World Championships 2006 - Rotorua, NZ day 2

ROTORUA, New Zealand (transcendmagazine.com) -- Bluebird skies and cool temperatures (frost on palm trees is weird) greeted riders today as the first of the ladies took to the hill at 9am this morning. The downhill course seems to have tacked up overnight, and is no longer as slimey as it was yesterday. The pond jump is a deathtrap however, as 6 ft in front of the lip is a giant mud bog.

Greg Minnaar cased his gear box on the landing today...he didn't even come close to clearing it. Steve Peat almost fell in while trying to avoid it after getting hung up in the mud. It should be interesting during seeding runs tomorrow. Tactics may come into play as there is rain predicted on Saturday, and there is no qualifying points as there is during a world cup.

There was terrible news out of the 4x course yesterday. An Aussie rider had a huge wreck that sent her to hospital. Sadly, she broke her back and is now a permanent parapalegic according to doctors.

Photos now up in the gallery.