WC 2 CHAMPEREY - SWISS June 14, 2007
Posted by paulwalton in : Kona Factory Team , trackbackChamperey 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
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