Well what a race that was! The first World Cup of the season really was full of twists and turns, highs and lows! It all started with juniors and there is a fair chance you were huddled around a computer some where watching the live timing to get an idea of how everyone was going.
All in all if you’re reading this from Australia chances are the juniors would be the highlight of the day for you. Two Aussies claimed medals and overall we did quite well. Remy Morton has had a few gnarly crashes this weekend so to finish in one piece is a win enough we think! He came in 16th, next on the list was Max Warshawsky in 7th, a few places ahead of him at his first World Cup was Jackson Frew in 3rd! Taking the win on the day was a super stoked Andrew Crimmins, carrying good form into this season we knew it would only be a matter time before he was up there.
Moving onto the women’s race and after the junior racing everyone was excited to see who would claim the victory. In the end it would be Emmeline Ragot, the diminutive French girl who took the win in front of her home fans, Emmeline tends to do well on the technical tracks and today was no different. For our own Tracey Hannah she couldn’t match her first placed qualifier, unfortunately a crash near the bottom of the course saw her in 5th place, still a remarkable effort. A big mention to Tegan Molloy for grabbing 10th in her first World Cup in the big league.
Okay so the final race of the day, the mens’ and who would have thought it, the winner was the first rider down. If you don’t know by now Aaron Gwin won, after being disqualified in qualifying he was pushed to the bottom of the results and therefore off right at the start of the day. He put in a super human run to win by 4 seconds, visibly faster than any other rider, will he dominate the season like he did a few years ago? Or was it merely one race like last year where he won the opening round before the rest of the field caught up?
To write off the finals just like that though wouldn’t be justified! Loic Bruni claimed an excellent second at his home race, Mike Jones claimed his first podium in third (that off season training with Sam Hill obviously paying dividends), Danny Hart let everyone know he’s back with a fourth place on his new Mondraker and Sam Dale kept his good form from last year going to snare his first podium in 5th. Brendan Fairclough showed us he’s been training during the off season to finish 6th, Josh Bryceland is still recovering from his broken foot so claiming 7th was quite the accomplishment. Troy Brosnan in 8th was the highest Australian but we know he will be looking for more next race.
Dean Lucas finished 21st, he now sits within the top 20 overall giving him ‘protected’ status in Fort William. Mic Hannah was 35th and Gee Atherton rode with a broken wrist to come in 5oth. Tough luck for Cnnor Fearon after a blistering qualifier, a crash and ensuing bent pedal saw him out the back in 71st, racing is a tough mistress…
Now there’s a gap until race 2 in Scotland for Fort William, the World Cup rolls on….
Images: Phunkt.com
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