CRC/Intense Champery World Cup Report

Round 4 of the UCI World Cup was one of the toughest, craziest World Cups in the history of the sport. The most extreme track on the circuit was turned into a mud bath of thick gloop with the terrible weather we had, making it virtually unridable to all but the very best riders in the world. The team survived the crazy extreme conditions of the Champery downhill course and extended our lead in the team standings. This was thanks to some fantastic results from our riders. Claire Buchar kept her consistency even after a tough week for her in practice. Claire was struggling with the track, her hands, mechanicals and confidence due to some big crashes, but she kept her composure and rode brilliantly in the final. She battled down the course to take her 4th 7th position and retaining her 7th overall. Chris Kovarik who was riding fantastic all week and one of the few riders still able to throw down huge style on the massive jumps down at the bottom of the track even in the worst of conditions finished an astonishing 9th place even after a huge crash on his last practice run and barely able to even put enough weight on his leg to stand on the pedals. This is credit to how tough the Australian rider is. Ruaridh Cunningham finally put together a run we knew he is capable of, gaining his first ever World Cup top 10 finishing 10th. We are all so stoked for him and Ruaridh is still grinning now! Well done mate. Matti Lehikoinen had a tough week with some huge crashes in practice and qualifying beating himself up pretty bad, but he kept his composure and managed a great 13th position for the day and retaining his 8th overall position in the mens standings. Matt Simmonds and Julien Camellini didn't do as well as they expected, both not having great runs and placing 45th and 59th respectively - but getting down with no serious injuries. Matt moves slightly down in the overall rankings but only to 15th which is still great and Julien just slips outside the top 20 in 21st. But with 2 rounds still to go Matt and Julien are looking to move back up the standings. A huge thank you has to go out to the Mechanics Dave, Paul and Carl for keeping the bikes rolling in the very tough conditions, Joanne Seagrave for feeding and looking after us all week with the most amazing food. Also to Martin the Masseur for patching the riders back together after big crashes enabling them to race. Thanks to all our sponsors for the best bikes and equipment to make the riders jobs as easy as possible. This week we head on down to Val di Sole, Italy for the 5th round of the UCI world cup. Lets hope for some sunshine and a dry race! Until then..... Nigel Page Team Manager - ChainReactionCycles/Intense Please keep up to date on the team at www.crcintense.com Photography by Geoff Waugh - MTBCUT.tv