The weather for the final World Cup round is excellent, lets hope it stays that way!
Downhill247.com has hit the ground here in Val Di Sole and after spending 4 hours walking down the track, we can confirm it is a proper downhilll track! No photos or videos can do the track justice, it’s steep rocky and fast. The downhill is 2.2km long andA�has a vertical elevation change of 560m (thats an averageA�gradient of ~ 30%!).
The Aussie junior team is here in force looking to get some practice in before the World Champs in a few weeks.
Joe Vejvoda aboard his custom painted Transition.Connor Fearon does better on the technical tracks, Val Di Sole is as technical as they come!
The difference between the top 20 or so riders and everybody else was extremelyA�noticeable. In many cases it didn’t even look like riders were enjoying it, rather, just trying to make it down in one piece. Saying that, I didn’t see one crash the whole day.
One rider looking fast was Troy Brosnan, after crashing here last year Troy will be making sure that doesn't happen again.
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The track is technical the whole way down, it doesn’t let riders have a break so as many riders were finding out, doing a full run was an entirely different proposition compared toA�doing sessions, as a lot were doing today.
Brook MacDonald was on track doing a lot of runs today, he will no doubt be looking for a big result on Sunday to lift him into the top 5 overall.
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Matti Lehikoinen has not had the best season by his standards, a good result could see him break into the top 20 overall, meaning he will become a protected rider.The track is rough and will take its toll on bikes as well as riders by Sunday.
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Danny Hart came flying past in the forest boosting a whole set of stutters, no other rider I sawA�did, Danny is one of those riders that looks fast from day 1. Unfortunately the next time I saw him heA�had a flat front tyre, a few riders had flats but not as many as you would expect on this track considering the rocks.
Ever wondered how they do the speed trap at a World Cup? No it's not a local policeman with a radar gun! From what we could see two sensors are laid under the track, a man with headphones gives the number of the rider that has gone past and presses a button in his hand simultaneously, that's as much as we could figure!
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Gee won the World Championships' on this track so will be his usual confident self.Julien Camellini was busy doing runs all day, with qualifying on Friday it leaves less time for riders to get use to the track.This might freak you out if you rode past it quickly as it looks real, rather it was someone having some fun with the spray paint.Aaron Gwin on 'that corner' yes the one Hill crashed on in the 2008 World Championships so close to the finish and up on time. Interesting to note, apart from Gwin, most riders used the berm.
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Check back after qualifying tomorrow as we chat to the riders and get their insights.
2 thoughts on “Val Di Sole 18th August – Practice”
Sick photos, Go BrosMAN!
downhill247.com nice work !