Matti finishes 9th in Andorra

The rain that had already soaked the fourcross track on Saturday, continued overnight, increasing the technical difficulty of the downhill course. While the open corners of the upper section became slippery, the rutted forest segments offered mud and slick roots to the riders. For Matti this race was a criterion after missing a good result at the first World Cup round in Maribor due to some mechanical problems. It would have taken a top ten finish to meet his own high expectations after coming back from his spinal injury. Disappointed due to some dissatisfying practice runs Matti finally got his act together, qualifying in 10th position. After delivering a solid run in the finals, showing his old highly developed riding skills, Matti finished in 9th place. Considering all the hard work he and the whole MS-Intense Factory-Racing team had put in his comeback this was an amazing return of one of downhill racings most talented riders. Finally Matti is back in the ring establishing a basis for further improvements. While Matti could take his first step back toward being the old Finnish Pinner again, his teammate JD Swanguen experienced a weekend of mishaps. After his bike fell off the lift, destroying the fork and several other parts, he missed all of Saturday's practice although the team mechanics did their best to fix the damage. With all this trouble on his mind JD finished 64th leaving lots of space for improvement regarding the upcoming UCI World Cup in Fort William, UK. While having gotten very well adjusted to the 4X track, Mio Suemasa never fell in love with the downhill course. After a crash during her qualification run put her in 20th position she finished the women's downhill finals in 15th position. Knowing that she can do better we should see a different Mio at the upcoming weekend in Ft. William. Next stop for the complete MS-Intense Factory-Racing team will be the 3rd round of the UCI MTB World Cup in Fort William, UK (June 6th-8th, 2008). www.ms-racing.at.