Team Solid-Reverse Factory Racing - World Cup Lourdes

Lourdes World Cup round 1 – Season opener!


Photos: Zach Faulkner

After a long winter, the 2016 season is finally underway and Solid Reverse Factory Racing is back together at the holy town of Lourdes for the first round of the UCI World Cup!


The long anticipated first World Cup of the season is renowned for team changes, new faces and large uncertainty surrounding the speed of riders after an off-season of training. For Solid Reverse Factory Racing, there has been an addition of two young British talents: Joe Breeden and Corey Watson, two young and exciting riders.


Lourdes was a great venue for the season opener with a variety of steep, technical, and fast terrain to test the riders, especially in the conditions. For many the Friday practice session was chaotic during the wet and greasy track (if you haven’t already seen the crash videos), yet with the help of the BOS Suspension testing and setup during the off-season, the Team were able to deal with the conditions and were feeling good on the slip and slide. Just have a read here: https://www.pinkbike.com/news/the-hunt-for-perfection-inside-bos.html



The drying course with intermittent rain meant Qualifying was a difficult balance between riding smooth and fast. Our first year juniors, Joe Breeden and Corey Watson rode smartly into a place in the finals with level heads. In the elite category, Stefan Garlicki and Joshua Barth had some big crashes meaning that they missed out on a position in the finals.


After a rain shower just before Josh Lowe’s qualifying run, despite a ride off the course and a mistake at the top section, he narrowly missed out on qualifying for race day. However Stefan, Joshi and Josh will be coming out swinging for the rest of the season knowing that they have the pace.


Unfortunately, Team manager and rider Harry Molloy was out with a shoulder injury he sustained during the first round of the British Downhill Series a week previously. Much to his unease in having to watch, he was out helping the Team trackside and will be back racing shortly! For Joe Connell, the pace was definitely there after a winter season riding in Malaga, Spain and it showed in qualifying after a 30th place qualifier.


Come race day…
Both juniors had an early morning ride to gain confidence for the race. Unlucky for Corey his run ended with a flat and he had to walk back down. Corey had some trouble to find his pace and was riding on the safer side, which ended him in 25th position.
Joe Breeden was charging hard on the first half of the track and got slightly off pace in a lower section. At the end he still rode to a 18th place.


Joe Connell on the other hand was riding quite controlled and fast but miss judged a rock garden and came to fall right after split 2, he tried to make up some time and decided to take more risk, which came back as a boomerang as he slipped out of a corner in sight of the finish line. He was surprisingly very unhappy with his 76th place at the end. But he knows that he has the pace to be in the top 30.



It’s great to see the Solid Reverse Factory Racing back in action and we look forward to seeing them back together at Cairns and Fort William for Rounds 2 and 3 of the UCI World Cup. The riders have learnt from their mistakes, and we look forward to seeing what they can do over the course of the season.