Team CRC Podcast and report

Source: MTB Cut and CRC Intense

Last weekend we were at La Bresse in France for the 2nd round of the Nissan UCI World Cup.

The race week did not get off to a great start when driving across France, we had to pull into the hospital to get Claire checked out. No-one spoke much English at the hospital and they quarantined us for 5 hours as they thought she might have swine flu! It turned out she just had a bad dose of regular flu and they let us go as soon as they got the all clear.The race track was pretty short at La Bresse. A fast flat out section at the start with some strong pedaling needed before it dropped onto the steeper part of the mountain. From here down to the bottom it was pretty technical and quite tricky in places to keep your flow and speed going. The bottom section was really steep, fast and had some natural jumps/rocks then a fast pedal into the finish.
The crowd was amazing, thousands of super fanatic fans lined the track all the way down and were cheering so loud for the riders. It was a great atmosphere. In the pits it was great too. The fans were lining up to take pictures of our bikes and get autographs from the team riders and ask questions about our bikes and all the parts on them.

Claire was unable to ride as here the flu totally wiped her out. She was very disappointed as the track really suited her riding style and after her 5th place in South Africa - she was gutted to miss out on the race and the points for the overall. France's Sabrina Jonnier took the win in her home country over the UK's Tracy Moseley and the young french rider Myriam Nicole had a great ride for 3rd place.

In the mens race Chris Kovarik was keen to get a good result for himself and the team after crashing out in the last round. Unfortunately Chris caught Claire's flu and wasn't able to do as much practice. In the qualifying run on Saturday he had a steady run as he didn't really know all his lines but made it though to Sundays final okay.

It was really close on times and with over 200 riders competing for the top 80 you couldn't take it easy or make any real mistakes on your run. This is what happened to Ruaridh - he was just over the cut off time of 02.24.00 and did not make it into Sundays final. He was pretty devastated but still needs a bit more DH time to get up to full speed after his knee surgery over the winter. Matt Simmonds was riding great and looked really fast in practice - he bottomed out and smashed a rock which caused a mechanical. Matt was also out of the top 80 for Sunday's finals. Julien qualified through to the finals easily.

World Cup #2 with Team CRC Intense:

Team CRC/Intense in La Bresse

by MTBcut

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For the finals Chris was still feeling pretty weak and suffering from the flu but when up for his run confident of a top 10 finish. Kyle Strait returned to downhill racing this season and put in a great time before the rain, sitting in the hot seat for a while. Chris was sure to knock him off but just before Chris was due to set off, disaster for Chris and the team as the heavens opened at the top of the course and a huge downpour came wetting the top half of the track and making it very slippery. Chris didn't have time to change to intermediate tires and so set off in the wet on dry tires. He was looking very fast and strong at the top but drifted wide on the corner after the road crossing and hit a huge rock making him crash and ended his chances for the day. Julien was the last rider off for the team and looked to be on a great run - he had time to change his tires but opted for full spikes. This worked good at the top but the rain had stopped again and the track was still dry at the bottom. He got deflected off a rock towards the bottom which sent him off line and he drifted down low on a very important part of the track - he stopped dead in a corner. This cost him a possible podium as he was only 1.5 seconds down on 5th place and he ended up 13th for the day - so not a disaster and still a great finish in such a close race.

We didn't get the results we were aiming for this week - it was good to get back in Europe, our new pit set up looked fantastic and the French fans were lining up at our pits all weekend long.

Steve Peat took the win with an amazing ride, smashing the rest of the field by over a second which was a lot on this super tight short track. Sam Hill took 2nd, Mick Hannah with another amazing ride in 3rd. A great ride from the UK's Brendan Fairclough in 4th and rounding off the podium was Gee Atherton. 3 British riders in the top 5 is pretty special.

We are now in Andorra after a long drive over the past 2 days and hopefully we will have a bit more luck this week and get the results our riders are capable of.

I will let you know how we get on. The 4X is on Saturday and the DH on Sunday.

Images by Victor Lucas

-Team CRC Intense

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