Team Squamish downhiller Miranda Miller fell slightly short of her podium goal at the World Mountain Bike Championships in Val di Sole, Italy, placing fourth behind a strong lineup of French Junior riders on Saturday (June 21).Heavy rains and mist made for an ever-changing steep course of mud and muck, which made it near impossible to keep a line during practice. "There was no section that was easy. Everything was really steep and rooty," said Miller, who acquired much-needed Kenda mud tires with the help of coach Dave Hord. "The first couple days of practices were really wet and then the last three were super dry, but you still had to run mud tires because it was deep and dusty."During the seeding run, the 18-year-old lost brake power so she had to use the trees to slow her down. The loss of brakes combined with a gnarly crash brought her late in the running, which meant she was the second rider out of the gate for the final.Miller said she wasn't unnerved by visions of last year's World Championships in Fort William, Scotland, where she crashed in her race run and suffered a broken collarbone. However, the experience might have affected how she approached the race. "I wasn't really nervous but I definitely had that in mind and kind of held back a bit in my race so that didn't happen again," she said.Miller finished the 2,250-metre course with a time of 4:56.38, less than 10 seconds behind third-place finisher Mélanie Pugin (4:46.46) of France. Meanwhile, French riders Anais Pajot and Myriam Nicole finished first and second with times of 4:17.71 and 4:23.44 respectively.Competing again on the international stage was a good experience for Miller, who has become close with the rest of the Canadian National Team. Besides going over the course with her teammates, Miller was also able to watch the lines of the best downhillers in the world like Britain's Gee Atherton, Steve Peat and Sam Hill who placed first, second and third in the Elite Men's category.The Canadian National Team is becoming a close group, she said. "This year was really good because everyone already knew each other. There were, I think, 16 of us who were already good friends. It is a really tight team."Team B.C. teammates like Simon Garstin of Courtenay and Alex Prochazka of Whistler completed solid runs finishing 16th and 19th respectively in the Junior Men category. Team B.C. Elite Women Micayla Gatto, Claire Buchar and Danice Uyesugi finished 12th, 14th and 15th. Miller is back in Squamish training with Mad March Racing in preparation for a number of races, including the Nationals in Mont-Sainte-Anne and Psychosis in Golden B.C.
