World championships are on in Andorra this week and, for the gravity racers, the junior’s were first on the clock on the fast, loose Pal Arinsal downhill track. Most Canadian riders made it through to Thursday’s finals safely. For Ryan Griffith, one of the top Canadian riders going into this week, worlds came to an abrupt end during qualifying.
The Pivot Factory Racing junior from Squamish, B.C. crashed in a wood-to-dirt road gap during his qualifying run. Griffith updated to say that he broke his collarbone in the crash.
The U.S.A.’s Asa Vermette qualified fastest in the junior men’s race, just ahead of season rival Max Alran of France. Jon Mozell led the Canadians in 10th. Michael DeleSalle, Griffin Tulk, Jack Macleod, Dylan Marino and, in 46th, Dane Jewett all make it through to finals on Thursday. Jewett crashed hard in practice, but still managed to make it through qualifying.
In the women’s race, Erice van Leuven set the fastest qualifying time. New national champion Geza Rodgers led the Canadians, qualifying 13th. Rebecca Beaton just squeezes inside the 20-rider cut-off for junior women’s finals, in 20th. Megan Bedard ended up on the other side of that line, missing finals by less than a second.
It’s a tough way to exit worlds for Griffith, whose been super close to a World Cup win several times already just this season alone. Here’s the prototype Pivot that Griffith would have raced in finals, if not for his crash:
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