Brook MacDonald Takes 9th Place in Leogang, Laurie Greenland Scores another Podium

With the threat of rain hanging over the technical Leogang track in the Austrian Alps, all four Trek World Racing riders put in solid crash fee runs which resulted in all 3 elite men improving their World Cup ranking, and Laurie Greenland back on the podium for the 5th time in a row since Méribel last year.

In the Elite Men’s race, Brook MacDonald and George Brannigan qualified on almost the same time with the latter having the edge in 11th place, Brook in 12th. Come race day and Brook stormed the track and looked to be in great shape, fastest at the second split, but lost 7 tenths in the bottom sector. He was still very happy with his first top 10 of the year.

George was next up and went faster than Brook at the first split, but a small mistake in the second sector needing to put his foot down a few times, cost George valuable time crossing the line 7 tenths behind Brook and eventually finishing 12th. Brook moves up 4 places in the overall, back into a protected position, while George moves up 3 places to 23rd. Greg Williamson had a run he was happy with to finish 25th, moving his overall ranking up from 52nd to 37th overall.

Brook said, “I’m very happy with that. I know where I lost some time in the bottom, casing a section before the rock garden which stalled me, but overall I had a great bike set-up this week and felt great in my run. There was also a really strong headwind for most of the race that seemed to die down for the last 8 guys, so I know there was some time there.”

Laurie Greenland qualified 2nd Saturday, after injuring his knee in training on Friday. The swelling restricted mobility on Saturday and he rode the qualifier fairly conservatively as no points are at stake. Sunday race day saw his knee back to near 100% and Laurie was ready for a great race. Fastest at the first split Laurie unfortunately lost his chain just prior to the long motorway section and dropped a lot of time in the prevailing headwind. To finish 3rd after that is a great result and keeps Laurie in the points chase for the overall, now in 2nd.

The team heads down the road the Schladming for a European iXS Cup at the classic ex-World Cup venue. The next round of the World Cup is in 2 weeks at the new venue of Lenzerheide, Switzerland.