Chain Reaction Cycles / Intense - Vallnord Nissan UCI World Cup round 2!

Well Round 2 of the World Cup Downhill is over. The heavy rain held off for the finals and all the riders had a fair race which was cool. The track was really demanding on the riders with fast open drifting turns at the top, then into a build up rocky bermed section over a step down jump, across the piste and into the tricky rutted wood section all the way to the bottom. With the overnight rain then drying out, the woods became very sticky and phisically challenging for the riders. Julien had a tough weekend coming off his 2nd place at the first round in Maribour. A crash in qualifying put his off early for the final. Julien was having a great run hitting all his lines pushing 100% and pedalling hard at the top then in the wood section he just caught a root on a risky but faster off camber section which flung his back wheel out and caused him to crash hard. Julien was uninjured thankfully but ended up back in 62nd position only giving him 8 points and moving him down to 6th from 2nd in the overall rankings. Julien has trained hard for round 3 next week in Fort William so he is looking forward to getting back up to the top there. Matt had a solid run in the final finishing up in 39th position and holding on to a top 30th overall ranking. Ruaridh was feeling good on the track here and had a good time in timed training, but couldn't quite match that time in the final after hitting a tree on his run and loosing some time but still managed a great time of 2.46.50 placing him in 27th place only 2.5 seconds off the top 15. This puts him in 29th in the overall rankings just 1 place in front of Matt. So the battle for them 2 will continue next week in Fort William. Kovarik had another solid run just making a mistake in the bottom woods but still placing 6th just one position off the podium. The tight twisty wooded track was not really the type of track Chris shines on so this is another great result for CK this year. This puts Chris in 7th overall still in the title chase with all the big fast trackes to come that Chris' riding style suits. The next 2 rounds Fort William and Monte St. Anne are both tracks Chris has won World Cups on in the past. Also big congrats to Dan Critchlow from Burgtec for making it through to the finals which is no mean feat these days and finishing in 65th position. Big congratulations to the Atherton family as Gee took the mens Downhill win beating Sam Hill into 2nd place and Greg Minnaar 3rd. This was an amazing weekend for the Atherton family after Dan winning the 4X last night, Gee winning the mens race and sister Rachael taking the win in the womans DH by 8 seconds. They must be the most successful family in any type of racing. Team Chain Reaction Cycles / Intense slip down to joint 4th in the team rankings which is still amazing in our first year and we head off to home turf at Fort William next week to hopefully move back up to the top 3 in the rankings. Thanks to all our sponsors as our bikes perfomed great all weekend and a big thanks to Dave and Cord for keeping all the guys rolling with no problems. VALLNORD Nissan UCI World Cup round 2 results: 1 GEE ATHERTON 2:35.35 2 SAM HILL 2:35.66 3 GREG MINNAAR (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 3:36.73 4 STEVE PEAT (SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE) 2:37.49 5 SAM BLENKINSOP 2:38.71 6 CHRIS KOVARIK 2:39.18 7 FABIEN BAREL 2:39.21 8 FABIEN PEDEMANAUD 2:41.42 9 MATTI LEHIKOINEN 2:41.65 10 STEVE SMITH 2:42.00 27 RUARIDH CUNNINGHAM 2.46.50 39 MATT SIMMONDS 2.48.50 62 JULIEN CAMELLINI 2.54.91 www.crcintense.com