Another week in the Pyrenees, another weather effected week of racing craziness! Our riders had a good weekend, with Ben racing in the semi-finals and Léona closing the gap behind the top-15 ladies.
Traveling to Loudenvielle was exciting! We know the venue thanks to the enduro racing, but for most of us this was a fresh venue and one that delivered so many great things, DH track being on top of the list. As you know, the week didn’t went as planed with schedule changes early on and a lot of controversy regarding the cancellation of the junior race. We had to put that out of our heads though and focus on the elite races with Ben & Léona.
First practice was just too short, but riders got a feel for the terrain and the challenges that lie ahead. Long and rough off-cambers were the hardest to master, but the speed was better with each of the laps.
Our riders had a solid race in Andorra, each with different goals. Léona was still looking for confidence on her bike, Ben is so close throughout the season and knows he has the speed, just needs to connect all of the dots.
Friday qualifications were the first racing challenge of the week and the last day of nice and stable weather. Léona went to the course with more fire in her eyes than ever before in the season and is clearly very close to being her best. Compared to Andorra the advancement was huge, but unfortunately she was still couple of seconds too slow for the semi-finals.
“I’m very happy with my week at Loudenvielle, one month after my accident I’m finally regaining my self-confidence and putting in more and more speed. My head is starting to get used to it again and the gap is closing week by week. Can’t wait to get to Les Gets and give my maximum!” – Léona Pierrini
Ben was more than solid in the qualies, he did a really good run and set 37th time of the day. He used the free time on Saturday for a detailed track walk and inspection of the wet conditions, knowing that the weather will play a big role on Sunday. On the end we went from wet and cold morning to hot and dry afternoon, making the selection of tires difficult. Ben choose Dirty Dans for his semis run, which was a smart decision to do. Ben was fast on split 1 & 2, but just couldn’t quite stay on the speed till the bottom.
“Round 5 here in Loudenvielle. New Track for us, really fun week on the track getting up to speed! Qualified in P37 with a smooth run, really happy to build off that for semis/finals!
Not quite the race day for me, didn’t get up to pace quick enough with the changing conditions and missed out for finals coming 49th place!
Not satisfied after that, but I know what to change and I’m motivated for Les Gets next weekend!” – Ben Zwar
Now we head to surly the biggest event in the series, with French fans additionally fired up after today’s victory of Loic Bruni. Les Gets is going to be wild (hopefully only in race sense), let’s see what happens in the second part of the French downhill craziness.
LINKS
Ben’s semi-finals run
UCI MTB World Series
Photo credits: Grega Stopar
