Qualifying - Cairns DH World Cup 2
Today an elite platoon of fine young men risked life and limb for their countries, sponsors and perhaps any attractive onlookers they happened to discern from their mud-spattered peripheral vision at 60kph. This special-ops unit consisted of 5 highly trained seals who were all to impact on their respective top 5 targets before ceasefire. Blenkinsop, Gwin, Minnaar, Masters and Dale... 'Aus-pocalyse Now' was a upon them and they fought bravely from their flooded foxholes. It may only be qualifying and tomorrow the list of heroes may be rewritten, but points and pride were on the line here today. These are champions of the slop, kings of the goop... masters of wet dirt. Give them each a medal. We must also honor the female troops who endured the same ordeal and came out alive and on top; Atherton, Carpenter and Ragot as well as the brave boy-soldier, Loris Vergier.
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 As the sun sets on this Friday evening, the skies have opened up once again. Who knows what monster may be formed overnight on this hill for the riders to face in the morning. |
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| One man has no fear.... the mud-coated Sam of the Blenkinsop, stealing the lion-share of qualie glory here today. |
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| The bug-eyed bandit, looking a little apprehensive on his way to training lap number 2, talking about how smooth some people's lines are in the disaster zone that follows the rock garden. Guess he must have dialled in his lines pretty well by the time qualies came around. |
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| Blenki blasting the triples, going mach-turkey and giving Gwin a run for his money. |
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| Thick cloud hid the summit from view for most of today's proceedings, but thankfully the rain held off until the last man was down. |
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| Anyway it's all about adaptation and having the right tools for the job. |
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| First Group A shuttle of the day. Clean bikes about to become caked with thick Australian mud. |
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| So it's official... He is really back. Rain or shine, Aaron Gwin has returned to maximum velocity, leaving spectators open mouthed and gasping in every section. |
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| The sun did almost come out.... It hinted it was up there somewhere right before qualies started. It was a welcome reprieve after yesterdays deluge that battered the photographers and their gear. |
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| As if the course hadn't had a hard enough time this week, after qualifying, the hundreds of spectators slid their way back to base.... The only way back down; on the track. Come 4pm it made your average pig farm look like a cricket pitch by comparison. |
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| Safe to say the mud is beyond out of control... so where to put your things when you need to change set up? Nature's cleaner pocket will have to do for Sebastian Schiek. |
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| Minnaar is an unbelievable racer to the point where he is sometimes easily forgotten. Everyone assumes he will do well and he does, so nobody takes note. Well as ever he is in blistering stealth-mode form and could easily take the biscuit here in Aus. |
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| Team 'Straya (not Kiwi... sorry chum), Dave McMillan, gets mighty loose in the gnar-clay tech section of the lower slopes. |
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| Needles railing the famous cyclone, a corkscrew section of track carved into the hill. |
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| Johannes Fischbach looking dead ahead at the entry to the rock garden. With all of the rain, the rocks aren't only wet but they are covered in a thick layer of slick Aussie clay. Be focused and on line here or a good run will quickly turn bad. |
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| The rock garden is no time to practice your flatland skills, the scene for which I gather is very strong in Australia. |
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| Luca Shaw pinned and ready to keep the train rolling for the season with the number one plate. Loris won the battle today, but not the war. |
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| Stuck between a rock and a hard place. |
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| Loris Vergier qualified nine seconds up on Luca... You can be sure we will be seeing these two shelling the crap out of each other all season, with Taylor Vernon in hot pursuit. |
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| Atherton off line in the rock garden. It may have cost her time, but not enough to keep her from qualifying first by a gargantuan 18 seconds. After a shaky South Africa, the long-haired Atherton of old is definitely back. |
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| Manon Carpenter fresh off her first World Cup win and gunning to hang on to that number 1 plate. |
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| Later on, not unlike a lot of folk, Manon went for a slide in the mud, this time not stopping until the bottom of the entire chute. |
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| Jill Kintner was one of two women to make it through the rock garden clean. The other was Pom Pon. Both Atherton and Carpenter got hung up here, but it didn't keep Atherton from destroying the field. |
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| Seagrave came in hot to the clay carnage area, post rock garden, and quickly became engulfed in a ball of slime. Her grips were then too slippy to ride the section out. |
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| This is truly a war zone and the most problematic part of the course for everyone by far. And still there's a struggle to believe this is how the Australian World Cup looks. |
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| Tracey struggling in the struggle zone, with 35 seconds to find for glory. |
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| Brosnan is committed to getting a podium in his home country, flying the Australian National Champs jersey. |
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| Celebrating a clean bossing of the woops sections, headed full speed towards one of the greasy uphills. |
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| Pekoll lost control in the mud and spear-tackled a videographer at real pace. Hopefully the clip can pay the repairs. |
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| Mitch opted for his DH over his 29er this afternoon, but took a good tumble near the end. Fortunately this time he still made the cut. |
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| Ratty Skidson giving it #allthelads style. |
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| Italian national champ, Lorenzo Suding, slaying berms on the top section of the track. The top section of the track is definitely running faster than the bottom, which has up to five inches of thick mud in places. |
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| Mick Hannah waiting to train and getting a break from the constant picture taking and signing of babies in the pits. |
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| A grand total of 3 runs for Steve due his shonky spine and a 24th qualifier. Less is more...apparently. |
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| New Bulls mechanic, Jerome, returns triumphant from the snaking bike wash ques, with a sparkling Wyning machine. Only about 30% of people at this race are still using shoes. |
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| Homemade, custom Sik Mik shirts... a true rarity. |
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| The rains held off until just after qualies and parts of the track looked to be improving. Just when we thought things might be looking up, the clouds came back in and the rains came, dashing hopes for a semi dry day tomorrow. |
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| Brendog blasting the wide open section that is still relatively unrutted. |
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| Ratboy skimming over the whoops as if they were flat ground |
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| Fun was had at the sh*t show. |
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| Loose, loose , loose. Sam Hill leg-out sliding through four inches of peanut butter. Hill and Hannah are surely the favorites here, and home track advantage could play into Sick Mic's hands. Neither one could keep it together today and ended up qualifying 50th and 34th after hitting the deck. |
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| Full French throttle from Bruni on the limited remaining hardpack. Team Lapierre are bulletproof in the mud...and in fact on just about anything this season. |
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| Gee Atherton will be looking to improve on his performance at South Africa. He qualified sixth today, but will he have what it takes to win tomorrow? The rain has been intermittent all day allowing for some drying of the track. If the rains hold off and the track dries out as the day progresses, those who qualified best will have the best shot of the stop step. |
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| Sick Mick staying unusually higher in the air than most of us are used to seeing. Had a little hiccup in the upper section and can hopefully hold it together for tomorrow for all-mighty long spell in the hotseat.. |
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| The word of the day in Cairns is "control". Not an easy thing to maintain on the slick track today. Greg Minnaar kept things in control enough to qualify third. The man just cannot have a bad ride. |
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| Gwin clinging for dear life onto the slippery but smooth(er) off-camber high line |
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| Horns from the people's champ, Eddy Masters. An astonishing turn-up amongst the carnage. The 'spirit of downhill' is believed even to have stuck to the course and stayed inside the tape on this one. |
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| Masters full death-grip for damn good reason. 4th in qualy and one very happy Kiwi. |
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| A buck-loose run down the course in full terror, but managing the unthinkable. Must be those Civil War side-burns doing something right. |
 | Sh*t yeah! That run was well.....kind of like give yourself 'helping hand' but with the wrong hand... a little awkward, a mess at the end but still a fun time. Hopefully it also increases my match potential on tinder! Bring on finals yewwww! Edward Masters - Bergamont Hayes World Team |
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| As Derek Zoolander once said,.. 'Moisture is the essence of wetness'. So far in Cairns we cannot disagree. |
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| Today's fastest in her Cairns WC uniform. Tomorrow the fight is on, doing battle with the claggiest mud on the planet. Conditions will no doubt be unfair according to start times, especially with such big names well down the pack, but this is the game and that's racing. Until then it's over and out from the Aussie front line... |
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instagram.com/p/nM3nBLzUPf
The filmers angle of the Pekoll incident.
great pictures and great captions!
thank you very much indeed
www.pinkbike.com/news/rumor-mitch-ropelato-to-run-hlins-fork-internals-cairns-world-cup.html
Pic of the white boxxer may or may not have ohlins internals, rumor has it that the pike has it.
or less about the Demo....
It does not end there however, when the time comes for a more rough track with bigger boulders and general gnarl, Specialized riders will show up with some kind of new generation Demo frame. Maybe something similar to what the spyshots from last year showed, maybe something not even seen on spyshots...
But this is the way we figured it. Only time will tell if we are right.
I have not thought too much about that part, but it would be inline with what alot of the other manufacturers are doing/testing.
I'm sure its only wishful thinking.
I find it hard to believe that this would be appealing for the vast majority of riders?
Dave Mcmillan isn't a KIWI!
Why can't anyone covering races ever get Dave's nationality right!?
Last time we got to watch at night Sir Peaty got his Crown.
This is mountain biking, not Apocalypse Now. Stop trying to be clever and just write in a manner people can understand.