Today we arrived to the Windham track with the top of the hill covered in a dense cloud. The wind was blowing quite hard at the top, but we felt the cloud would clear quite quickly and reveal another lovely day. The riders began to roll down the hill with the fog still over the top of the hill, but not far from the start gate it thinned and cleared, leaving a lovel blue sky, with patches of the low cloud blwoing through. The cloud had left the track a little damp on the surface, but it only took a couple of riders to clear the slightly moist top layer to reveal a skatey lower layer that stayed for the remainder of the day. The surface was slightly deceptive as it looks very grippy, but many riders reported it was in fact not tacky at all.

The sun came out and the forest to open area contrast was a challenge for the riders, but the sunw as drying the track further, and it was nice to not stand in the rain for once. By the time B practice had finished the track was starting to look a little worse for wear, with the juniors having plenty of energy and throwing in heaps of runs, leaving the track with some ruts in some of the corners that were a little more challenging due to being flat.

By A practice some cloud had rolled in, but it hadn’t dropped any rain, it just reduced the air temperature a little, but the cloud then became patchy and was very similar to this morning. The wind was picking up though, with many riders having to contemplate off some of the jumps due to the gusts. Something to mention is that all the riders seemed to climb right up to ace pace almost instantly, there was no real warm up, just one scouting run and then everyone turned up the speed dial, if there is one thing we are sure of its that this race will be fast and likely to be tight too.

Thats practice all wrapped up, Qualifying tomorrow. We hope you join us for all the qualifying action!

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Report: Jason Stevens Photography.A�Facebook:A�www.facebook.com/jasonstevensphotographyA�or follow @jasonstevensphotography on Instagram

Windham, New York, United States Of America. Our last stop in North America for the world cup and home to a short, speedy, rocky track. Today we took a wander with the Kona Team to see what changes had been made to the track and just how the track was running.

The first thing to notice, though not overly important is that the start gate has moved into the woods. The track then descends into some steep wooded sections with rock slabs and some rock gardens. We think the top part of the track is probably the most technically challenging aspect. However something to note though, is that the track has many places where there are only one to two lines. It was fairly dry when we walked down the track, but it did rain, however if it rains a lot, the track will become greasy and the rocks and roots will make for a very slippery scenario especially through the off camber.

With the track being very short, with mainly rock sections, roots and some open areas we feel like the pictures will give you an idea of conditions for now. We are hearing mixed reports of the weather, some say rain, some say sun, we are going to take a guess that it will probably drizzle like today for the remainder of the week.

Stay tuned for tomorrows practice.

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Report: Jason Stevens Photography.A�Facebook:A�www.facebook.com/jasonstevensphotographyA�or follow @jasonstevensphotography on Instagram

Welcome to Mont St. Anne on the perfect race day, clear skies, the sun is shining, the excitement is building and the course dried off over night! We had an interesting qualification yesterday putting some new names at the top of the charts, not nessacerily new to the sport, just fresh as opposed to the likes of Gwin and Minaar. Would this mean another fresh winner for this world cup season? We will find out as the day progresses. As the track opened for practice riders flowed down slowly, making final inspections of lines they had chosen the day before, ensuring they were still useable, once decided there was a full scale attack on the course with a few high speed runs made and then it was time to relax and wait for the racing to begin. With the A practice drawing to an end many riders pushed hard trying their chosen lines and possibly to gain seconds with some larger lines, many were caught out on the last rock garden. There were plenty of crashes just prior to practice closing, most notable was Greg Minnaar taking a tumble and looking a little worse for wear, however he walked away and was sore but fine for racing.

Tracey Hannah drops in over the rocks

As racing begun the junior men were first, with our own Ben Hill coming down first. as more riders came down the times fell, with Jack Iles putting in a super run to claim the hot seat and remain there until the very last rider Luca Shaw. As Luca appeared over the drop it was going to be close, as he crossed the line he claimed the top spot again and finished off the racing for the junior men.

With the men complete it was time for the elite women and they brought some speed from the get go, however as the riders began to come down there were some big gaps that formed as the quicker girls stepped it up and put a good gap into the previous racers. Rachel Atherton put a huge gap of over 12 seconds into the field which seemed almost un-beatable, and as Manon came down the first split indicated this may be true, however by the second split Manon had drawn the gap in to be negligible. Manon crossed the line on top and continued to stamp her domination in the Elite Women category.

This left only the Elite Men to come down the hill. And come down they did! there was a fast pace set from the start with times coming in much quicker than qualifying. The times fall consistently with no large gaps being formed, luckily there didn’t seem to be a repeat of mechanical issues through the field with only a couple of punctures. As we entered the top 20 the times dropped again and the speed stepped up, Sam Belenkinsop stepped things up with a great run which looked as if it may be hard to beat, but next thing Troy Brosnan was posting past splits and crossed the line on top of Sam. Danny Hart put in another fast paced run, and we feel that he is only a few races away from claiming a victory. Sam Hill came down with more pace than we have seen in a long time, looking like the Sam of old and crossing the line on top with a huge smile on his face. This left just Josh Bryceland to try and claim the win, could he go back to back or would we have another fresh face on the top of the podium. As Josh made his way down the track everyone was holding their breathe, as he made a few small mistakes it appeared as if Sam had it in the bag, the splits were still close though, and the race wasn’t run until Josh crossed the line. As Josh appeared over the drop at the finish line we could see it would be very close! The clock stopped and Sam Hill had taken the win today! Hats flew in the air and a very happy Nigel Page hugged his team rider.

The finals results for the day were

Junior Men
1. Luca Shaw
2. Jack Iles
3. Loris Vergier

Elite Women
1. Manon Carpenter
2. Rachel Atherton
3. Emiline Ragot
4. Tahnee Seagrave
5. Tracey Hannah

Elite Men
1. Sam Hill
2. Josh Bryceland
3. Danny Hart
4. Troy Brosnan
5. Sam Blenkinsop

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Report: Jason Stevens Photography.A�Facebook:A�www.facebook.com/jasonstevensphotographyA�or follow @jasonstevensphotography on Instagram

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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Report: Jason Stevens Photography.A�Facebook:A�www.facebook.com/jasonstevensphotographyA�or follow @jasonstevensphotography on Instagram