Christchurch Rider Performs In Racing

Strong rides from Yeti NZ mountain bike racer Daniel Franks in elite 4X and Downhill at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships held in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec, Canada over the past week.

After seeding 11th in the 4X last Thursday, 16-year-old Franks, of Christchurch, New Zealand, raced to 17th among the best 4X racers in the world on Friday evening at the 2010 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships. On Sunday, Franks backed that up with a 14th in the Junior Men's downhill.

Franks' campaign started on Friday night local time with the men's elite 4X race.

"The race was a really difficult one," Franks offers.

"I didn't have the best start and I was looking for the pass, but it was a very dark track and as soon as I got out of the gate there were so many photographers with flashes going off everywhere and I could hardly see where I was going. I wasn't prepared for that."

"My goal was to progress through to the next round in the 4X, but I had a tough gate draw and finished third, so I didn't make it through, but I am really happy to take 17th in 4X at my first Worlds," he explains.

Racing 4X at Mont-Sainte-Anne was a dream come true for Franks as he got to bang bars with many of his role models – the best in the world.

"It really was great to get to race with that level of rider. Being the youngest rider there and with it being my first time racing 4X there, I felt very alone. I was ecstatic to be in an environment with riders like Jared Graves [Australia] and all the top riders. It was a very cool feeling," he shares.

Although his native New Zealand only has one 4X track – in the city of Dunedin – Franks is eager to further himself in the discipline.

"I would love to do some more 4X racing, that's for sure," he adds.

Early on Saturday morning NZ time Franks' home city of Christchurch was rocked by a 7.1 magnitude earthquake, with authorities declaring a civil defense state of emergency.

"That was a shock. We were sitting there and one of the other juniors was on the internet and said, 'there's been an earthquake in Christchurch!'. We were bewlidered – we didn't know what was going on," he recalls.

"Slowly we got more news on the internet and we were looking at houses with no walls and bricks all over the roads and cracks opening up in the ground. We started to get very worried about friends and family back home."

The Franks' family home sustained damage with "windows breaking and the chimney falling off", he said.

Once Franks had confirmed that his family was safe he set about his next task: racing the Junior Men's Downhill World Championship.

Very few riders race both disciplines, but Franks laughed off the extra workload "it was good to be kept on my toes", he joked.

"My downhill could have gone a bit smoother – I had a few sections where I mucked up my line and blew my feet off or got into all sorts of crazy positions, but it was good – I got from the top to the bottom in one piece," he explains.

Daniel got down to the bottom of the course with the fastest time of the day at that point and was ushered into the hot seat to watch the rest of the field try to beat his time.

"I was sitting in first for awhile until, Neko [Mulally] came down and then he took over the hot seat from me. Then Rupert Chapman came down and knocked me back to third. It was very cool to sit there with Neko and Rupert and to get to watch the racing from a different point of view."

But the hot seat also comes with a downside.

"It's heart-wrenching when someone comes down and they are 0.05 seconds in front of you," he smiles.

Australian rider Troy Brosnan won the Junior Men's title – 22 seconds ahead of Franks in 14th.

"That's a huge amount," Franks concedes. "The top few guys; Troy, Neko, Lewis [Buchanan] and the New Zealander George [Brannigan] are just head and shoulders above the rest of us. They are incredible riders."

"They are all on World Cup teams and ride every weekend with the best riders in the world and they have awesome riders as teammates. It does advantage them, but still, 22 seconds is a hell of a lot," he admits.

Franks said the World Championship downhill course was the roughest he had ever raced on.

"In practice you couldn't get down from top to bottom without stopping because your arms would just get so sore. Going through the rocks and the rough you just couldn't hold on. In my final run I felt I held my speed at the bottom, so my fitness did play a role in the end," he said.

When aksed what he learnt from his first UCI Mountain Bike World Championship event, Franks laughs, "I have learnt that I need to be 22 seconds faster! No, I have learnt that I can mix it in there in both the 4X and downhill. The whole event was an experience and will help prepare me for next year in Champéry, Switzerland [location for 2011 UCI Moutain Bike World Championship]."

Between now and the 2011 World Championship, Franks will have very few options to race against the world's best, other than the UCI World Cup rounds that precede the world championships.

"It would be a dream come true for me if I could get to do one or two World Cups next year. This trip has really got me excited about the whole downhill and 4X scene and it has really motivated me to do some more riding," he explains.

Franks said the Kiwi Juniors got along very well during the event.

"All the Kiwi Juniors were staying together. It was the perfect team environment – it couldn't have been better.

The NZ Junior Men's downhill team finished top of the nations, the New Zealand Elite Men finished second of all the nations and the New Zealand Junior Women's team finished third.

"New Zealand is very strong in downhill right now," Franks offers.

Franks will return to Christchurch this week.

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