ChainReactionCycles Team Report From The Schladming World Cup

This past 2009 season, it seems like we have been on the road for ever! It has been a great year of racing all over the globe from Europe, the UK, both the east and west of Canada, South Africa and Australia - amazing how much traveling we have done this year to race our bikes against the best riders in the World. The World Cup finals took place in Austria and were both successful and disappointing for us to finish on. Claire Buchar finished her season great with another strong top 10 ride. She placed 8th for the day and 9th overall in the World Cup standings. If she hadn't have got sick for rounds 2 (which she missed) and 3 she may well have accomplished her goal of a top 5 overall. But well done anyway Claire. 9th in the world is fantastic! In the mens race Matt Simmonds' nerves got the better of him after his big accident here last year when a spectator leaned into the track - Matt hit the spectator in the head mid air and ended up knocked out and a night in the hospital. Matt opted for a steady, safe run down on the very rough track but unfortunately placed 81st out of the 240 riders and missed out of qualifying for the finals by just 1 position. Matt was very disappointed after his recent good results of 21st and 22nd in the previous 2 World Cup rounds and especially winning all the races her has entered back in the UK. Julien's hand injury still hasn't healed up enough for him to race, so he missed out on the finals. After all the hard work and training Julien put in before the season to meet his goals of an overall top 5 it has been very disappointing and frustrating for him. Ruaridh was on a great run giving it 110% but unfortunately crashed as he was pushing it just too hard. He went down pretty big loosing a glove in the process. Ruaridh got back on his bike though and rode like a lunatic on the bottom of the track which was great to see for everyone watching. If he had not crashed on the top section he would have been very close to his goal of a top 10 finish. What was really cool was a young Austrian fan who must have been no older than 10, was watching where Ruaridh crashed and ran all the way down the mountain to give Ruaridh his glove back! Ruaridh then gave him it back along with the other glove he still had on from the race... the young kid was so pleased it was great to see. Chris Kovarik also had a disappointing run making some mistakes and loosing his rhythm and flow on the very rough and demanding course. Chris ended the day down in 36th, off the pace he has been on at the last 2 World Cups and World Championships, where he has been in the top 10. Sam Hill took the win over Sam Blenkinsop 2nd and Greg Minnaar 3rd and in doing so took the overall world title, so a big congratulations to him. It has been a great race season coming down to the final race to decide the world cup champion. In the 4X Lucas Mechura made it through to the Saturday night finals and won his first round easily with a great gate start and amazing power on the first straight. Next he lined up against Dan Atherton in the 2nd round. Lucas being such a good starter and has one of the fastest first straights out of anyone was looking good to proceed to the 1/4 finals. The gate dropped and Lucas snapped quicker than the other 3 riders as expected but as he exploded out of the gate his back wheel spun on the metal gate platform and he nearly went over the handlebars in the process. Lucas unclipped to save himself from crashing and got back going in chase of the other 3 riders. He chased hard and made up some good ground but the other riders were just too far ahead so that was Lucas out. He was very disappointed as his goal was to finish off with another top 3 like the round in Fort William. In the overall world team standings we finished 8th, which is great especially as we have missed out on Juliens valuable points. Ruaridh and Matt will both be back racing at the final UK national next weekend at Reaola forest in Wales but apart from that the season is finished for the team until Chris starts racing the Australian nationals over the winter (their summer) On behalf of myself and the whole team, thank you so much to all our sponsors who have provided us with the best equipment available. Our bikes and kit have looked the best on the circuit in my opinion (but I guess I may be a bit biased. haa) and a lot of people have commentated around the world at how good our team looks. Also a big thanks to Victor Lucas for his great images this season and all the boys at MTBCut.TV (see website) for our great team podcasts. We are already looking forward to the 2010 race season. Cheers Nigel Page Team Manager - ChainReactionCycles/Intense www.CRCintense.com