Val di Sole World Cup Track Walk 2013
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 The journey from Fort William to Val di Sole begins at 6 or 7am the morning after the race. Team trucks make the drive to Newcastle to catch the overnight Ferry to Amsterdam. It's a bit of a sprint to make the Ferry as time is tight. |
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| Cabins on the Ferry to Amsterdam can be a bit snug--this ain't no Love boat. |
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| The MS-Mondraker team bus picking up the crew in front of the passenger terminal in Amsterdam. |
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| From Amsterdam, it's about a 12 hour drive in a car. In a bus, well, it takes a bit longer. Once at the pits, all the team trucks need to clean the road trip grime off before setting up their pits. |
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| Building the pits on the big rigs is an all hands on deck kind of thing; GT's build takes about 90 minutes. |
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| While the team pits are being built the riders start walking the track. |
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| Val di Sole is imfamous for the rock garden in the first woods. It's traditionally been a 10 meter wide affair, but this year it's been taped a bit tigther, so there's a definite line. |
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| But just because there's a definite line, it doesn't mean Joe Smith and Sam Hill can't talk line choice. |
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| Oscar Saiz, the DH coach for Giant, dropping pearls of wisdom for Marcelo Guttierez. |
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| Luke Strobel getting a feel for the dirt; it's a nice blend of slippery dead pine needles on top, with nice, loamy dirt underneath. As long as it stays dry, it should offer reliable grip. If it rains, well, then things will get interesting. |
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| From the initial rock garden, the track drops pretty fast. It's not as sustained steep as Champery, but it's still steep. And what Champery lacked in technical, Val di Sole has massive rocks and roots everywhere. |
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| Did I mention massive rocks? |
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| And steep root lines? |
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| Markus Pekoll taking note of line choice in one of the lower rock gardens. |
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| Bryn Atkinson and Jill Kintner talking over options mid track. |
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| This is a new section of the track; it's a steep, twisting tobaggon run that drops down to an older portion of the track. Between the tighter taping job and a few other track variations leading to the Snake Pit, the Val di Sole DH track has received a bit of a nip and tuck to keep it fresh. The lines seem to flow better, but it's still a gorgeous monster of a track. |
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| The Snake Pit drops the riders into this bomb filled zone, which remains essentially unchanged. |
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| Lower down, the track is again essentially the same as it ever was, but a few taping variations again make it fresh again. |
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| One significant feature to the new tape job on the track is to eliminate many of the multiple line choices of previous editions of this track. For example, the inside line on the final steep open section is no longer an option; rather, that outside line is now the only line. |
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| For the mechanics, the long transfer to Italy from Scotland and the pit set up means a long night of bike building to come, as riders will be starting practice at 9am on Thursday am. |
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I think they may be taping it off tighter in order to keep the trail degradation to a minimum. I doubt it's going to have much affect on the action, although it does seem strange they got rid of that inside line in Sam's corner.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22887729