World Cup Round 1 Lourdes | A quick lap of the pro pits today

·Friday 28 April 2017

RACE SEASON IS ON!

Saskia Dugon is at Lourdes for Round 1 of the Downhill World Cup. She’s beamed us a collection of bits from pro pits today.

Take it away Saskia …

For the 3rd year running, the downhill world cup season has set off from Lourdes, known as being one of the more technical tracks on the World Cup circuit, it’s the perfect track for throwing riders straight back into racing. And with a new World Cup season, comes new kit.

With the pits unusually quiet leading up to the weekend, there was a lot of suspicion over the arrival of the 29er downhill bike on multiple teams in an attempt to follow on with the ‘long’ bike trend, so it was now time to see if anything had come of the rumours.

We’d love to have taken a photo of the Santa Cruz 29’er … but they wouldn’t let us in the pits so, here’s a picture of Fin Ille’s rad mud guard instead. Thanks for letting us in your pits Fin.

However, talk over tyres could be likely to outshine the 29ers with the weather being temperamental over the past few days. It’s safe to say that if the rains stays away then this track will run fast and wild, but if it rains…well, anything could happen.

One Vision Global racing were all excited to get going, and riding the original ‘long’ bike.

Jack Reading from One Vision Global Racing giving his bike some TLC before getting started on the track.

Another team with the 29er rumours was Mondraker, but none was to be seen anywhere near Danny or Laurie in practice.

Danny Hart has been going all in into his training, and was getting a quick warm up before heading up for practice. Can he keep his winning streak from last year? Norco’s Sam Blenkinsop was rolling around the pits on one of the new prototype Aurums, so we’ll wait and see how it performs over the weekend.With their luminous trucks and multitude of sparkling Demos and Enduros, it was hard to miss the Specialized tent. On display was Finns new race bike with a custom world champ paint job following on from his win at World Champs in 2016 as a junior.

However, that was not the only eye catching thing on his bike, he must have been in touch with some photoshop god for his new mudguard masterpiece…

There was also a lot of glitter going around in the Specialized pits, adding an extra little sheen to the already glistening new paint of their Demos.

Not only was Loics new bike ready and raring to go, but his mechanic was working on his testing Demo with the telemetry equipment still attached.

Heading over to YT, one of the first things to be seen is the infamous No.1 plate. Aaron Gwin’s mechanic was also running some pretty patriotic gear.

No sign of a 29er in the YT pits either …

With some new big names on the Canyon team this year, it was interesting to see Troy Brosnans set up. Instead of super sizing his wheels, Brosnan went for super sizing his brakes with 220mm rotors.

Adam Brayton was looking forward to ripping up the track, although is hoping that is stays a drier, but with the British Winter training he’s been doing, he may have the edge if the rain decides to fall.