Mountain Bike World Cup, Round 1, Lourdes France
Lourdes, France April 10th
The 26th season of UCI World Cup Downhill racing kicked off this weekend in France, with cold temperatures and even some dusting of snow at the top of the mountain unable to keep the 35,000 fans from turning up to see the worlds fastest racers. Last season would see pre race favorite Aaron Gwin crashing in the qualifiers and coming back to win the finals, and the same went down today. Aaron Gwin went through drastic changes during the off season, with a completely new team, bike and equipment. One thing stayed true, and that was Aaron’s choice to use the best helmet on the market, the D3 Helmet
On Sunday, the sun came out and the course was trying to dry up, but with the amount of rain they received, it was always going to be very sketchy and slick. Gwin would come down to take over the lead from Danny Hart, and held off 10 riders, until Loic Bruni, fastest qualifier and the reigning world champion came and was up 2 seconds at the split. Loic was having a wild run and eventually went down, getting up quickly he would finish in 15th place and give the win to Aaron Gwin. “Ya know, it was a hard weekend for me, conditions changed every half hour, hard to get lines down, I really was hoping
Young french stand out and TLD France rider, Amaury Pierron would have the run of his life grabbing his first ever podium spot, 5th place on the day, after holding the hot seat lead for a LONG time, being an early rider to come. Amaury was wearing the all black midnight Sprint kit, but his 2016 Blacklight Carbon D3 was able to spot from far away, such a great graphic on that.
Brendan Fairclough made one too many mistakes on the slippery track and would finish 10th place, after being 6th in the qualifier. “Oh man, it was brutal practicing this week, conditions were wild, but I am not too pissed with 10th place. The crowds in France were mental, it was amazing. Onwards to Australia for the next round and push it harder to get a single digit on my number plate!”. Brendan was racing in his custom painted D3 carbon, and the new Sprint solid Flo Yellow kit.
SRAM TLD RACING’s very own Luca Shaw in only his 2nd year of elite world cup racing had a less than ideal start to the season, but makes it out of the treacherous weekend unscathed. Luca would finish 21st on the day having some trouble on the track, but would still only be 9 seconds off Gwin in the end. Luca was wearing his custom painted D3, SRAM TLD TEAM Sprint kit, the new Sprint gloves, new RAID knee guards and 7855 upper protection.
Steve Peat rounded up the TLD team with a 42nd place, it is Peaty’s retirement season so the fans are all coming out to watch Steve Peat. Steve has not raced in over a year due to 2015’s knee injury, Peaty also had to race a few obscure rounds to score enough points to even race here in France, but he accomplished that, but having to practice in the slower practice session was also a challenge-but with his result today, it puts him back in the faster practice for the next round in Australia.
Elite Men Final Results
1. Aaron Gwin
5. Amaury Pierron
10. Brendan Fairclough
21. Luca Shaw
42. Steve Peat
Elite Women
5. Emilie Siegenthaler
Junior Men
15. Remy Morton
ABOUT TROY LEE DESIGNS:
FOR OVER 30 YEARS, TROY LEE HAS BEEN CUSTOMIZING HELMETS "FOR THE WORLD'S FASTEST RACERS." TLD'S RELENTLESS COMMITMENT TO CREATING PRODUCTS THAT EXCEED THE CUTTING EDGE OF STYLE, DESIGN AND QUALITY, HAS EARNED THEM THE REPUTATION AS AN INNOVATOR IN MANY DIFFERENT FIELDS OF RACING. TROY LEE DESIGNS HAS SINCE EXPANDED INTO A FULL FORCE OPERATION, OFFERING A COMPLETE LINE OF HELMETS, APPAREL AND PREMIUM PROTECTION FOR OFF-ROAD MOTORCYCLING AND BICYCLING, SPORTSWEAR AND ACCESSORIES, AND OPERATING THE TLD SUPERCROSS AND MOTOCROSS TEAMS. BASED IN CORONA, CALIFORNIA, TROY LEE DESIGNS HAS A GLOBAL NETWORK OF DISTRIBUTORS.
