Team Chain Reaction Cycles PayPal: Lourdes 2016

Published: 11th April 2016 | By billy1979

Team Chain Reaction Cycles PayPal raced at the first round of the UCI Downhill World Cup in Lourdes, France, over the weekend.

Team Manager Nigel Page was trackside to bring us this report…

It was a wild first race in Lourdes to kick off the UCI Downhill World Cup. The weather was pretty shocking for practice and qualifying making the steep technical track pretty treacherous to ride even for the world's best downhill riders. There were lots of crashes and big moments throughout practice and it look like survival in some sections.

All the team looked good in practice and Saturday's qualifiers went well for the team with Elliott Heap qualifying in seventh with a big crash. Sam Hill, Joe Smith and Mike Jones qualified easily through to the finals. Mike in 11th place with a crash too!

Race day

Come race day and the rain had stopped and the track started to dry out but it was going to favour the guys off later in the race as the track was getting drying and faster all day as the sun dried things up.

Elliott Heap had a good run to finish sixth in the Junior category only 7.5 seconds off the winning time. Great result mate, well done.

Sam Hill who is back healthy from his injuries last year is super fit and strong but is just lacking the raw downhill pace he needs to win like he has done many times in the past so Sam was really disappointed to finish in 29th place. We are going to work on downhill runs for the next races.

Joe Smith had a good run with a few mistakes as the track was still really slick in places. Joe ended up in 38th which was better than he did here last year but still a way off where he should be.

Mike Jones was riding great all week and we were all excited for what Mike could do, especially after his third place here last year. But it's a tough sport and everyone is flying this year. Mike had a good run but just not the run he needed for a podium. Just holding back a little in sections and not having a track as dry as the last riders he was a little off the pace and ended up in 18th. It's still a good result and there were no crashes but it's not quite where Mike should be considering how fast he is riding.

So that's the first round done and dusted and we pack up now go home and get ready for the next round in Cairns, Australia, in two weeks' time.

Thanks to all our sponsors and everyone involved the team for their support and hard work. We will be back better and faster next time.

Cheers.

Nigel

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Team Chain Reaction Cycles PayPal: Lourdes 2016

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