Team Chain Reaction Cycles / Intense at the World Cup Finals - Schladming

Well the long season came to a climax this past weekend in Schladming, Austria with possibly the best track of the year according to most of the riders. There was some upsets and great rides and unfortunately we didn't have the best of weekends. First off in qualifying Matt Simmonds had a horrific crash at the top of the course on a high speed section when he was in the air over a big jump and a spectator with a camera stepped out too much into the track. Matt hit the guy while he was still in the air and had a huge crash knocking himself out for about 5 minutes and having to spend the night in hospital with concussion. The spectator was injured worse than Matt and we all hope he is recovering OK. For the rest of the guys qualifying went pretty good Chris had a mediocre run according to himself to place 9th, Ruaridh had a blinding run for 10th which was his best of the year and what we all know he is capable of and Julien placed 16th with a small crash so all 3 where looking for a top 10 in the final and a podium if not 2. Anyway lady luck wasn't with the team this weekend Julien had a bad run and just couldn't find his flow but ended up 14th and 10th Overall for the season which was amazing really as he didn't get any points from 2 rounds and was injured at a 3rd. Ruaridh was on great run and set for his first top 10 finish but just clipped his back wheel on a large root and spat him off and his bike hit him in the head. He got back on and gave the crowd an amazing show on the flat out grass piste section at the bottom of the course with some huge feet up drifts and still finished 37th less than 7 seconds off the top 10. Chris was fired up at the top of the course and set off looking faster than we have seen him all year as he descended on the big screen but just before the split time which we eagerly awaited to see his time he caught his pedal on a big root and went over the bars and landed hard with his stomach on a big root winding himself really badly and ending his race and his battle for the 5th place overall. Needless to say we were all a bit disappointed to end the season like that as we had huge goals for our first year and we were very close to achieving them. To finish off the season with 6th place in the overall team standings and 2 riders in the Worlds top 10 Chris Kovarik 9th and Julien Camellini 10th and the team well and truly established as being one of the major factory teams in just one year I think we have had a pretty successful first year. We would like to congratulate Sam Blenkinsop for winning his first World Cup race with an amazing ride at the weekend winning qualifying and the Final and also to Greg Minnaar for taking the Men's Downhill overall World Cup for the 3rd time in his career. We are already looking forward to next season and with a little more preparation and training we will be back bigger and better next season. On behalf of the whole team I would like to thank all our sponsors for being amazing and providing us with enough of the best available products to get us through the year. I hope you have all been happy with what we have done in our first year as a team. Mens DH results from the Nissan World Cup finals at Schladming, Austria: 1 BLENKINSOP Samuel 4:10.16 2 HILL Samuel 4:11.80 3 ATHERTON Gee 4:12.36 4 PEAT Steve 4:13.20 5 MINNAAR Greg 4:17.56 6 LEOV Justin 4:18.33 7 BAREL Fabien 4:18.49 8 GWIN Aaron Holmes 4:21.44 9 DELFS Mitchell 4:21.60 10 NEETHLING Andrew 4:21.87 11 DONOGHUE Neil 4:22.12 12 RANKIN Nathan 4:22.16 13 SAIZ CASTANE Oscar 4:22.29 14 CAMELLINI Julien 4:22.39 Chain Reaction Cycles / Intense 15 PASCAL Mickael 4:22.41 37 RUARIDH CUNNINGHAM 4.28.42 Chain Reaction Cycles / Intense 80 CHRIS KOVARIK 9.52.64 Chain Reaction Cycles / Intense Nigel Page www.crcintense.com