Things looking up for downhill rider
Darlington teenager Jackson Davis is poised to become the next in a long line of West Australians taking on the world's best and winning.
Davis, 17, is the WA and Victoria State downhill mountain bike rider junior champion and will this week return to his home State for the first time in six months for the inaugural THULE Albany Urban Downhill in preparation for next month's world cup event in Canada.
Albany's innovative event on Sunday will attract some of the country's best mountain bike riders, take them off the hills and put them on the streets, with riders starting on the bush trails of Mt Clarence and ending with a jump off the pedestrian overpass on the Albany foreshore.
Davis, son of 1988 Olympic track cyclist Tony, moved to Victoria to further his riding and returns for the Albany event alongside fellow West Australian, five-time world champion Sam Hill.
"We've produced multiple world cup racers, with the likes of Sam Hill, Johnny Waddell, Mitch Delfs and a whole lot of others," Davis said. "That's pretty inspiring - you come from a State where there are no mountains and from a country where the mountains are nothing like Europe, but we can still produce world-challenging riders."
Albany will be a launching pad for Davis' third world cup appearance, in Quebec, before he follows the circuit to the US and then to Norway for the world championships in September.
