This is our race journal from the 5th world cup race of the 2019 season in Les Gets/ France. We will update the journal every day with the latest news and pictures of the day. Stay tuned we keep you posted!
Day 4: Finals
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- Laurie in a good mood- ready to enter the podium agin.
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- Unlucky Mike Jones- showed best performance all weekend with times to enter the podium, but crashed in his final run- 53rd.
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- Eleonora proofed again her ascending form- 4th place and another podium.
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- entering the podium in front of an amazing crowd.- Laurie Greenland 3rd.
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- first podium for Laurie Greenland in 2019.
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- back on the podium... moments of joy!
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- 2nd podium in a row for Eleonora Farina.
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- Brook gave all after a tough weekend and managed to finish in top 15.
Great weekend for the MS Mondraker team in Les Gets/ France. We are back in the game with 2 podiums of Laurie Greenland with 3rd place in men’s racing and Eleonora Farina with 4th place in the women’s race. Brook MacDonald managed to finish in the top 15 after a tough week with massive crash on day 1. Unlucky Mike Jones crashed with 2nd and 3rd fastest split times- without a doubt on a podium run- and finished in 53rd place.
The team finished in 4th place of the day, but made up some positions in the overall. We are now in 4th place in touch with the top 3.
Day 3: Qualification
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- last race preparations for Eleonora.
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- Mark and Stefan discussing the latest adjustments...
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- Eleonora got 4th with a safety run- for her it is about to qualify and getting the protection status back.
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- Laurie had a smooth run, which got him into 11th place.
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- Brook still struggling after yesterdays crash.
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- Thibault Laly missed the qualification.
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- Alos Brage Vestavik did not qualify- not happy about a too conservative run.
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- Not happy, but 37th place will do it for now.
Qualification went pretty good for us. We got 4 out of 6 riders into the finals with promising positions for the race. Eleonora got 4thwith a safety run- for her it is about to have a run, which gets her in the finals where she can attack. She took some safety lines and lost a few seconds, but everything is in place for finals. Laurie had a smooth run, which got him into 11th, Mike had an okay run, which still got him into 10thplace. It seems to be a very good track for Mike as it is about to hold speed on the open sections. Brook still struggled because of his big crash on the first training day, but managed to finish in 37th. Thibault and Brage rode to conservative and missed the qualification for finals.
Day 2. practise and timed training
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- skeptical view from Mike's mechanic- today he must have pulled something out the sleeve.
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- Ms Mondraker team train...
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- strong performance in timed training of Mike Jones- 7th.
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- big crash in the morning, but kept fighting thru the day.
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- Laurie had some good sectors, after struggling in the morning with his setup.
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- Eleonora was fastest today in 4 out of 5 section times...
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- ...happy with that.
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- always a smile on the face no matter what.
Todays practice started with a shock moment in the morning. Brook had a big crash in his first run and another one in his second run. This holds him back a little bit during the day, but he will be fine for qualification. Laurie struggled a bit in the morning with his bike setup, but found a good configuration by the end of the day. Mike showed a relay good performance in timed training and finished in 7th. Eleonora struggled a bit at the beginning. Most of the girls had problems with the last jump before the finish- the height of the drop and the speed are frightening factors, but Eleonora managed it. She got 3rd because of a small crash, but was fastest in 4 out of 5 sections.
Day 1. Course walk
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- THE MS Mondraker Team
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- Les Get start panorama
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- Still pretty wide, still pretty grassy reaching the bottom of the upper section.
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- Mike Jones and his mechanic Stefan Dopplinger on the Les gets road gap.
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- chairlift life: Brage Vestavik and Laurie Greenland
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- no hunger games for Laurie Greenland.
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- A wonderful, touching moment between friends and competitors. Luckily there is no audio to spoil this still image.
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- Brage dreaming big.
To most of the people Les gets might seem like a brand-new venue for the UCI MTB world cup, but in fact we have been racing here already back in the 90s. The last world cup happened here in 2002 and the last big race here was the world championships in 2004.
The track here is more old school with more natural features, wide open corners in the grass and high speed. This is for sure going to be a very interesting race.
