Britain's Gee Atherton took over from Greg Minnaar at the top of the UCI World Cup mountain bike downhill standings with a third-placed finish at Val di Sole, Italy at the weekend.
Returning to the venue of his 2008 world championship win, Gee was looking to continue his solid form at the Italian stop of the World Cup Series.
The weekend on the Val di Sole course started well with Gee winning qualifying on Friday, and the gap to second was a slim 0.81 seconds ahead of Kiwi rider Sam Blenkinsop, while series leader Minnaar crashed out in 15th spot.
The earlier rain that had caused havoc in Thursday's practice session was long gone come Sunday's finals, with blistering sunshine and deep dust covering the track. The course was getting rougher and rougher as the race runs of the final 15 riders approached.
Minnaar, the 15th seed after his crash in qualifying, put in a super fast run, two seconds quicker than Gee's qualifying from Friday. His run was looking good as rider after rider went by without getting close.
It was Marc Beaumont who finally eclipsed Minnaar's time with a strong run, to push the South African off top spot. Marc's time of 3m 17.85s was a clear 1.4 seconds ahead of Minnaar with eight riders still to go.
Seven riders failed to top the Brit, which left only Gee on the hill, but the victory wasn't to be for Atherton as he struggled to get into his run, chasing the seconds all the way down the track.
Crossing the line with a 3m 20.51s slotted him into third place on the day, giving him enough points to overtake Minnaar in the overall series.
Gee now carries the leader's jersey to Windham, New York on August 28-29, where the series will be battled out at the last World Cup of the year, and the first to hit US soil in five years.
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