brage

27 April 2019

world cup round 1 Maribor

admin Allgemein, racing 2019, brage, brook, eleonora, farina, greenland, ici, jones, laly, laurie, macdonald, maribor, mike, mtl worldcup, thibault, vestavik

: head mechanic Ben in charge for tire choice- Micheline 22 or 34?

: new member Eleonora Farina.

: Laurie Greenland in his fresh Fox kit.

: Laurie Greenland taking off in Maribor...

: Brook MacDonald looking even stronger than in 2018.

: Brage Vestavik- will he qualify for the race?

: Thibault Laly showed top 20 section times- what can we expect?

Day 2:

With the first training we started into the season. There was nothing really unexpected: the track was really fast- section wise too fast why the UCI shut down a line in the rock garden for rider’s safety. But other than that the training went good with good section times in timed training.

: Maribor start house- 1st world cup race of the season is about to start.

: Mark Sterland with Ludwig Götzendorfer- the good soul of the team.

: not easy these days to find the fastest line... seems like there a lot of question marks.

: Mike and Brook searching for the fastest line.

: Head mechanic Ben got crazy after a long preparation period- but we are ready.

: Stefan Doppling setting up his working space- tool box wars.

: Mark Sterland preparing the bike for Laurie Greenland.

: New team member Eleonora Farina

Day X- here we are:

Finally we are back to race world cups. This is the first round of the 2019 UCI mountain bike world cup in Maribor/ Slovenia. We have been racing here back in 2010 and Maribor was always a nice place to go for a season starter. Maribor is a nice little city close to the Austrian border and offers some good riding. The track was infamous because of a difficult rock garden and because it’s so fast.

The first impression of the track was good and the track looks in shape even there has been a European IXS cup round on the same track a week ago. Stay tuned for more news.

9 Juni 2018

Leogang world cup round 3 with the first podium

admin Allgemein brage, brage Vestavik, brook, brook macdonald, fabian, fabian urlich, Johannes von Klebelsberg, laurie greenland, Leogang 2018, mike jones, mtb worldcup, UCI, worldcup

Another video summary by Björn Hunger of our fabulous week in Leogang… good things happen when you don’t expect them! 4 elite men in the finals, 3 out of 4 in the top 10, 1 podium with a 3rd place and the 2nd place in the team results… you can’t ask for more- we are stoked!

Day 4: Race day

Another race is in the books and we are catching up. We went into the race day fully excited, as we knew we were on a good pace. All the riders from the factory program qualified in the top ten, as well as Johannes qualified for the men’s final and new add on Patrik qualified for the juniors final. The times from the day before were very promising, which let us hope for the jackpot.

Patrik was the first in juniors race and struggled a bit after coming back from a broken scaphoid. He did some mistakes and crashed in the last section of the track. In the end he became 16^th, which was maybe a little setback for him, but the result from qualifying is something we can build on.

Co-factory rider Johannes was the first to come down. Johannes didn’t find his flow, made some mistakes, which send him back into 54^thposition, but we think positive, as we know what to change to get him up in the rankings.

Mike Jones was net to come. He already showed in the first timed training session that you have to have him on the radar. His 2^ndplace was motivation was enough to qualify in 10^thposition with a steady run. In his final race run Mike put a solid run together which got him into 8^thplace in the end.

Laurie was next to come. He qualified in 6^thplace, which was the perfect position for an attack- and so he did. Laurie had one of these runs he is known for- wild and on eth edge, but controlled and precise at the same time. He was just a few tenth of a seconds of the time of current leader Aaron Gwin and crossed the finish line in second position, but got 3^rdin the final result.

Last man of the MS Mondraker team was Brook MacDonald. Still not 100% fit and missing some weeks of riding after a broken collarbone, Brook shows an incredible performance. A 2^ndplace in qualification got him into the circle of favorites. Brook was the second last man to come down today. He lost some time in the top parts and took a different line in the lower section. Brook got 9^thin the end… maybe he was not really satisfied with that, but happy to know that he is on the pace to keep up with the current podium riders.

The 3^rdplace of Laurie was our first world cup podium this season and the fact that we had three riders in the top 10 brought us into the 2^ndplace of today’s team ranking. We are now back in 4^thposition of the team overall world cup ranking and keep catching up.

Here you can find the complete set of results.

We are now heading to Bikepark Innsbruck for the second round of the crankworx series- meet us there!

: Patrik Butler, had some good split times but crashed at the end of his final run

: Johannes von Klebelsberg- always 100%

: Mike Jones is back. The top 10 is his new home along with both his team mates MacDonald and Greenland.

: Brook sending it into the panorama...

: check out the line and where they took off...

: Laurie was again on a pinner... 3rd place

: Ex team mates, Brook and Greg after one eventful afternoon in the woods.

: first world cup podium for the MS Mondraker team with Laurie Greenland in 3rd

Day 3:

We had an amazing qualifying day today. Brook, Laurie and Mike from the factory squad qualified in the top 10, as well as Johannes from the co-factory team qualified in 40^thposition. This result got completed with the 6^thplace in qualification for the men junior race of Patrik Butler, which is pretty promising considering his situation of a coming back after a broken scaphoid. We are now in a very good position for the race tomorrow. Stay tuned and follow the race on https://www.redbull.tv/live/AP-1VPHMM9GS1W11/mercedes-benz-uci-mountain-bike-world-cup

: "habt acht" boys are ready for action

: Mike Jones at one of the bike park wallrides- prefers the natural sections for sure.

: Laurie 6th in qualies...

: Laurie enjoyed riding the new version of the worldcup track in Leogang

: Johannes qualified in 40th position

: Brages was sick all week- too enfeebled to qualify

: Brook again on fire- 2nd place in qualies

: typical bike park section... wall ride action

Day 2:

First day of practice was wild. The riders couldn’t wait to ride the new version of the DH world cup track in Leogang. Laurie, Brook and Mike got on speed really quick and they were on the same pace thru out the open training session. Mike was leading in the timed training session for quite a while and got 2^ndin the end. Brook got 14^thwith a solid run and Laurie got 20^thwith a so-so run and an almost crash, where he hit a tree. We have a good pace and everything is open for tomorrows qualification.

: Austrian rider Fabian Ulrich

: the MS Mondraker train is on course

: Brook is getting stronger and stronger after his broken collarbone

: The Viking Brage Vestavik- will he qualify this weekend?

: no question- Laurie like the new version of the track.

: new for this weekend- Patrik Butler from Australia joined the cofactors squad

: our Italian rider Johannes von Klebelsberg- also known as"putega internazionale"

: Mike Jones- a 2nd place in timed training get him back on the screen.

Day 1:

In the past few years Leogang was maybe not the most popular track on the world cup circuit. Too easy and to “bikeparky” was the common sense between the riders. Even more we have been surprised on track walk when we saw the modifications the organizers did to the track- especially the nice new grass off camber section was in favor of all the riders. The new common sense?! Bring on the race and lets rock!

: Greenland getting all out of shape on the first kicker.

: Mike Jones keeping up with the MS squad.

: the boys are sharing lines...

: thats the way to go...

: Brook and Ben doing fine adjustments

: the good stuff for the cockpit- Renthal bike components

: Laurie and Brook switch to hike mode ready to go find out what awaits them up the mountain.

: bike is getting a overhauling

We had an amazing qualifying day today. Brook, Laurie and Mike from the factory squad qualified in the top 10, as well as Johannes from the co-factory team qualified in 40^thpositi

3 Juni 2018

Fort William- the world cup’s classic tour stop

admin Allgemein brage, brage Vestavik, brook, brook macdonald, fabian, fabian urlich, fort william, ici worldcup, johannes, Johannes von Klebelsberg, laurie, laurie greenland

this is the video summery by Björn Hunger… lots of impressions, with some niche tunes by Sons of Buddha and Supermunk- enjoy!

race report:

Heavy rain on Saturday evening changed the track overnight. The track soften up a bit, with the consequence that the early morning training sessions of the women and juniors caused new holes on the track and some roots came out, which were pretty slippery. The weather forecast looked again unstable, with a high chance for heavy rain after 4 o’clock.

Mike was the first starter of the MS Mondraker Team. After the bad luck at the first world cup round where he couldn’t qualify because of a mechanical problem, collecting points is the highest priority. Mike improved his result from 28^thplace to a 24^thspot in the end.

Next to come was Brook- even he is not 100% fit after his crash from Losinj and even it was not about the win this weekend, Brook pulled out the maximum. A few mistakes hold him back from entering the top ten- 11^thplace for Brook and a 12^thplace in the UCI world cup overall ranking.

Laurie was the last man of the MS Mondraker team on the mountain. He made a few little mistakes in some of the sections and landed almost off course on one of the jumps in the so-called motorway section, which cost valuable seconds in the end. Laurie finished in 16^thposition, which dropped him in the overall into 10^thplace.

Overall we had a good weekend. Maybe not the top results yet, but the performance curve is promising.

1st Amaury Pierron

2nd Loris Vergier

3rd Troy Brosnan

11th Brook MacDonald

16th Laurie Greenland

24th Mike Jones

Results:

: Laurie- not to happy with his run and the final result... but he will strike back for sure in Leogang.

: no room for mistakes... rock garden from top to bottom

: Laurie- 16th place today

: 11th place for Brook today after a broken collarbone 5 weeks ago

: Mike finished in 24th position

: Mike on the 2nd last jump before the finish line

Day 3:

The mission was clear- all riders qualify for the finals. Even this was an ambitious mission this is what all riders are going for. From the early morning we knew that the weather might be the Grinch of the day. The weather forecast looked unstable and so we had to fight with changing weather conditions during the qualification. We had 6 riders on the start and 3 got into the finals of the top 60 men. While Laurie, Brook and Mike qualified without big effort, Brage, Johannes and Fabien struggled a bit with the changing conditions and the sporadically heavy rain and could not manage to qualify.

Qualifying results:

Brook 18th

Laurie 20th

Mike 28th

: Brook sending the Red Bull road gap before the motorway

: Laurie one fire

: Brook on fire- even not 100% yet, he keeps going and tries to not fall to far behind.

: Laurie in the lower woods- demanding section with a lot of rocks

: Also not qualified for the race was Brage Vestavik- it is hard to qualify for the finals with the best 60 men of the world... but he is getting closer!

: did not went as planed for Johannes- even he did not qualify he showed a good performance. now it is about consistence- next race next chance!

: Laurie in the zone... last few minutes before his run... on the trainer bike and fully focused.

: 9 seconds back today, the Bulldog is set to bite back tomorrow.

Day 2:

It was the first day of training. The dry and hot weather of the past week turned the track into being very slick. It wasn’t a very big surprise that we saw very fast times in the timed training, but the comeback of the Brook after his broken collarbone at the first round with a 4^thplace in time training was a little sensation for us. Laurie as well as Mike was on a good pace, while the riders of the co-factory riders where struggling a little bit with the conditions and the setup.

: Brook and his mechanic Ben working on the fine tuning of Brook's cockpit: Renthal father 30 mm rise with a Renthal 50mm stem

: Laurie and his brand new signing card

: 5 weeks later and Brook's already back at the sharp end... and on one of the circuit's most notoriously physical tracks.

: unusual dry and warm weather turned the track into being very dusty and slippery- Brook in one of the section in the top part.

: Rocks from top to bottom- pretty slippery no matter if dry or wet.

: Johannes von Klebelsberg fully focused.

: Mike Jones on a mission- after a non qualifier at the last round in Losinj the qualification for the top 60 is the first goal of the weekend.

Day 1:

Coming to Fort William is coming back to one of the 2 world cups classics. Far north in Scotland we race on the highest peak of the United Kingdom. The track is well know and does not change a lot as it is a man made track from top to bottom with some wooden bridges as well as a lot of rock gardens. One of the new parts from last year got reshaped and redone with rocks and changed so to a man made rock garden- in the dry not too difficult, but in the wet probably a game changer.