Maribor has served as the home for the worlds fastest mountain bikers over the past week. The slop fest continued on Saturday and the track looked dicey to say the least. Read on for the full wrap of qualifying.
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Words by David Peacock
Photos by Fraser Britton
Were these not the worlds best, things undoubtedly would have got messier than they did.
Many of the top qualifiers were younger riders, so it will be interesting to see how they fare in the finals when the big guns pull out all the stops. Guys like Stevie Smith, Josh Bryceland, Luke Strobel, and Sam Blenkinsop all hit the top 10, and looked fast doing it despite the conditions, which do not exactly permit top-speed racing.
The track is ridiculously slippery and sloppy, as Im sure youve gathered from the many interweb columns that have been documenting the race. The favorite for finals has to be Sam at this point (Hill, not Blenkinsop, although the Kiwi has also looked very good coming back from his injury in the off season), he destroyed qualifying and is notoriously good when the going gets gnarly.
The track was slightly drier in practice...
One notable incident from qualifying was Aaron Gwins crash; he plowed full speed into a tree that leans into the track. Every rider has been buzzing it, getting too close for my liking, but thats just another reason why I would make a terrible professional racer. Gwin was sent spinning off the bike into the rocky corner adjacent to said tree, but managed to finish his run. You can see the replay of the fall on dirtTVs qualifying video below.
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The buzz around carbon has continued in Maribor, as speculation on the new Demo's has reached a boiling point and spy pictures have dominated the web since practice started. There are clearer pictures of the bike out there, but Fraser's shrouds the bike with such secrecy that I couldn't resist tucking it in here. Well done Espionage Master Britton! To add to the carbon theme, the Syndicate's v-10s are working well by all accounts and are a sight worth seeing. Then again, I think that Peat, Minaar, and Bryceland could ride Huffys and still qualify.
It's not carbon, but Sunday lovers delight: the new Pivot Phoenix has arrived.
Top 20 from quali's are as follows:
Rank Nr UCI Code NAME / First Name Team Speed Split 1 Split 2 Finish Gap Pts
1 P 1 AUS19850721 HILL Samuel MER 54.457 (3) 1:36.83 (1) 3:07.45 (1) 3:20.47 50 Q
2 P 8 GBR19880110 FAIRCLOUGH Brendan MER 54.222 (4) 1:37.40 (2) 3:09.61 (2) 3:22.58 +02.11 40 Q
3 P 2 RSA19811113 MINNAAR Greg SCB 53.531 (7) 1:38.00 (4) 3:10.85 (3) 3:23.46 +02.99 30 Q
4 P 4 GBR19850226 ATHERTON Gee COM 52.173 (13) 1:38.57 (5) 3:11.57 (4) 3:25.14 +04.67 25 Q
5 P 11 CAN19891125 SMITH Steve MSE 55.690 (1) 1:39.61 (7) 3:13.85 (5) 3:26.69 +06.22 22 Q
6 21 USA19860624 STROBEL Luke MSE 51.219 (21) 1:40.71 (13) 3:14.90 (6) 3:28.41 +07.94 20 Q
7 P 13 GBR19900323 BRYCELAND Josh SCB 46.344 121) 1:39.31 (6) 3:15.27 (7) 3:28.44 +07.97 18 Q
8 34 IRL19860324 REID Ben DNT 53.788 (5) 1:40.88 (16) 3:16.27 (8) 3:29.61 +09.14 17 Q
9 27 FRA19850428 SPAGNOLO Damien MFT 50.857 (25) 1:40.80 (14) 3:16.76 (9) 3:29.99 +09.52 16 Q
10 P 7 NZL19881028 BLENKINSOP Samuel LPI 55.476 (2) 1:41.69 (20) 3:17.31 (11) 3:30.14 +09.67 15 Q
11 P 3 GBR19740617 PEAT Steve SCB 47.168 101) 1:37.72 (3) 3:17.43 (12) 3:30.39 +09.92 14 Q
12 P 6 NZL19841020 LEOV Justin TRK 49.925 (44) 1:41.73 (21) 3:17.27 (10) 3:30.45 +09.98 13 Q
13 40 NZL19880203 COLE Cameron TMR 50.174 (38) 1:40.50 (10) 3:17.89 (13) 3:30.97 +10.50 12 Q
14 22 FRA19840612 PEDEMANAUD Fabien STT 52.664 (11) 1:42.48 (23) 3:18.00 (14) 3:31.04 +10.57 11 Q
15 P 17 ESP19820930 GUARDIA PASCUAL Bernat MAS 52.857 (9) 1:40.27 (8) 3:18.06 (15) 3:31.39 +10.92 10 Q
16 49 AUS19821209 ATKINSON Bryn 51.428 (18) 1:41.00 (17) 3:18.24 (16) 3:31.59 +11.12 9 Q
17 31 FRA19880422 GIORDANENGO Aurélien MFT 49.557 (52) 1:40.57 (11) 3:19.12 (19) 3:31.95 +11.48 8 Q
18 29 GBR19910920 HART Danny GFT 48.160 (84) 1:41.68 (19) 3:19.07 (18) 3:32.12 +11.65 7 Q
19 P 14 GBR19840925 BEAUMONT Marc GTB 51.639 (15) 1:44.12 (39) 3:19.01 (17) 3:32.71 +12.24 6 Q
20 32 FRA19890421 BIGONI Joris 48.719 (68) 1:40.29 (9) 3:19.69 (20) 3:32.91 +12.44 5 Q
Looking forward to finals tomorrow and the conclusion of what has been a hectic week thus far! Were I a betting man, I wouldn't place my chips far from Sam; but hey, I'm not.
Fraser Britton's account of the week, including finals, will be arriving shortly after finals. Stay tuned for that, along with some exclusive photo content.
