WORLD CUP 3 - CANADA June 27, 2007
Posted by paulwalton in : Uncategorized , add a commentIt was a very successful weekend for the Kona Les Gets Factory Team, with all gravity riders making it onto the podium!
The trip went well and we all met in Montreal on Tuesday evening at the airport, squashed our luggage into the car and set out for the 3hr drive. After an hour into the drive, the clouds started appearing in the sky, the closer we got to Quebec the cooler it got and by the time We were 50km from the race it was really raining hard…looked like we were in for another wet race.
We (Tracy, Fabien, Kamil and me) went to walk the DH track on Wednesday. The track was wide open and fast for the most part, with 2 technical sections in the trees, All the riders were happy with the track, but knew it would be a hard race! The rain continued all day Wednesday.
Thursday was first day training, we were well prepared for the track and already had a good idea of what was going to be needed for the bike setup so just put the wet tyres on and the bikes were ready. Tracy and Fabien were also testing out some proto-type 2008 shimano XT components. The day went to plan for everybody and the new parts worked really well.
By Friday it had dried up and the riders were on dry tyres again, a few spots of rain in the morning threatened to change things, but fortunately never turned into much. The 4X training went well for Kamil and he was happy with the track layout.
Saturday was the XC race so the DH training was done on a slightly shorter track than the day before, Tracy and fab did some timed runs and were pleased to see that they were close to the fastest recorded times from the previous day. Kamil had a good qualifying run on Saturday and placed 5th in the 4X.
When I woke up on Sunday morning and looked out to see the bright blue sky, I was relieved that we were finally going to have a dry race!
The qualifying runs went well for Tracy and Fab and they placed 2nd and 4th respectively. Kamil did not do as well as the previous 2 races but he did qualify.
Tracy had a good start to her final and went 3 seconds faster at the split that her first run, but she made a mistake in one of the technical sections and ended lost some of this margin, to end up 1 sec faster than her semi final. The track had become much drier and the loose stones and dust had made the track slower, all the other top riders had gone slower by 3 or 4 sec, so Tracy was happy to have been able to pull her time down. Unfortunately it was not enough to take 1st. Sabrina took the honour.
Final results
Sabrina Jonnier 5:04.45
TRACY MOSELEY 5:06.77
Emiline Ragot 5:16.90
Tracey Hannah 5:16.92
Celine Gros 5:18.77
Men’s Final
By now the track had become really rough and loose, so we decided to make a tyre change at the top for a little more front wheel grip. The track was very physical and lots of high speed so Fabien knew he was in with a good chance, he also wanted to be sure of good finish to build his confidence so had decided to take some safe lines, he knew they were slower, but he did not want to puncture or take any risks. He rode really well and was strong all the way to the line. He did make a couple of small mistakes but still managed to beat his semi-final time and take 5th place. Fabien was really happy with his result as this is the first time in his career where he can say he is riding consistently, he is not yet back to full speed and has more to come by the end of the season.
Final results
Sam Hill 4:29.58
Greg Minnaar 4:31.27
Steve Peat 4:31.30
Matti Lehikonnen 4:33.00
FABIEN BAREL 4:34.64
59th KAMIL TATARKOVIC 4:58.31
FOUR – CROSS
This was the first world cup for Kamil this year where found his form, he was getting good starts and attacking well all through the rounds.
The second round 1/16th saw Kamil take the lead from the gate, but then he was crashed into by another rider, they both went down, but Kamil managed to get going again and make his way to 2nd place to advance to the 1/8th final.
He had some tough rounds but managed to steer clear of trouble and made it to the final.
The nights racing had shown that the race would be lost or won in the first turn. So, for Kamil it was going to be tough gate choice, he was against lopes, Polc and Scott Beamont. He was expecting Lopes to take a big lead off the gate and then pull in behind him at the first turn to close out the attack from 3rd and 4th. Things did not go exactly to plan for Kamil because he had an amazing gate and was along side Lopes until the first turn, this made him go really wide and left the gap open for Polc and Beamont. Kamil tried to attack again on the 2nd turn to get back a place but he had lost too much time and speed on the first turn so he had to sit out the rest of the run in 4th place. He managed to get back to the pack by the finish but it was not enough to improve his position.
Final Results
Brian Lopes
Scott Beamont
Filip Polc
KAMIL TATARKOVIC
Jared Graves
This was the first time at a world cup where we have had a podium in all the gravity disciplines, so well done guys!
Next Race World cup Schladming!
WC 2 CHAMPEREY - SWISS June 14, 2007
Posted by paulwalton in : Kona Factory Team , add a commentChamperey was challenging for all the riders, everyday brought changing weather conditions and the DH and 4X tracks were very technical. My travels started as always, with a little trouble. I got stuck on the swiss border for 5 hours because of 150kg overweight in the truck. I had to get somebody to drive up to the border and collect the excess from the truck before I was allowed to proceed! I got to the race half a day late late so I missed walking the track, that put me a at a bit of a disadvantage because this was probably the most technical track ever in World cup history, certainly the steepest! Tracy, Fab and Kamil all found it challenging just to make it down in the first days training. Brakes were of the utmost concern and we went through various combinations of the shimano components to get a system that worked well for each rider.
Saturday night brough a big storm to the valley and lots of water came down on the track, making the mornings training a nightmare for the riders. Also the chairlift was broken so it took a long time to get to the start using another lift.The qualification run did not not go well, Tracy crashed 3 times in her run and had a dual with emiline ragot who set off behind Tracy, but also crashed a couple of times.Fabien had similar problems, crashing twice due to the conditions. The final, saw a much drier track for Tracy and she was ready for a solid run, she had been riding amazingly all weekend and was disappointed with her qualification run. The result from the qualification had made her change strategy just before the start, she was going to try have a safe run and not push to make sure she got down ok and kept in the points. Unfortunately this did not work as she found herself hesitant and not getting her lines, she had a small crash at the start due to being off line, then it just snowballed for her, she had another 2 crashes which left her fighting to get her bike untangled from the crash netting and eventually crossing the line with a very disappointing 7th place. Marielle Saner had a home victory which was well deserved. Kamil was again riding a fine line in his qualification and managed to squeeze into the top 80, This was a very challenging track for him so he was very pleased to qualify! His race went well and he did not make may mistakes, no crashes for him so he was happy! He finished 28th, which is his 2nd best finish ever in a world cup. For once, it looks like luck was on Fabien’s side. As we were preparing at the top, we saw the clouds rolling in and air getting cooler. We had everything ready for wet or dry conditions, tyres, pedals, fenders… about 15min before the start we decided to take the risk and go for full dry setting, it had not started raining and the track was getting dry. About 10min before the start, it started to rain, just a few drops at first but then getting heavier as Fabien got into the staging tent. It was too late to make any changes so Fabien decided to run the same lines at the same speed, it was a risky decision as we could already see the track starting to shine with moisture. He had a very aggressive start and relised after few turns he would have to slow down to stay upright! He took it easy on the top section and lost 5sec to Matti. After the split, the track was dry so he managed to attack again and pull back a second to cross the line in 3rd.Then it really started to rain and with only 30 riders left it looked like he would stay in place. However, Sam Hill rode amazingly, and came down in a time that pushed Fabien back by 1 place. Overall resultsWomen DH1st - Marielle Saner
2nd – Emiline Ragot
3rd – Sabrina Jonnier
7th – Tracy Moseley Men1st – Matti Liehikoinen
2nd – Steve Peat
3rd – Sam Hil
l4th – Fabien Barel
28th – Kamil Tatarkovic Four CrossQualification did not go well for Kamil due to some mistakes and he ended up with a high number wich would give him bad gate choice all night. The race was stopped after the first round due the torrential downpour that soaked everything. We did a quick wheel change and Kamil was confident. He had decided to change his start technique a little which seemed to payoff as he had good start on his first round and proceeded to the second. In his next round he was up against Cedric Gracia and Michal Prokop so it would be tough! He had a good start and was along side Prokop after the first turn, then Cedric caught kamils back wheel which made him take his feet off the pedals just before the rock garden, Kamil lost 2 places and went back to 4th. He could not get back to the leaders so was out in that round. Prokop went on to 2nd place with Brian lopes taking the vitory. Kamil finished 17th. Next Stop SDA in fort William. RegardsPaul