Welcome to Mont. St Anne for day two of racing, today we woe up to a different hill with clear blue skies and warm temperatures. While the day was clear last nights rain had washed away a lot of loose dirt and revealed some new rocks and left many little rocks on the edges and in water ruts all over the track, some of yesterdays ruts had gotten even deeper with the water running through them and the moisture was still in the ground leaving parts of the track very soft and slow. As the first riders starting coming down for practice the soft parts of the track were torn up and started to form new ruts. however by mid way through practice the track was drying out to the point where the open areas of the track that saw sunlight most of the morning were so dry dust was forming.
With the B group practice winding up and the A group practice beginning we saw many of the top pros coming out onto the track at top speed, almost putting together a qualifying run, much more confident on the dry track. Due to the clear weather we saw many more riders on track much more regularly. however we did look up and notice that the clouds were starting to roll in, woudl this mean rain for race runs or later on in the day? only time would tell!
Practice wound up and the Junior Men started rolling down the hill to qualify. Luca Shaw came down the hill first and looked on pace, he finished with a fast time and was not beaten the entire qualifying, finishing on top and scoring the last run of the Juniors tomorrow. Andrew Crimmins was also on a flier, impressing even the season world cup photographers like Sven Martin. Of the Aussie Juniors Andrew Crimmins, Ben Hill, Ben Dengate and Matthew McCorkell found themselves in the top 30 and ready for racing tomorrow.
As the women came down the hill we noted Manon Carpenters blistering pace, continuing her dominating season, we also saw that Rachel Atherton also seemed to be quite timid through teh rocks, but still wound up with a good time. Manon Carpenter ended up on the top of the board, continuing her amazing season this year.
Troy Brosnan came down first for the men, holding onto his top spot, though the clouds were low over us we didn’t receive much rain, however we heard report that the top of the hill was saturated with heavy rain. One thing to note was teh astounding amount of flat tires seen during qualifying, at least half the field finished at the bottom line with a flat tire. By the end of Qualifying Josh Bryceland stood at the top of the leader baord, followed by Troy Brosnan and the Andrew Neethling. How will tomorrow pan out? Will Ratboy break the trend and have a back to back win or will we see another new winner for this world cup season? Only time will tell! We hope you join us for all tomorrow action, on the hill or behind the screen! See you all race day!
Tune back for finals!
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