Madison Saracen Factory Team in Leogang

After the drama of Fort William, the team headed south to Leogang in Austria. Mountain views and men in leather bib shorts playing the trombone awaited their arrival, nothing odd about that... Everyone was happy to see sun and blue skies, but by Thursday evening it seemed the Fort William weather had followed the team vans south!






Torrential rain and thunder storms played their part in sculpting the new sections of track that zig zagged through trees of fresh loam, to quickly become a network of tree roots, deep ruts and holes to add to the challenge. Thankfully the weather stayed dry after that and the track became drier through to race day. The holes and breaking bumps however remained, making the track far from the bike park style path it has been previously been claimed.









For Manon, her World Cup drama continued; after a solid final run that looked set to put her in the hot seat, wind blew her off line and landing out of shape from the final tabletop, she smashed through the course tape and poles, missing a section of track. She continued to role on past the finish line just a few meters on and was disqualified for going the wrong side of the course marker pole. A tough blow to her points count for the season but no doubt fuel to her ambitions to put things right as we move on to the second half of the World Cup season.










Sam put together a tidy run; after a week of sickness he was down on strength and focus but keen to put that behind him on race day, his reward was a solid top twenty ride in 18th place.







Matt is coming to form race by race and found great speed at the top of the Leogang track, only to lose a few seconds in the lower technical section. His top ten split time and 13th place finish showed he will be shooting for the podium when we arrive in Lenzerheide for round 4!






A tough couple of weeks for the team, bitter sweet memories of the Ft William race and promises that didn't quite come good on race day in Leogang. All the team were riding well though and will be looking to turn things around in their race runs when we head to Switzerland. Watch this space…


Photo credit: Duncan Philpott @duncanp

www.saracen.co.uk/team / @SaracenBikes