maribor – MS INTENSE RACING

15 Oktober 2020

2020 world cup round 1 Maribor

admin Allgemein, racing 2020, brook macdonald, Eleonora farina, maribor, maribor 2020, mike jones, racing, uci mtb worldcup, uci worldcup, worldcup, worldcup racing

Qualification 2:

: pretty dark in the woods- the view is a factor for sure.

: seems like Bike has ups and downs, but was the slower quarry time a technical move for an early star time?

: easy 28th place for Brook- building his way back to the top.

: Ele is performing well these days.

: who thought, we will see Brook in worldcup racing that quick and who thought he will already perform on this level- this guy...

: 18th place in race 1 for Mike- what can we expect for race 2?

: track looks maybe inviting, but it is difficult to ride on the root carpets in the woods of Maribor.

: Briefing... Brook and Mike.

Qualifying went pretty good for the MS Mondraker Team. We will see all riders in Sunday’s race. With a 3^rd place Eleonora pulled out another top result, Brook sent it into 28^th place and Mike by the skin of his teeth crashed his way into 57th place. The weather forecast for the race is overclauded, but now rain, we will see if this changes the track to the worse or better.

race day 1:

: muddy but rideable- the Micheline tires keep traction.

: Mike Jones railing corners.

: motocross like tracks in the takeoff... the landing didn't look any better

: Mike Jones on his way to 18th place.

: Ele with a very consistent performance this week.

: vision in the woods is another factor for this week.

: happy Ele- this is how we want to see her.

: First world cup first podium.

What a day- Eleonora started with a crash this morning, just one hour before she had to get back up to the start for her race run, but nevertheless she managed to get down a solid run, maybe a little bit conservative, but good enough to finish in 4^th place. First world cup in 2020 and first podium for her- we can’t complain.

Mike had a good run, but unclipped in before the rock garden and couldn’t clip in again. He rode the rock garden unclipped, clipped in after the section and fought into the finish. The effort got rewarded with an 18^th place, which is a good start into the 2020 season. For Brook it doesn’t went as planned. He couldn’t unclip in a slippery section to put his foot out and crashed. Not a big crash, but big enough to lose some seconds, which throw him back in the final ranking to 39^th place. Probably not what he expected, but Brook is building his way back up and there is no doubt we will see him back in his natural habitat: the world cup podium.

Qualification 1:

: Ele in the morning training session...

: Representing the Italian national champion jersey

: cut a good figure in the infamous rock garden of Maribor

: Brook back on a worldcup track- not very sure about a year ago.

: Mike seems to get a long with the rainy conditions.

: mud fest in Maribor

: muddy conditions, but components resist and work perfectly.

: back to shiny pre race conditions.

Qualification ended with mixed feelings. Ele had a little crash, but finished in 5^th. She was not happy with the result, but in general happy with her performance. Mike had a so-so run, but qualified in 33^rd position. Brook had a crash in the top section. He slid out in a corner, but managed to get back on the bike and finished in 54^th place. As he was protected he would have been qualified anyway and he will still start in the flied of the top contenders.

Practice:

: this is the nice picture of racing in autumn

: Maribor- a unique venue close to a bigger city.

: Eleonora cuts a good figure

: Brook looking faster and faster

: those Micheline tires grip...

: Mike Jones seem to be back on a good perfomance level.

: characteristic for Maribor- wild root sections.

: autumn racing

We are finally back to world cup racing and Maribor is usually a good start if the season starts in spring ad not in autumn. Brook, Mike and Ele had a good day out in the woods and learned the track pretty quick, so they could get up to race pace. Conditions will be different for qualification and race day as rain is forecasted. Maribor what a beautiful place on Indian summer days…

Track walk:

: difficulties at the uplift- team effort solves the problem

: Brook back on the worldcup circuit.

: autumn conditions with slippery leafs

: race 1

: race 2

: high speed section in Maribor

: this is Maribor- infamous rock garden

: at this time of the year also the light and the view are factors.

Back to world cup racing. Round one of the 2020 UCI MTB world cup takes place in Maribor Slovenia. The conditions are like to expect that late in the season, changeable weather conditions, with the track being covered in leaves and the light is getting dark pretty early already. Beside all the new restrictions we have because of Covid we also have a new situation regarding race. Both race in Maribor and Lousa are supposed to be double races, which means we have qualification 1 on Thursday and race 1 on Friday and qualification 2 on Saturday and race 2 on Sunday.

This is on one hand double the chance, but also double the effort and difficult for riders as they have to learn 2 different tracks in sections and they only have the normal amount of training time. Stay tuned on RedBull.Tv and follow the race.