Val Di Sole translates to Valley of the Sun and today the sun was out and shining! An amazing day of racing was had at the final World Cup of the season.
Adam Brayton from Great Britain grabbed the hot seat early and held it for a long time. Mitch Delfs came down but crashed hard twice, the second crash, in the final steep left hander, was a direct result of the first crash. “I came into the corner with no front brake and I started drifting and I knew I couldn’t hold it”.
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Mic Hannah was the next Aussie on course and didn’t have the best run finishing in 48th.A�ConnorA�Fearon came through and put down a time that hadA�himA�move into second place. A good result for Connor who has lots of potential, especially on technical tracks, watch out for him in Champery.
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After Connor it as Rhys Willemse, he said the same as Connor, his run was good but it was just a challenge to hold on and stay upright. Even so, 23rd place is impressive.
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Shortly after Rhys Will ‘the razor blade’ Rischbieth was on course, Will has struggled all year with a back injury and had to keep reminding himself not to tense up so much when he was riding. All in all, a 31st position is still highly respectable and shows Will has the skills. As Will said “all things considered I am happy with my result”.
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After a drivetrain issue in his qualifying run, Sean O’Connor was confident he had some time in him for todays run, 40th position was not quite the result he was hoping for but he still finished 39th in the overall. After his best qualifying result of the season Josh Button was on the hunt for a big result, his splits were good, 28th and 21st but a puncture in the final section of the track pushed him down into 33rd. Was that a top 20 chance gone missing? The look in Josh’s eyes said it all, a frustrating way to end what had been a good weekend. In fact Josh’s team mate Florent Payet (who won an IXS Gravity Cup race a week earlier) also had troubles in the last section of the track after qualifying 8th. He crashed and as he came into the finish his drivetrain was literally flying off the bike.
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The track was deteriorating every run and unfortunately crashes kept happening, it was a injured foot that kept Steve Smith out of the finals. On this course though, it could have been a lot worse.
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Shortly after Josh Button came down we were left with only the top 10 qualifiers to come. First of these down the hill was Cameron Cole, he came down in a flyer and grabbed the hot seat, unknown to him! He tried to leave the finishing area before a volunteer pointed out he had the fastest time, ousting Greg Minnaar who was holding it earlier than usual due to a slow qualifying that saw him down the hill earlier than usual.
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Markus Pekoll came into the finish area with a rear wheel that looked like a taco! Next Gee Atherton came into view with a good time and removed Cameron Cole from the hot seat.
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Off after Gee was Troy Brosnan and he came down with an amazing time, the crowd was going crazy, in the end not enough to knock off Gee but 4th on the day was amazing considering he is still a junior.
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Next into view was Danny Hart, he got super loose on the steep left hander at the bottom of the course, showering a photographer with dirt. In his words though “not as wild last year on that corner…just like Fort William you need to be looseA�onA�a track like this to do well”. One rider left to come down, Aaron Gwin, he was 1st at both splits and sealed an impressive year with another victory.
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Stay tuned to downhill247.com for part 2 of the Val Di Sole World Cup featuring more information, rider insights, photos, times and overall places!