2012 Fort William World Cup Timed Practice Results
Friday, June 8, 2012 at 9:54AM Danny Hart goes fastest in practice.
2012 World Cup Round 3 Men's Timed Practice Results
2012 World Cup Round 3 Women's Timed Practice Results
Aaron Gwin Dominates At Val Di Sole WC Round 2
Sunday, June 3, 2012 at 3:41PM After setting the fastest qualifying time yesterday by more than 7 seconds, Trek World Racing's Aaron Gwin displayed incredible poise and composure to once again win by a similar margin today in the finals here at Val di Sole, Italy. While the rest of the field were separated by tenths of a second, the sizes of Aaron's winning margins really were the talk of the paddock throughout the weekend. The win today puts Aaron in the leader's jersey, but tied on points with main rival Greg Minnaar (RSA).
The course here in Val di Sole, site of the 2008 World Championships, is notoriously steep and rooted an d is considered one of the toughest on both rider and machine. Training accidents claimed many riders but fortunately the sunny weather ensured the racing was largely a safe affair, but the images were dramatic nevertheless. It's hard to appreciate the incline of this course unless you've walked it or stood trackside.
Unfortunately Neko Mulally was unable to race as his ankle wasn't 100% ready for the demanding track. A single practice run on Friday made that abundantly clear, but he took a radio to the course and relayed a lot of valuable information back to the team's start crew. Starting last and not knowing what time Greg Minnaar had recorded, Aaron took to the track with a chance to win his 6th World Cup. While Minnaar sat in the hotseat it was clear that barring an accident, the win was Aaron's for the taking. No rider had beaten his qualifying time of 3mins 16.693secs so he still had the fastest time on the hill for the weekend no matter what, but Aaron went on to beat his qualifying time by 6 seconds.
Aaron said: "I’ve been looking for a run like that for some time now, I couldn't be happier. I was pretty sure my quali time would hold, and even though the course here is super rough and dusty, I managed an almost clean run. Greg rode amazingly well on this track and is going to be tough competition for the remainder of the season."
Teammate Justin Leov moved up in the overall rankings from 16 to 13 after his run today, but despite the improvement was disappointed with how his final run went.
Justin said: "I overrode the first sector of the course and made an error that cost me a second. I tried to make it up in the second sector but just starting making more mistakes and had to rein it in to get down. Fort William's up next week and I'm keen to get back there."
Next week sees Round 3 at the classic Fort William course. Greg Minnaar has won there a number of times including last year, but Aaron has a score t o settle with the track after having a lead of more than 5 seconds in 2011 and crashing with 2 corners to go. With the two of them tied on points it will be an exciting showdown at the Fort.
Full results: http://www.uci.ch/templates/BUILTIN-NOFRAMES/Template1/layout.asp?MenuId=MTYzODg&LangId=1
2012 Val Di Sole World Cup Final Results
Sunday, June 3, 2012 at 3:29PM 2012 Val Di Sole WC Round 2 Men's Final Results
2012 Val Di Sole WC Round 2 Women's Final Results
2012 Val Di Sole World Cup Qualifying Results
Saturday, June 2, 2012 at 5:07PM
2012 Val Di Sole WC Round 2 Men's Qualifying Results
2012 Val Di Sole WC Round 2 Women's Qualifying Results
2012 UCI WC Round 1 Monster Energy Specialized Recap
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 8:34AM The Monster Energy Specialized, Australian dynamic duo of Sam Hill and Troy Brosnan returned to World Cup racing this week after domination the Australian national series over the winter. Brosnan finished in 8th place on a track that catered to his pedalling strength, just over 5 seconds back. Hill crossed the line in 11th place, .8 seconds behind his teammate.
Cloudy skies met racers on race day here in Pietermariztburg, South Africa for the first round of the 2012 UCI MTB World Cup. The track dried up from the previous night's deluge and was rock hard and as fast as it had been all week by the time the top 30 men dropped in. Both Monster Energy Specialized riders rode their Specialized Demos with dropper posts to allow for brief relief during the infamous 40 second pedal here in SA.
Troy had this to say about his first official World Cup as an Elite racer; " My week went pretty good. Practice was a little bit wild but my race run went good. I pinned through top section as hard as I could and felt real fast and then pedalled harder than I thought I could at the mid section. I was feeling pretty strong at the bottom and pinned it as hard as I could. I had a mishap at the bottom and lost a bit of time, but still finished up in 8th. I got pretty good points so I just have to keep this confidence going into Val Di Sole. It'll be great to go to Europe fresh and strong and try and get my first World Cup win!"
Hill wasn't as excited about his result, but happy to be back racing and in one piece. "My race went alright. I didn't get the result that I came here for but I got 11th, so still not too bad. Hopefully the rest of the tracks this season will play to my strengths a bit more than this track. I feel like my fitness and my health is pretty good and I had a few moments up on top of the track, I think I almost hit a photographer somewhere in there. It was fun, just a really tough track to race on. I'm not going to beat myself up over it, I saw stars at the end of the pedal! I'm ready to get to the tracks where I can hang it out a bit more and ride on the edge."
The team now gets a quick break at home, and then travels to America for the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California.
