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 KONA LES GETS FACTORY TEAM PODIUMS IN ALL DISCIPLINES AT MONT STE ANNE WORLD CUP It was a very successful weekend for the Kona Les Gets Factory Team, with all gravity riders making it onto the podium. The track was wide open and fast for the most part, with 2 technical sections in the trees, All the riders were happy with the track, but knew it would be a hard race! The rain continued all day Wednesday. Thursday was first day training, we were well prepared for the track and already had a good idea of what was going to be needed for the bike setup so just put the wet tyres on and the bikes were ready. Tracy and Fabien were also testing out some proto-type 2008 Shimano XT components. The day went to plan for everybody and the new parts worked really well. By Friday it had dried up and the riders were on dry tyres again, a few spots of rain in the morning threatened to change things, but fortunately never turned into much. The 4X training went well for Kamil and he was happy with the track layout. Sunday morning was bright blue sky and we were relieved that we were finally going to have a dry race! Tracy had a good start to her final and went 3 seconds faster at the split that her first run, but she made a mistake in one of the technical sections and ended lost some of this margin, to end up 1 sec faster than her semi final. The track had become much drier and the loose stones and dust had made the track slower, all the other top riders had gone slower by 3 or 4 sec, so Tracy was happy to have been able to pull her time down. Unfortunately it was not enough to take 1st. Sabrina took the honor. Final results : 1st Place Sabrina Jonnier 5:04.45 2nd Place TRACY MOSELEY 5:06.77-Kona Les Gets 3rd Place Emiline Ragot 5:16.90 Men’s DH Final: By now the track had become really rough and loose, so we decided to make a tyre change at the top for a little more front wheel grip. The track was very physical and lots of high speed so Fabien knew he was in with a good chance, he also wanted to be sure of good finish to build his confidence so had decided to take some safe lines, he knew they were slower, but he did not want to puncture or take any risks. He rode really well and was strong all the way to the line. He did make a couple of small mistakes but still managed to beat his semi-final time and take 5th place. Fabien was really happy with his result as this is the first time in his career where he can say he is riding consistently. But he is not yet back to full speed and has more to come by the end of the season. Final results : 1st Place Sam Hill 4:29.58 2nd Place Greg Minnaar 4:31.27 3rd Steve Peat 4:31.30 4th Matti Lehikonnen 4:33.00 5th Place FABIEN BAREL 4:34.64-Kona Les Gets 59th KAMIL TATARKOVIC 4:58.31-Kona Les Gets 4X: This was the first world cup for Kamil this year where found his form, he was getting good starts and attacking well all through the rounds. The second round 1/16th saw Kamil take the lead from the gate, but then he was crashed into by another rider, they both went down, but Kamil managed to get going again and make his way to 2nd place to advance to the 1/8th final. The nights racing had shown that the race would be lost or won in the first turn. So, for Kamil it was going to be tough gate choice, he was against lopes, Polc and Scott Beamont. He was expecting Lopes to take a big lead off the gate and then pull in behind him at the first turn to close out the attack from 3rd and 4th. Things did not go exactly to plan for Kamil because he had an amazing gate and was along side Lopes until the first turn, this made him go really wide and left the gap open for Polc and Beamont. Kamil tried to attack again on the 2nd turn to get back a place but he had lost too much time and speed on the first turn so he had to sit out the rest of the run in 4th place. He managed to get back to the pack by the finish but it was not enough to improve his position. Final Results: 1st Place Brian Lopes 2nd Place Scott Beamont 3rd Place Filip Polc 4th Place KAMIL TATARKOVIC-Kona Les Gets The Cross Country Riders fared pretty well with the top finish being notched by Neal Kindree who place 7th Place U-23 Neal Kindree (51st Overall). All photos courtesy of John Gibson. |
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ALL CONTENTS COPYRIGHT 2006 AND BEYOND KONA BIKES INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, ALL WRONGS AVENGED |
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