Supermountain Round Three, Scopello - Saturday Qualifying
Sep 29, 2012
Is it that time of the year already? It only seems like yesterday we were starting the race season here in Italy and this weekend we are bringing one series to a close. For the final round of its first season, Supermountain has headed to Scopello in the mountains of Novara. The Alpe di Mera bike park has held downhill races here for years, but this is the first time anyone has run a mass-start race like this here. That DH history shows in the course and it's maybe the most technical of the three rounds so far, even if the course is slightly shorter, with the fast guys coming down in around seven minutes today, there's plenty of gradient to play with. Coming into this last round Manuel Ducci leads the series, Davide Sottocornola is right on his heels though and this is only a short drive from his home, so nobody would be surprised to see him do well this weekend... In the women's competition it is looking like Valentina Macheda will take the overall victory this weekend.
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 The weather played nice this morning, sort of... it at least waited until I'd reached the shelter of the pits before it started raining.
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As the weather closed in the pits ground to halt for most people as they waited to see whether the rain would pass, only a few decided to head straight up and get on with it.
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That's a twenty minute chairlift ride he's facing... It's one of the problems with big mountains, the ride up isn't fun when the weather closes in.
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This fella is the big news this weekend. Marco Fontana, this summer he took the XC bronze at the London Olympics, but the season is over now and his sponsors are ok with him coming to race something a bit more technical...
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Whet were the track conditions like? This should tell you everything you need to know. In the woods there are some fairly fresh sections of track and when we sneaked up to grab some runs yesterday some roots were starting to come though. With a little traffic and a lot of rain they are rushing to the surface.
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Series leader Manuel Ducci was here yesterday, so only felt the need to do a single run today to qualify for tomorrow's race. He ended up 13 seconds behind Davide Sottocornola, but it;s all to play for tomorrow and we reckon he only needs a third to take the overall as Davide was pushed off the podium at the last round in Pila.
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This was a familiar feeling for many people today.
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Although not everybody, it looked like if you just committed and threw the bike at the corners it'd stick and you'd carry good speed. Of course, it's easy to sit behind a keyboard and say that.
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The moto option seemed to work quite well too.
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When the low cloud reached the forest it meant riders would come out onto the pistes to bright, white fog, but soon enough they would dive back into the dark forest.
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Watching people's faces as they come down you remember one thing. It can be a hell of a lot of fun to ride in the wet...
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Most of the track here in Scopello is in the forest, which makes for a great track for riders and tough conditions for photographers.
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Dotted along the track there are a few wooden bridges to cross swamps and streams, but steaming onto wet wood can get very exciting very quickly if you make even a small mistake.
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Just about every mudguard you can think of was in use here today, but some times it's going to come down to ditching the goggles and using a bit of determination.
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With these marathon DH races, more than a few people bring their big rigs. Sure you're going to make up some time on the ugly stuff, but when there's a flatter, pedally section it looked like hard work to keep the speed up. Sticky mud probably didn't help either.
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| All the way through the field people were pushing hard. |
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Coming down to the finish the track joins the ski piste and it's just a flat-out blast into the final woods.
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The big question on the open section is mash the pedals or aerotuck? We should find out which one is faster tomorrow.
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As the rain eased off the mud began to cling to everything, that meant the jet wash probably got as much usage as the chairlift today.
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The rain came back in at about three and effectively ended the practice session. The lifts were still running, but things like pasta and warm clothes were more important by that point.
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Heading away from the pits and back towards the town the mixed conditions left the clouds clinging onto the mountains. Unfortunately the forecast for tomorrow isn't mixed. It's gonna be a wet one.
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A little rain isn't going to stop the fun tomorrow though. All season long Supermountain has meant good fun on the bike for riders and exciting racing for those of us on the other side of the tape, some water between now and when it all kicks off at 10 in the morning isn't going to change that one bit.
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