Champery World Championships - Day 4
 |
After several days of dry dusty practice the rains began with a late night/early morning downpour that changed the track conditions to wet and greasy. First up in this morning's practice were the women...
 |
 The ruts are deep and greasy at this point. It went from dusty and loose to scary after epic thunderstorms last night. Rain is on the schedule every day through Sunday now, so things could be interesting come Sunday. |
 |
| The heavy downpour made the track a bit of a mess for the Elite Women and Junior's practice. Rachel had two words for the track conditions: "absolute rubbish." |
 |
| Flats and 5.10s. Pom-Pom is looking extremely focused and untroubled by the mud this morning. |
 |
| Claire Buchar looks to be extremely comfortable. She missed the entire World Cup this year, but put in some solid enough races in North America to make the team selection for Canada. |
 |
| Pugin spends a fair amount of time skiing in the winter. On this track. |
 |
| Canada's Junior ripper Lauren Rosser surprised everyone last year when she took time out of her XC schedule to race DH at World's... and won. This year she is looking fast and comfortable, even in this morning's mud. |
 |
| Sabrina Jonnier has been pretty quiet this week. Focused. Even though popular opinion has Pugin or Pom-Pom as front runners, Sabo is never one to be forgotten. |
 |
| Looking down on Tracy Moseley in the same turn. Moseley competed in the team relay yesterday aboard an XC machine, interestingly enough. |
 |
| Emilie Signethaler was one of the only women to jump all 3 of the booters this morning, in the grease no less. Rachel Atherton laughed and only had one thing to say after hearing about it... "Oh, great." |
 |
| Lewis Buchanan was one of the early guinea pigs on the 3 big jumps this morning. Flat light and lots of grease, Lewis made it look easy. |
 |
| The berms here are people deep at times... |
 |
| It was all about just making it down the track this morning. More than a few big names decided to walk the track instead of riding it. |
 |
| Makin' the mud fly... Brendan Yrttiaho gets a bit wild his first run of the day. |
 |
| The Bulldog is riding the track as if it is dry and could be on the box come Sunday if he can keep it together. |
 |
| Doggy tearing through the mud. Thanks to Flipper and the terrible light for pushing me to get some ridiculous pans in this morning. i owe you! |
 |
| Matti Lehikoinen has had a few rough years with injuries. This year he has stayed in one piece, and we're all crossing our fingers that he can pull out a great result here at Champery. |
 |
| Brendan gets 2 shots today because he's having fun riding his bike again. When Bredawg has fun, everyone wins. |
 |
| It wouldn't be a World Champs without some trials riding, and the course designer for the Trials World Champs is mental. There are a number of sections that riders need to clear; the river crossing was just one of them. Although it was perhaps the most difficult one. Riders were forced to cross the river twice. |
 |
| Flats or clips seems to be a big question in the pits. With the mud today, a lot of racers, like Cam Cole, were seen quickly swapping out clips for flats. |
 |
| Rain? Mud? Emmeline Siegenthaler doesn't care; for her, it'll be clips on race day no matter what. "I had no problems today, so I won't switch, even if it rains from now until the race." Pedal of cholce? Shimano DX. |
 | I had no problems today, so I won't switch, even if it rains from now until the race.-- Emilie Siegenthaler |
 |
| Justin Leov only took one run today. More to feel out how the track is in the wet than anything else. |
 |
| Stevie Bell, Gee Atherton's mechanic, is not one to waste good tire sealant. |
 |
| Scott 11 put on a wee bit of a VIP shindig for the teams, serving Raclette. You've never had that? Traditional Swiss mountain fare...melted cheese, potatoes, and pickles. Bon Apetite! |
 |
| Jack at Lapierre has been making good use of the down time here at Worlds to start a homebrew operation; he's serving from the Lapierre pits. 5chf for a .5l... |
 |
| The fruit taffy was quite a hit for the local yellow jackets. |
 |
| Future World Champ? |
Photos by Colin Meagher and Fraser Britton
 |
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
Sign Up for the Pinkbike Newsletter - All the Biggest, Most Interesting Stories in your Inbox
PB Newsletter Signup
Glad it rained though, will make for incredible action! Anyone know if there will be a free to view replay on freecaster after the live stream has finished?