Sam Hill is one to watch even more when the weather turns pear shaped and pear shaped it did!
Typical Alps weather in Leogang, perfect one day miserable the next! It has been raining forA�24 hours non stop, you wouldn’t believe it unless you were stuck in the middle of it like the riders here at Leogang. The mud meant riders lacked some speed for the big jumps in the middleA�of the course but the comments were that the track was super grippy. This is testament to the local trail builders who are all to aware how much water can fall quickly in these parts.
Joey Vejvoda hits one of the jumps near the bottom of the course, split practice meant juniors were first off in the morning.
With such average conditions riders weren’t taking too many chances,A�Aussie junior David McMillan snapped his shock early inA�practice but managed to get it fixed in time to get a couple more runs in.A�The rest of the juniors were looking fast and will all be contenders on Sunday. In senior men the usual suspects were all going fast, Bryn Atkinson looked super pinned, whipping off jumps most riders were struggling to clear. Jared Graves was busy all day, possibly doing the most runs of any Australian rider, clearly a man on a mission. As was Mic Hannah who was riding with his trademark flat out style.
Jared Graves didn’t let the conditions bother him, instead he punched out run after run, saying it was the most fun he has had on a bike in the wet for a while!Mic Hannah has a super distinctive riding style and position on the bike.Mitch Delfs was also super distinctive today, for a slightly different reason to Hannah though…Pretty standard photo of a pretty standard trick, cutting down spikes!Connor Fearon was fast all day long, he was also sporting a 2013 model helmet which he was happy to show to people!The last part of the course drops away quickly, here you can see the pits in the background.Troy Brosnan was doing runs all day, sometimes with team mates, some times with other riders, such as Aaron Gwin.This may look like a random picture of tyre marks but it is not. It was taken directly after Sam Hill hit this corner, yes they are his tracks on the left there. He has such a unique style of cornering, whatever works for you!Mechanics and pressure sprayers were working over time today.Brook MacDonald has been looking comfortable all week, here he is being followed by Andrew NeethlingNo matter how cold and wet it was this made us smile, Cedric Gracia out and about! Lets hope he gets a stint in the commentary box on Sunday.
More rain is forecast for tomorrows timed practice session which could provide an interesting indication of who has genuine speed here at Leogang.
