B.C. junior wins gold for Canada
Lauren Rosser takes first downhill gold at Worlds in 20 years
Lauren Rosser already knows what she’ll be wearing on the first day of Grade 12 Tuesday at Howe Sound Secondary School in Squamish, B.C. The 16-year-old gave Canada its first medal of the 2010 UCI World Mountain Bike World Championships Sunday morning when she won the gold medal in junior women’s downhill. In doing so, Rosser became the first Canadian since 1990 to win gold in the discipline. Cindy Devine was the last Canadian to win a medal in a downhill World Championship race when she won back to back bronzes in 1991 and 1992. She won gold at the first-ever DH Worlds held in Durango in 1990, when Elladee Brown took Silver. No male rider has ever won a downhill medal at the World Championships.
Rosser’s time of 5:59:55 on the 2.9 km course beat French riders Fanny Lombard by 13:95 seconds and Julie Berteaux by 20.19 seconds. Remarkably, this was Rosser’s second event at the World Championships. She also qualified in the junior women’s cross country race and finished 11th.
SEE BELOW FOR THE PODIUM CELEBRATION VIDEO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTpkv5exx6c”At first I was focused on cross country because I knew that was the first event, but when that was done, I went into downhill mode,” she said. Because she was waiting for a headset, Rosser did all of her practise runs with a single-crown fork, but switched to a dual crown Fox fork on her Marin Quake bike for race day.
The young Canadian was understandably ecstatic after the downhill race. “I’ve never been to something this big. It feels awesome. It was a bit of a surprise to me because I didn’t know what to expect.”
SEE BELOW FOR ROSSER’S POST-RACE COMMENTS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldSQuLbkhP0
With her parents and grandmother watching, Rosser stood at the top of the podium as the national anthem played for the first time this week. “My head was just blank at that point. The adrenaline was rushing. I was just thinking ‘I’m the world champ. What a great feeling’,” she said.
Though the course was far different from the dry conditions the riders experienced in practise earlier this week, the slick rocks and dirt played to Rosser’s advantage. “I was looking forward to the rain. I was having so much fun on the corners and the rocks. I was pinning it.”
