhill final, with the main focus on the challenge between Sam Hill (SRAM-RockShox-Avid-Truvativ) and Greg Minnaar (SRAM-RockShox-Avid-Truvativ) for the overall title. After friday's qualifications Hill led with some 60 or so points over Minnar, but today the South African rider set a scorchingly fast time early on and sat for a while in the hot seat. But Schladming is and always will be Sam Hill's track, and it was again this year when Sam, leaving the start hut as last racer on course, dropped into the finsh arena with a killer time, taking the race win and the overall World Cup title for 2009. Minnaar slotted in third position, while Sam teammate Brendan Fairclough got fifth. The overall podium looked pretty good in Red (SRAM red, that is...) with a 1-2-3-5: Hill first, Minnaar second, Steve Peat third (and World Champion!) and Mick Hannah fifth (all on SRAM-RockShox-Avid-Truvativ). Great season guys!

In case you're wondering what Sam's wearing, here's a detailed view on his choice of clothing for the overall podium: the gold plated jacket goes pretty well with the leader's jersey, but also on its own, right?

Best team of the season was once again the Santa Cruz Syndicate (with all riders on the complete SRAM - RockShox - Avid and Truvativ package), well done Steve, Greg and Josh, but most of all to team manager and mechanics, your hard work makes us proud!

Ok, enough with the podium shots, but not with the victories, as last night (saturday) we got to celebrate lovley Anneke Berteen's (SRAM-RockShox-Avid-Truvativ) victory in the race and also in the women's 4X World Cup overall. Here's Anneke in action: