Team CRC PayPal – Leogang WC
Team Chain Reaction Cycles PayPal raced at the third round of the UCI Downhill World Cup in Leogang, Austria, over the weekend with mixed results. Nigel Page brings us this report:
Leogang has never been too kind to our team in the way of results and unfortunately that was the story again this week I’m afraid.
The track in Leogang is quite unique for the World Cup in that it uses some bike park sections which are fast and smooth but it also has a good mix of terrain, especially this year with the addition of a new technical wooded section which was pretty tricky and caught some riders out.
Things were looking good in Friday practice after a big storm the day before with all three riders looking super fast and confident, but then Mike Jones who was looking as fast as anyone in practice had a big crash and banged his knee up pretty good.
Elliott takes 17th place
Young Elliott Heap who is learning every week on the big world stage qualified well in 11th place and had a solid race run and didn’t crash, finishing 17th in the Junior race. I know Elliott was disappointed with this but he has to understand these are the fastest juniors in the world and he has only been racing downhill for one year, so good job mate you have many more races this season to learn and improve.
Joe crashes but moves up in the overall ranking
Joe Smith was riding great as usual and had a good qualification run in 20th. Unfortunately Joe crashed hard on race day morning whilst on his first practice run and also hit his knee pretty hard. Joe got his knee taped up and had some anti-inflammatory tablets and gave it his all in his final run. But luck was just not on his side and the headwind on the motorway section picked up and he had one of the worst in the finals. Joe ended up 35th in the race but moves up a little in the overall to 30th.
Mike crashes; remains 10th in the world
Mike Jones came into this weekend ranked fourth in the world and was looking as fast as anyone. Mike was on a good qualifying run and then crashed on the lower part of the track and landed on his bad knee again. Even with a big crash he finished 28th in qualifying.
Come finals time and even though beat up and sore, Mike gave it his all and coming out of the first split – which wasn’t his strongest part of the race – Mike was sixth fastest in the race and looking good for a podium position. Then disaster struck heading towards the new wooded section – as he went to pump the bike and get up on a high line his rear wheel slipped off the track and down he went and crashed down a bank. He then had to climb back up onto the track and lost around 10 seconds, so that was his race over.
So not the best weekend for us here in Leogang, a bad day in the office as they say, but we are staying positive. No one is badly injured, Mike Jones is still lying 10th in the world and we are going to come back stronger in two weeks’ time in Switzerland! We are aiming to be back on that podium.
On behalf of the team we have to give a big shout out to Aaron Gwin who managed to win the race by the closest of margins with a snapped chain out of the gate which was amazing to watch; Connor Fearon for an amazing ride in second place and Remi Thirion in third.
Thanks to all our team and sponsors for the hard work and support. We will be back stronger than ever for round four in two weeks’ time.