Troy Brosnan made up for last years result here where he failed to qualify by qualifying 4th, 3.9 seconds behind Aaron Gwin.
Qualifying for Val Di Sole was always going to be tight, with over 210 riders for the downhill alone. Overall it was a reasonably good day for the Aussies though:
1. Aaron Gwin (USA) 3.13.23
2. Steve Smith (CAN) 3.14.43 + 1.21
3. Danny Hart (GBR) 3.15.23 + 2.01
4. Troy Brosnan (AUS) 3.17.13 + 3.90
5. Gee Atherton (GBR) 3.19.46 + 6.72
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“I want to win one of these things…” Troy Brosnan
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The rest of the Australian placed as follows:
14. Josh Button (AUS) 3.25.52 + 12.30
21. Shaun O’Connor (AUS) 3.27.03 + 13.80
30. Will Rischbieth (AUS) 3.28.91 + 15.69
35. Rhys Willemse (AUS) 3.30.06 + 16.83
49. Connor Fearon (AUS) 3.32.22 + 18.99
68. Mic Hannah (AUS) 3.35.30 + 22.012
73. Mitch Delfs (AUS) 3.35.79 + 22.56
Overall 8 Aussies qualified, for most of the juniors it was a good taste of how tough World Cup racing is.
108. Joe Vejvoda (AUS) 3.40.01 + 26.79
114. Phil Piazza (AUS) 3.40.63 + 27.41
128. Stuart MacDonald (AUS) 3.43.07 + 29.84
144. Brandon Yrttiaho (AUS) 3.46.23 + 33.00
152. Ben Power (AUS) 3.48.44 + 35.21
Dave McMillan (AUS) DNS
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Other noticeable results were; Loic Bruni, the junior rider from France, in his first year racing qualifying 7th 8.10 seconds behind Aaron Gwin. Greg Minnaar crashed in the first rock garden and qualified in 34th. Other riders to crash in this rock garden included Damien Spagnolo, Ben Reid and Duncan Riffle. Dave McMillan crashed in practice yesterday hurting his wrist, an X-ray this morning didn’t show any breaks but he will be resting up for World Championships.A�Have a look at the photos and see what some of the riders had to say:
Troy is happy with his line choice, a few runs each day before finals is all he has planned."Today I put together a pretty good run, I was ragged everywhere and during my qualifying I blew my feet 3 times but I got 14th which is my best qualifier this year and I am pretty happy with that plus I have some time to take off on Sunday" Josh Button."Yesterday I took things pretty slow, didn't rush things getting up to speed at all...in my qualifying I smashed a few rocks with my bottom bracket" Sean O'Connor.Check out the compression as Will works the bike through the roots and rocks! Wills plans for tomorrow? "Have fun and slide around in the mud" Will was refering to the black clouds that moved in after qualifying had finished. "I had a few diggers in practice but I picked myself up and put a good run together for qualifying, the track is just so hard, it has to be the hardest track I have ever ridden" Rhys Willemse."My run was pretty wild, just like all my other qualifying runs, I came down mid pack but I know I can do better on Sunday" Connor Fearon.Mic Hannah was doing runs with Aaron Gwin today, they would reguarly stop and discuss lines.Joe Vejoda in compression mode, according to Joe he didn't have the best of runs today.Phil Piazza aboard his new beast finished in 114th.People have been taking notice of Brandon Yrttiaho on the hill and in the pits, a lot still struggled with his surname! Brendan snuck into the points with a 20th place in qualifying.A crash for Greg in the first section of the track pushed him down into 34th.5th for Gee who picked up some points over Greg in the overall race.After looking good yesterday Danny confirmed this qualifying 3rd.After no crashes yesterday it only took 5 minutes to witness one this morning.Phil Piazza (with team issue haircut) looks on as Ben Power does his warm up under the watchful eye of the Australian cycling team manager.
3 thoughts on “Val Di Sole 19th August – Qualifying”
Thanks for the pics and write up. Good to see someone about the aussie boys.
Wish I knew that this site existed before – now at least I can follow what is happening with the aussie guys and in particular my son. This certainly gives me a lot more detail than his blog page or FB comments.
It certainly feels as though you are there – well almost!!!
Thanks for the pics and write up. Good to see someone about the aussie boys.
Wish I knew that this site existed before – now at least I can follow what is happening with the aussie guys and in particular my son. This certainly gives me a lot more detail than his blog page or FB comments.
It certainly feels as though you are there – well almost!!!