Qualifying day has come to and end in Val di Sole and the rain hit just as the top 60 Elite Men were about to take to the track.
Well, the rain was forecast and it could not have arrived in the Valley of the Sun at a more perfect moment. A torrent met the top 60 Elite Men as they took to the hill and unsurprisingly, caused havoc.
Your top qualifiers from Val di Sole are below.
Elite Men
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0q–0GnSKJ/
If you’d told us Joe Breeden of Intense Racing UK would take the 50 points in qualifying, then we might have given some long odds. Joe was rocking the 55 plate in qualifying, and missed the worst of the rain being one of the first riders off, but you still have put the run in when it counts.
Brook Macdonald and Amaury Pierron were the highest placed finishers of the protected pack, finishing 5th and 6th respectively.
Luca Shaw would be the only protected rider to not qualify, landing in 106th but will ride again tomorrow in finals.
Elite Women
Credit: Fraser Britton / Crankworx 2018Tracey Hannah made it pretty clear that she’s the woman to beat as she took the hardest track of the year and slotted herself into first place despite being a second down at the fourth split.
Second place rival Marine Cabirou was 1.4 seconds back even though the splits showed her to be faster than Tracey for most of the course.
Veronika Widmann would settle for third, some 5.3 back on Tracey. Your top three would be leagues ahead of the rest of the field, so expect to see a similar picture for finals.
Junior Men
All the current Junior Men’s title contenders would have a mare in Val di Sole with a number of unfamiliar names at the top of the score sheet. Current series leader Thibaut Daprela would finish dead last, but being one of two protected Junior Men, survived to race tomorrow.
Elliot Jamieson would post a time faster than Joe Breeden’s, but the proof will be in tomorrow’s pudding.
Junior Women
Vali Hoell might have taken another scalp in the Junior Women’s World Cup with a win but Mille Johnset showed that she’d paced herself well and closed the gap from 6.5 seconds at the second split, to 2.5 at the finish line. If Vali slips up, Mille will no doubt be waiting to take a famous first World Cup win.
Anna Newkirk must have had problems on track being 25 seconds adrift of her rivals.
