Today was the first day of practice here at Hafjell and it was a long day with an open practice session in the morning before the top 80 men/top 20 women had their own practice session. It was a fun day on the course though, the general consensus from the riders is that the track is a whole lot of fun and a good race track to boot!
The jumps at the top of the course saw the riders having some fun throwing down some big whips, this meant a fun day for everyone else watching!
Lets take a run through today’s proceedings;
It was a tentative start to the day with no one quite knowing what the cloud and fog had in store as everyone got on the gondola to head up to the top of the track…Fortunately as the gondola went up it broke through to the sunshine and the weather stayed dry all day. On another note, check out the roofs of the local houses here in Norway, got green?There was no shortage of riders serving up the style up the top of the track as Connor Fearon demonstrates!Some riders were slightly more business orientated, such as Mark Beaumont and were keeping it race through the jumps. We could literally have a whole gallery of action from these jumps. There was a huge cable cam set up through these jumps, rumours were it was for an upcoming Anthills Film movie…You can’t blame them though, no matter which way you look the scenery is fantastic as Josh Button demonstrates.There’s more to the track than the jumps at the top! We sat in this rock garden and it doesn’t surprise us Steve Peat was the fastest in timed practice. He studied this rock garden for some time and then proceeded to hit it smooth and fast, won’t back down! Stevie Smith on the other hand ‘rode the buffalo’ laughing and hooting his way down, Josh Bryceland described it like “a monkey in a sidecart”. Josh was commenting that there still wasn’t an obvious line yet while Stevie was saying on this track because it is so fast in some places you are forced to take one line!Before the riders hit the track the UCI actually went through and smashed out various rocks from what riders are calling the ‘rock jungle!’Ben Reid threads the rocks and trees, there are numerous line choices all the way down the track.Sam Hill didn’t hit the track in practice until relatively late, he did a few runs scouting lines, being a new track many riders were taking slightly longer to get up to speed.Aaron Gwin was getting around on board a custom Trek made to commemorate his overall 2012 World Cup series win. Things weren’t going all his way, going down in the rocks, you can see the mud on his right shoulder.This track is a physical one, you could hear how tired all the riders were near the bottom of the track!If you didn’t know it was there you would miss it! Can you see the man carrying the torch cut into the side of the hill?It was good to see Brendan Fairclough back riding, he was doing runs with Andrew Neethling and Sam Hill at various times of the day.Damian Spagnolo always seems to be a bit of a dark horse, he was looking good today.Conditions were good, the biggest issue today was the news the UCI may decide to lower the amount of points female riders are awarded in the series and thus reducing their value on a pro team for the overall teams classification. More news on this issue as we get it.
That wraps up the first day of practice, tomorrow the riders have another practice session followed by qualifying.
The Scenery here in Norway is about as picturesque as it gets! The weather changes so quickly,as the locals say ‘four days all in one’! Expect some wet practice days but the forecast for finals is sunny at the moment.
The final World Cup is upon us, Hafjell Norway gets the honours of closing out season 2012. The overall men’s series may be decided but there will still be lots of action!
We hit up a track walk with Connor Fearon, Mitch Delfs, Luke Strobel and Kyle Sangers, plus a few other riders here and there, so lets check out the track;
Getting to the track is an adventure in itself, 11 minutes from the top of the Gondola to the start of the track by foot, at least the riders will have bikes!Straight out of the start hut in the top right and into a big set of jumps, riders are tipping though that if they link everything up right the jumps might be too small!From here riders hit one of many rock gardens on the track…The track should deal with water well, even after yesterdays rain there were hardly any wet areas on the track.The sun and wind combine to remove the moisture pretty quickly, the wooded sections were the possible exception. With the large number of roots and rocks on the track expect it to be slippery if it does rain as forecast though.The track is a mix of high speed open bike park style sections and forested technical sections. For a rider to do well here they will need to be strong in all areas of their riding.The high speed sections are going to deliver riders into some of the more technical sections at full speed, this will get interesting…This probably describes it best, some hard technical sections and some easier wide open sections. Mitch Delfs was estimating three to three and a half minutes for race runs?! The high overall speed maks it hard to estimate.Here Connor Fearon points out a line to Mitch Delfs and Luke Strobel, riders are going to come into this section super fast so speed isn’t the problem it’s the super tight left hander directly after the gap that is though…The tight left hander leads into this, a 50 metre rock garden…Expect mechanics to be flat out this week!The rocks just keep going…And going! You have to get this section right otherwise you are going to crash or lose all your momentum and struggle to get through the rest of the rocks.Once the riders get through the rocks the bottom section of the track is fast and wide open, in general the whole track is pretty fast!There was a lot of last minute preparation happening on the track today.Some sections on the track had seen a bit more work than some other sections… Pretty cool!Hafjell is a ski resort but this weekend the fans will be out for the downhill.If you read Connor Fearon’s Inside Info you will know what his plans for this number 31 are!No points for guessing whos bike this is! The name is on the top tube!To get epic just add rider! We are expecting some truly epic riding here in Norway, downhill247.com will be bringing it all to you!
Practice starts tomorrow with most riders pretty keen toget out on the track.A�The race is actually on Saturday, we will keep you covered all week long!
