After a crash in qualifying yesterday Damian Spagnolo was busy doing runs all morning onboard his bright green Mondraker.
With a day between qualifying and racing a short practice session was held this morning for the top 80 riders. No major news to report at this stage, riders were looking at their lines as they came down the hill, especially at the notorious rock garden near the top. However, the general concensus was that all the lines are getting just as blown out as each other. A look around the pits revealed a few bike customisations such as larger disc brake rotors and a few other tweaks.
The banging of pedals, bottom brackets, derailleurs and disc rotors is constant in the rock gardens. Today Ruaridh Cunnigham totalled 2 rear rotors in 2 consecutive runs during practice. Look at how many bashguards Josh Bryceland is rolling with!They have used a lot of red netting to catch riders (and spectators!) on the side of the track. Sean O'Connor didn't need to use it.Ben Reid wiped out a whole lot of camera flashes in qualifying when he crashed off the course, today no such problems.Floriane Pugin was the fastest woman in qualifying, followed by; Myriam Nicole, Rachel Atherton, Tracey Moseley and Emmeline Ragot.Markus Pekoll was the highest placed qualifying MS Evil Racing rider in an impressive 6th place.Apart from the rocks, roots and gradient one of the most challenging aspects of the track is this, dark shadows punctured by extremely bright areas of sun. As Josh Button said 'it makes it so much harder to ride fast!'. Here number 13 Sam Blenkinsop does his best to negotiate the track.
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Marc Beaumont has won on this track previously, he crashed in practice damaging his bars, Marc appears to be okay, look out for him tomorrow as he looks to improve upon his 24th postion in qualifying.
The rain clouds from qualifying have dissapeared and the conditions are bright and sunny. The track is dry and dusty, tomorrow’s final is going to be interesting.
One thought on “Val Di Sole 20th August – Practice”
Right on!