Greg Minnaar's Winning Run From Fort William

Laurie Greenland Leads Junior World Cup

In a weekend of trying weather at the second stop of the UCI Downhill World Cup in Fort William, Scotland, Trek World Racing’s Laurie Greenland emerged with the coveted leader’s jersey and yet another 2nd place in the world class racing. Another highlight for the team was George Brannigan’s 9th place, his career best result on the tough 2km track.

Torrential rains and strong winds caused a complete cancellation of the Saturday World Cup schedule, resulting in no training or qualifying. This is mainly due to the fact that the gondola to the top of the hill cannot operate in high winds when transporting bikes. Additionally this venue is the only one on the circuit that doesn’t have an alternative access route to the top of the track via a fire road.

The schedule for Sunday was long, starting at 6.15am for training, followed by qualifying and then the finals. In George’s race run he was held up by a rider who’d had a mechanical problem, and he was offered a re-run by the UCI. Not an easy decision on a physical track but George’s decision to head to the top resulted in a 6 second improvement on his affected run, and his first top 10 result at Fort William.

George said: “After a full effort in qualifying and then again in the final, I wasn’t sure what to do when the Commissaires came over to me and offered a re-run, but I had a fair bit of time to recover and in the end it was the right thing to do. To be honest I’m pretty happy with 9th here.”

Laurie Greenland who finished 6th on this track last year, qualified in 3rd on Friday and was confident of being able to improve on his time of 5m 08s. In the final he improved another 5 seconds, was fastest in the most difficult technical middle sector, and took 2nd place to last year’s winner on this track, Martin Maes (BEL), The result was enough to take him into the lead in the overall series going into round 3.

Laurie said: “Pretty amazing feeling to be up on the podium on my own and being awarded the jersey, such a great feeling and an honour to wear it. I’d be lying if I said I was happy to get 2nd again….it’s 4 races in a row now, so I’m hungrier than ever for the win.”

A crash in the 2nd sector put an end to Brook MacDonald’s hopes after showing great speed all week. Fort William is one of his favourite tracks but a loose rock caught him out and the time loss was too great. Brook recovered though to be 2nd fastest rider of the day in the all-important final sector where fitness is key. Local hero Greg Williamson had a difficult run and finished 26th. Despite the disappointing run, he took home a good swag of points and has elevated his World Cup ranking by 40 positions.

The team heads to Leogang, Austria, this week for round 3 of the World Cup.

2016 Nukeproof Pulse Launched

Nukeproof have released details of the 2016 Pulse downhill bike, which has been developed in conjunction with Team Chain Reaction Cycles PayPal and designed to win World Cups.

Team riders Sam Hill, Mike Jones and Joe Smith have been testing this version of the bike since November 2014, with further testing being carried out by Nukeproof’s in-house development team.

The aluminium frame, designed around 27.5” wheels, has a 62 degree head angle, 440mm chainstay, 1232mm wheelbase and 425mm reach. It weighs in at 8.1lb and its release date will be unveiled at Eurobike this year.  

Watch Team Chain Reaction Cycles PayPal rider Joe Smith putting the 2016 Nukeproof Pulse through its paces:

UCI Mountain Bike World Cup LIVE In Leogang

Saalfelden Leogang in Salzburger Land, Austria, April 29th 2015 – The Austrian mountain bike mekka Saalfelden Leogang is all set to host the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup presented by Shimano from June 13th to 14th. During the Out of Bounds Festival (June 11th to 14th), the world’s best downhill racers will fight for points on the legendary “Speedster” track, in their pursuit of the world cup title. For further entertainment there will be lots of side events and the tenth edition of 26TRIX, a prime Gold level FMB World Tour event.
 
Saalfelden Leogang will host mountain bike’s downhill racing elite as the third round of the UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Cup takes place in Bikepark Leogang. After the second round at Fort William (GBR, June 6th + 7th), the athletes will travel to the alpine town, Leogang (June 13th + 14th) before their journey goes on to Lenzerheide (SUI, July 4th + 5th).

Raring to roll out of the start gate, racers will have to conquer 2.5 km of root carpets, stony off-camber sections, tight turns and high-speed tracks. If history is anything to go by, then we can expect to see breath-taking duels like Gee Atherton and Stevie Smith’s championship battle in 2013 and legendary moments like Aaron Gwin’s bare rim run just last year. The action is at Saalfelden Leogang – make sure you don’t miss a beat! This is the schedule of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Saalfelden Leogang:
 
Saturday, June 13th
12:30 pm              World Cup Downhill – Qualifying Round – Juniors
01:30 pm              World Cup Downhill – Qualifying Round – Women
02:00 pm              World Cup Downhill – Qualifying Round – Men Elite
 
Sunday, June 14th
12:30 pm              World Cup Downhill – Final – Juniors
01:15 pm              World Cup Downhill – Final – Women
02:00 pm              World Cup Downhill – Final – Men Elite
Awards Ceremony
 
Before the downhill finals go down, the Austrian Hannes Arch will amaze the live crowds with his spectacular airshow at 12:15pm on Sunday. This stunt pilot’s demonstration is a must see! A sense of thrill at the Out of Bounds Festival can also be found during the tenth edition of the progressive dirt jump event, 26TRIX. It won’t be the first time the craziest and most advanced tricks in the sport have been thrown down at this FMB World Tour Gold Event. Some of the highest ranked riders in the world will come to Bikepark Leogang to show why their bag of tricks is better than the rest. These airtime acrobatics include the raddest tricks of the mountain bike sport: from cashrolls to bikeflips and double backflips – anything is possible at 26TRIX.
 
Apart from the competitive events, side attractions like the team- and expo area is great for catching a glimpse behind the scenes of the world’s top cycling teams and get tips from the best mechanics in the industry. Visiting hours are:
 
Friday, June 12th: 12:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Saturday, June 13th: 10:00 am – 8:00 pm
Sunday, June 14th: 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
 
Evening times are just as much fun at the Out of Bounds Festival. The program is full of events and contests where visitors and professionals can take part in together. The schedule is as follows:
 
Thursday, June 11th, 09:00 pm: Bunny Hop Contest; 10:00 pm: Video Premiere
Friday, June 12th, 08:30 pm – 10:00 pm: Pumptrack Contest
Saturday, June 13th, 09:00 pm: Oe3 Party with Rene Rodrigezz
Sunday, June 14th, 08:00 pm: After Bike Party @ Outback Bar
 
Visitors can take advantage of a special Out of Bounds package including tickets and accommodation:
UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Package from June 11th to 14th 2015
3 overnight stays incl. 2 day Out Of Bounds ticket to the event area and all side-events (Oe3 Party, etc.) and the Löwen Alpin Card (guest card for Saalfelden Leogang) starting from € 104,- per person
Book now under reiseservice@saalfelden-leogang.at or 0043 / (0) 6582 / 70660
 
 
News about the UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Cup and biking in the Saalfelden Leogang region can be found on the bike channel: http://bike.saalfelden-leogang.com/ or on: www.facebook.com/MountainBike.WC.Leogang
 
You will find further information about Bikepark Leogang here:
http://bike.saalfelden-leogang.com/or on: http://www.facebook.com/Leogang.Bikepark
 
News and information about the Saalfelden Leogang region can be found on:
http://www.saalfelden-leogang.com/en

Laurie Greenland Finishes 2nd At World Cup Opener in Lourdes, France

Trek World Racing’s junior rider Laurie Greenland started the 2015 World Cup season by landing yet another podium, while crashes marred the Elite Men’s race where Brook MacDonald finished 12th for the day.

The standout ride for the team came on Saturday when Laurie qualified fastest in the juniors by close to 3 seconds over his rivals and in a time that would have qualified him 9th in Elite Men. His middle sector was only 0.5sec off fastest qualifier Loic Bruni (FRA), but unfortunately in the race run on Sunday Laurie arrived at a corner in sector 1 that had been blown out and had no chance to avoid it as he was already committed to his line. He didn’t crash but lost time coming to a complete stop on an important section for carrying momentum. Despite losing over 2 seconds he pulled back all but 3 tenths to finish 2nd. Laurie now sits 2nd in the overall World Cup standings heading to Fort William.

Laurie said: “So much to take away from the weekend. Seeing that I had comparable speed to the Elites was encouraging after all the hard work and training over the winter. Of course I’m disappointed not to have taken the win, but it’s a long season and I’m keen to get to Fort William which has been kind to me over the years.”

Brook MacDonald was looking for a solid top 10 on this new course and was a little disappointed to finish 12th but the points haul against some of his main rivals was very strong and Round 2 at Fort William promises to see Brook as a podium threat, like he was in 2013 finishing 2nd.

George Brannigan had great pace on the track and was bringing his New Zealand season form to the table in the qualifier where he would have finished top 6 had he not been slowed up by a rider who’d punctured and failed to clear the course. In the final practice session George had a small crash but damaged his Fox Forks and needed to head to the pits for a fork change. Unfortunately getting to the top of the hill 4mins too late and was denied a final practice run. This impacted his final race run as the course had changed to powder in many sections and a crash in sector 1 cost him dearly.

A spectacular crash for Greg Williamson ended what was shaping up to be a great run for the Scottish rider. Despite an earlier crash higher up on the course, Greg was 0.4secs up on the 2nd split but mechanical issues suffered in the first crash contributed to his dramatic flight over the bars, off the edge of a bridge and onto the road below. Fortunately not suffering any serious injury the crowd applauded as he walked away from a potentially nasty crash.

Greg said: “I literally found myself on a road and had no idea how I got there. It’s frustrating because I’d gained a lot of pace on this track after struggling on practice day 1. Practice prior to the race had gone great, and I was sure I could get a solid start to the season here. Time to ice up, recover and be ready for my next race in May.”

Team Director Martin Whiteley says: “A very interesting start to the season. New tracks often provide mixed results and the weather was also completely different to what we all expected; we ended up with 27 degrees Celsius and the track turning to powder. We’re fortunate to get through the event with everyone in one piece unlike some, and the new 2015 Trek Sessions performed flawlessly. Laurie’s pace is extremely exciting, but all 4 have shown this weekend that they’ve done their homework over winter, and if not for a couple of small errors, the results would have been quite different for us.”

George, Greg and Laurie will all compete in the 2nd Round of the British DH Series at Fort William next month.