The serious stuff started Friday in Val Di Sole with the World Cup DH qualifying rounds. 

 

Unfortunately for our riders, the rain appeared through the night and virtually never stopped until it was too late... Difficult weather conditions made these qualifying sessions complicated for most.

Already very technical with lots of roots from top to bottom, the track proved ultra slippery and the rain had a big impact on the results. "The conditions are really difficult, the track has nothing to do with what they practised yesterday.
The parts in the trees, in the roots and the rocks are extremely slippery," explained Max Commencal at the end of the afternoon.

 

Although the first few riders enjoyed a relatively dry track, things got more chaotic for the later racers.

Faustin Figaret, one of the first riders down the Italian track, achieved a good performance and finished 3rd fastest!

He was very closely followed by Amaury Pierron and Jack Reading who had to pull something special out of the bag to achieve such great runs in the worst conditions. They finished 6th and 7th. A top 10 also for Johannes Von Klebelsberg who was 9th fastest! Rafael Gutierrez Villegas and Rémi Thirion made top 15 in 11th and 13th!

In the Women’s category, Monika Hrastnik came 9th whilst her DORVAL teammate Mariana Salazar finished 11th.

 

Junior Thibaut Daprela had an usually difficult day. A 38th place finish is far from his normal standards. But he will still race tomorrow to try to win the 2019 World Cup overall title!

Nice performance for Antoine Rogge who achieved 17th. Luke Mumford finished 26th.

Lauryne Chappaz and Leane Chardonnieras finish their 4th and 5th in qualifying for the Junior Women’s final.

 

It was a day that saw our riders do their best and try to survive out there for these qualifying sessions.

As usual, we hope for great performances tomorrow, when the good weather should make a come back!