The best result of the year and his career, Connor Fearon finished 22nd at Val d’Isere, lets hear what he had to say.
Coming into the French World Cup at Val da��Isere I didna��t know what to expect. The track is new on the World Cup circuit and I have only seen the track on a helmet cam video. Upon walking the track I figured it would suit me well. It was dry and dusty, steep and didna��t have much pedalling. Ita��s sort of the same terrain I ride at home so it made learning the track a little easier. A lot of riders seemed to dislike the track but in my opinion ita��s one of the best tracks so far this year.
Day one practice was a lot of fun for me. The track hadna��t been ridden in and there wasna��t many ruts or support for the corners. I knew from my first run that I could place really well here. I had high hopes for getting in that top 20. I tried pretty hard in timed practice and finished 12th and fastest junior rider. This gave me some confidence for qualifying. Ita��s always a goal for me to qualify in the top 30 so you can be watched on the live feed.
Before my qualifying run it was all blue sky and sun, until about 2 minutes before my start time. It started raining heavily with lightning and thunder. I was in the start gate with 30 seconds to go nervously trying to pin down tear offs on my goggles. My run was okay considering I had a really wet track with 2.7 Maxxis dry tires on. I ended up qualifying 32nd and knew for sure I could improve because a lot of riders had a dry track to qualify on.
It rained the morning of the finals and the track started out pretty wet. I made a decision to swap to dry tires before the race because I predicted it would dry out. This ended up being a good decision because for my run the track was dusty and bone dry! I was pretty nervous before my run because I knew I could do well here. My run was a lot cleaner than usual Ia��m not sure if ita��s because I held back a little bit or it was justA�a smooth runa�� it was a lot dryer than my last practice run so some of the track was a guessing game. I came down and came into the hot seat for third. By the time all the riders finished I was 22nd. A mere .3 seconds off top 20! So painfully close but a good result none the less. It improved my overall to 31st. I have one more race to drop it one more number to finish in the top 30 which is a goal of mine. This year ita��s been really good to physically see improvement in my results. Round 1 I didna��t even finish in the top 60, now I was so close to the top 20. World champs is the next race and Ia��m going in with a lot of confidence now.A�Stay tuned!
We will check in with Connor as he heads over to the World Champs after Crankworx in Canada.