vallnord – MS INTENSE RACING

4 Juli 2019

world cup round 4 Vallnord Andorra

admin Allgemein, racing 2019, andorra, brage Vestavik, brook macdonald, Eleonora farina, laurie greenland, mike jones, thibault laly, uci worldcup, vallnord, world cup racing, worldcup

This is our race journal from the 4th world cup race of the 2019 season in Vallnord/ Andorra. We will update the journal every day with the latest news and pictures of the day. Stay tuned we keep you posted!

DAY 4: FINALS

: fully focused in her world cup comeback race.

: Eleonora managed to get 5th with a clean run.

: First world cup podium in 2019.

: enjoying the good times.

: Laurie on the very smooth run- not at his limit yet.

: Brook was really happy with his run and to be just 0,7 off the podium.

: boys celebrating... team spirit at its finest

: hot seat from a different perspective.

This was a pretty cool race for us and we can’t complain at all: we have 3 riders in the top 10, we got a podium and we finished 2^ndin the team of the day ranking. Eleonora had a good run and finished in 5^thposition, which meant her first world cup podium of this season. Mike was again unlucky and suffered from a mechanical, which led to a crash. He managed to get down and finished 48^thplace. Laurie came down with a good run, but was a little bit irritated by dust swaths in the woods. He finished in 9^thplace and made up some positions in the overall. Brook finish in 6^thplace and was just 1,3 seconds of the podium. He also made up some positions in the overall and sits now in 7^thplace.

Results:

Day 3:

: Eleonora back to speed- P6 for her in qualification.

: Mike Jones building up his form curve again P27 for him

: Brook hasn't had a good run- a few mistakes cost him some sections- he is happy though P7.

: Mike Jones in one of the more natural wood sections.

: the track in Andorra offers a good mix of different conditions.

: Thibault Laly crashed in quails and could qualify for the race- P 83.

: Laurie into P8 with an easy run as he called it.

: Thibault introduced Brage to our Normatec recovery system... pretty sick tool if you are burned out after days like this.

We can’t complain after qualies. We had a good time and got 3 riders into the top 10 and 4 of 6 riders into the finals… there is not a lot more you can ask for. Eleonora qualified in 6^thplace and is back on pace after her longsome infection, which is why she missed the races in Fort William and Leogang. Brook didn’t have a perfect run- a few little mistakes summed up to 1 or 2 seconds, but he finished in 7^th, which is pretty promising for finals. Laurie had a smooth run and didn’t pushed too much- P8 for him. Mike is keeps building his form back up and finished in 27^th.

Brage had a solid run and just missed finals 0,7 seconds in 64^thposition. Unlucky Thibault felt good and had a good run until he crashed- 83^rdplace for him.

Results

Day 2:

: Stefan is checking the balance of the the Michelin tire.

: Eleonora leaving the pits for the first run of the day.

: the boys take the opportunity to share lines on training runs- pretty hard sometimes.

: "what you reckon is the best line?"

: Brook sending it.

: track is pretty dusty- Laurie can tell.

: Brook said that the hot weather and the dust makes this track the most physical demanding so far.

: Mike in attack mode.

Andorra is another level this year- the hot weather in combination with the deep dust makes this track thy most physical demanding. The boys and girls got some good training runs in and feel ready for the qualification.

With a 5^thplace of Brook, a 14^thplace of Laurie and a 18^thplace of Mike we had 3 riders in the top 20, which is pretty promising considering the fact that most of the riders already went up to race pace to see what is possible on this track.

Results and start lists

Day 1:

: good mix of natural sections...

: with man made sections...

: high speed section with loose gravel.

: cofactory pilot Brage Vestavik following the factory riders like being their shadow.

: Finish jumping the arena of La Massana.

: Brage Vestavik tries to look sharp...

: pit life... hanging out after lunch and sharing impressions from course walk.

: little rain in the evening after course walks... thunderstorms expected for day 2.

Here we are back in Andorra, a mini state in the Pyrenees between France and Spain.

We connect very good memories with this place: double podium in 2018, podium in 2017, victory in 2016 and the win of the team overall in 2016…

This season hasn’t been that good for us so far, but we hope this will be our turning point. The track walk didn’t show any major news to us, which means the track is basically the same like last year.

One major change for this race is, that Laurie as well as Brook will test a new bike setup with mixed wheel sizes. This setup was tested first at Crankworx Innsbruck and now we will test the setup under world cup conditions.

12 Juli 2018

world cup round 5 Vallnord

admin Allgemein, racing 2018, anodrra, brage Vestavik, brook macdonald, Johannes von Klebelsberg, laurie greenland, mike jones, patrik butler, vallnord, worldcup

In the Elite category Johannes von Klebelsberg was the first rider of the Ms Mondraker team to come down. Coming from a very strong 26^thplace in the qualification he was able to improve his time by one second, which was not enough to repeat the result from the day before. He dropped down to 46^thposition.

Mike Jones was struggling all week with some big crashes and a sore wrist, which hold him back. To make it into the race run, Mike decided to use a wrist brace, which might be a handicap, if it was not tested before, but as it turned out later, the wrist brace was not going to be his biggest problem in his final run. Mike started out of the start gate pedaled thru the first section and snapped off his chain and derailleur. While we saw already fast runs without a chain, this one was different. The derailleur kept hanging on the cable and the risk of going fast was too big till the derailleur finally ripped off, which was too late to make up positions in the ranking. Mike finished in 60^thposition.

Brook was next to come. With a very strong 4th place from qualification he knew he could make it onto his first world cup podium since Val di Sole 2015. Brook went into a fully commited race run, but lost some time in the first section, while he was faster thru some of the lower section than later winner Loris Vergier. Just in the last corner before the last open bit Brook went hard into a corner, but was able to catch up and crossed the finish line in 3^rdposition with 3 more riders to come.

Laurie Greenland was next and again he showed a wild ride. Laurie dangled a little bit in the lower woods, where he almost got send over the bars. Laurie crossed the finish line 1,4 seconds off Brook and still two more riders to come.

Former team-mate of Laurie Danny Hart could catch up with neither Brook nor Laurie and qualification winner Luca Shawn crashed. Brook finished in 3^rdplace and Laurie completed this sensational result with a 4^thplace.

2 riders on the podium got us into 2^ndplace of the ranking for the team of the day and this 2^ndplace got us also into 2^ndplace of the overall team ranking. We again leave a world cup round with big grins on our faces.

We are now heading back home to prepare for the next world cup round in Mont Saint Anne/ Canada in about 3 weeks. Stay tuned and wait for our team video release on Wednesday!

full results

: 6th place- another top result for Paddy Butler.

: Johannes went one second faster than in Qualies, but that was not enough to replay the position from the day before- 46th place.

: Again bad luck for Mike Jones- check out his bike: chain missing, derailleur missing... 60th place.

: Laurie had a little hanger in the woods, which almost send him over the bars.- 4th place and another podium for him!

: Brook is back on the podium- 3rd place

: 2 MS Mondraker boys on the podium- well deserved!

: the newer generation podium.

: 3rd and 4th- two guys on the podium- thats more than you can ask for!

Day 3: qualification

Another very strong sign of the MS Mondraker in the qualification at the 5^thround of the 2018 UCI MTB world cup: Laurie Greenland finished in 3^rdposition just 0,006 seconds of 2^nd, Brook MacDonald finished in 4^thplace with a little mistake in the wood section where he clipped out of his pedal, Mike Jones got 22^ndwith a sore wrist after a big crash in the first training and Johannes von Klebelsberg managed to finish in 26^thplace. This 26^thplace is another strong result, which underlines his ascending performance curve. Brage Vestavik was riding a little bit to conservative and hold back too much. He did not qualify for the race and finished in 85^thplace. Last but not least Pat Butler qualified in 8^thplace in the junior category.

Overall we showed a very good team performance and we are looking forward to a tight race on Saturday- stay tuned and follow us on redbull.tv

: Mike Jones was riding with a sore wrist (from the crash on the day before) into 22nd place.

: Laurie Greenland finished 3rd- 0,006 seconds off 2nd place.

: Brook MacDonald with this little mistake in 4th place- 3,795 seconds off first, 1,226 seconds off 3rd.

: highspeed in Vallnord

: Brage was riding a little bit to conservative and could not qualify-85th place

: Best world cup qualification for Laurie Greenland so far- 3rd place.

: A little bit unlucky at the moment- Mike is riding fast, but is holden back by a sore wrist.

: Incredible performance of Brook MacDonald. Strong season so far especially considering his fast comeback after a broken collarbone at the beginning of the world cup season.

Day 2: first practice

We had a pretty good training day and the MS Mondraker training train was on again. In total it was a good day- a few mechanicals, a few little crashes and one bigger “digger” of Mike Jones, which was a little setback fro him as he tweaked his wrist again, but he will be able to ride today. Brook crashed in his timed training run and still got 10^thand co-factory rider Johannes had the 20^thfastest time of the day- so we are not worried about our pace or performance- bring on the qualification!

: BROOK 10th in timed training- with a crash!

: something we are really proud of- our MS Mondraker team train- watch out!

: one of the man made sections in Andorra.

: Mike Jones on fire. he wants to prove himself and is pushing

: a little bit to hard sometimes...

: ...but he is okay.

: Brook showing again a really strong performance

: Laurie- easy going in timed training- no doubt he knows his lines!

Day 1: track walk

Back to back weekends of racing on another sick track. We are here in Vallnord/ Andorra- a little country between France and Spain in the Pyrenees about 3 hours north of Barcelona and 3 hours south from Toulouse. The track in Vallnord is known as being a very fast track with some ambitious sections and we are coming here with some good memories such as the team overall world cup win in 2016.