Allgemein

31 Mai 2019

world cup round 2 Fort William

admin Allgemein, racing 2019, brook macdonald, Eleonora farina, fort william, laurie greenland, mike jones, thibault laly, UCI, worldcup

This is our race journal from the 2^ndworld cup race of the 2019 seaosn in Fort William/ Scotland. We will update the journal every day with the latest news and pictures of the day. Stay tuned we keep you posted!

Day 4: race day:

: this is what we call miserable.

: one of the necessaries this week: tear-offs. No worries, those will be collected after the race.

: Last training session for Laurie.

: Brook going over the Red Bull road gap.

: Brook was pushing hard in his race run: 9th place.

: Brook going over the Scotland arch jam.

: Laurie dropping into the last section.

: Laurie on the second last jump before the finish.

Well, this was it. Fort William in done and in the books- unfortunately not with the best end for us, even we managed to finish in descent positions. Brook finished in 9^thplace, Laurie end up in 15^thspot and Thibault became 60^thand made his first world cup point in 2019. Eleonora could not race because of an infection and high fever, but she will be back for Leogang/ Austria. Overall this was not a bad race, but for sure we hoped for better. Fort William is simply no joke and it takes a lot to show outstanding results. For sure we will come back next year, to prove we can do better and hopefully we will make it on the podium then.

Day 3: qualification

: Eleonora in the last training session before the qualification.

: Brook finished in 6th with a solid run

: unlucky fellow Mike suffered from a mechanical on the front wheel. unfortunately not protected and will not race the finals

: Laurie had a mechanical as well, but the protected status makes him race the finals.

: Thibault happy with his 43rd place.

: Laurie before his race run.

: signing session at the Mondraker pits with quite some interest.

: good crowed here in Fort William

Qualification today ended with mixed results. Brook had a good run and finished in 6^thplace. Laurie and Mike suffered from mechanicals. While Laurie has a protected status and is qualified for the finals Mike unfortunately is not protected and will not race finals. Thibault also had a good run and managed to qualify for the finals with a 43^rdplace.

Eleonora had a big crash in the upper rock section. She hit the ground pretty bad with her hip and finished further back in the field. Even she is protected and could race finals shew won’t by doctors recommendation.

Day 2: 1st practise

: goggle setup- probably the most important these days.

: Laurie in his fancy Fox pants with a zebra animal print.

: conditions and atmosphere on track were surreal.

: Brook on one of the wooden bridges in the upper part of the track.

: Mike showed a good pace trout the training.

: Thibault Laly crossing one of the little creeks.

: mudpack for the Mondraker Summum

: soaking wet

No news on day 2 training. The weather conditions have been miserable like on the day before and it doesn’t seem to get better. Timed training was a kind of meaningless as no one was really trying to set a best time and rather prevent crashing under those conditions.

We used all the training including the timed session to test different setups, but the conditions make it really hard to focus on that.

Day 1: track walk

: track walk time in Fort William. Boys and girls checking out the track- just minor changes.

: weather is miserable in Fort William... cold and wet, but Eleonora is still smiling.

: Laurie in a good mood... Micheline hat keeps him warm.

: Fully prepared Mike Jones.

: happy Brook MacDonald... no matter of the weather!

: classic pit preparation in Fort William

: Mark Sterland preparing Laurie's bike.

: some interesting talks between Laurie and his mechanic Mark.

Welcome back to the mountain bikes world cup classic. Fort William is for mountain bike downhill what is Kitzbuehl for downhill ski racing. The venue with the most spectators, the biggest party and one of the fastest tracks on the circuit. This track is infamous for its length, for mix of rocks and hart ground at the top and the muddy conditions in the lower woods. Furthermore the track is known for the speed and the long pedaling section before the finish.

While we had perfect conditions in 2018 we are facing miserable conditions now. It is currently very cold mixed with a lot of rain and while other sports would cancel training or even the race, we keep on going as long as riders can be transported to the start.

27 April 2019

world cup round 1 Maribor

admin Allgemein, racing 2019, brage, brook, eleonora, farina, greenland, ici, jones, laly, laurie, macdonald, maribor, mike, mtl worldcup, thibault, vestavik

: head mechanic Ben in charge for tire choice- Micheline 22 or 34?

: new member Eleonora Farina.

: Laurie Greenland in his fresh Fox kit.

: Laurie Greenland taking off in Maribor...

: Brook MacDonald looking even stronger than in 2018.

: Brage Vestavik- will he qualify for the race?

: Thibault Laly showed top 20 section times- what can we expect?

Day 2:

With the first training we started into the season. There was nothing really unexpected: the track was really fast- section wise too fast why the UCI shut down a line in the rock garden for rider’s safety. But other than that the training went good with good section times in timed training.

: Maribor start house- 1st world cup race of the season is about to start.

: Mark Sterland with Ludwig Götzendorfer- the good soul of the team.

: not easy these days to find the fastest line... seems like there a lot of question marks.

: Mike and Brook searching for the fastest line.

: Head mechanic Ben got crazy after a long preparation period- but we are ready.

: Stefan Doppling setting up his working space- tool box wars.

: Mark Sterland preparing the bike for Laurie Greenland.

: New team member Eleonora Farina

Day X- here we are:

Finally we are back to race world cups. This is the first round of the 2019 UCI mountain bike world cup in Maribor/ Slovenia. We have been racing here back in 2010 and Maribor was always a nice place to go for a season starter. Maribor is a nice little city close to the Austrian border and offers some good riding. The track was infamous because of a difficult rock garden and because it’s so fast.

The first impression of the track was good and the track looks in shape even there has been a European IXS cup round on the same track a week ago. Stay tuned for more news.

6 September 2018

Lenzerheide World championships 2018

admin Allgemein, racing, special events 2018, braves vestavik, brook macdonald, Johannes von Klebelsberg, laurie greenland, lenzerheide, mike jones, patrik butler, UCI, world championships

Finals- all in!

World championships is one of those races which are hard to describe and the feelings around this all or nothing race are hard to put into words. We went to Lenzerheide to hunt for medals and to win the jerseys. The chances were realistic, which Brook proofed with winning the qualification, but world championships has its own laws…

Even we did not win and haven’t been on the podium we are honestly happy with our season. We formed a good team again and even we are tired now we can’t wait for next season to race again.

1st Loci Bruni

2nd Martin Meas

3rd Danny Hart

7th Laurie Greenland

28th Michael Jones

34th Johannes von Klebelsberg

35th Brook MacDonald

59th Brage Vestavik

Juniors:

1st Kade Edwards

2nd Kye A’Hern

3rd Elliot Jamieson

44th Patrik Butler

Full results presented by Tissot timing.

: Brook fought till the end even he crashed and a podium was out of reach- chapeau!

: deepest disappointment- podium was in reach.

: 2 mistakes hold Laurie back from being on the podium again.

: Laurie on the last big finish drop.

: Brage Vestavik 59th place. Not bad for his first year Elite!

: Mike Jones finished in 28th.

: Italian stallion Johannes von Klebelsberg- 34th and best italian rider.

: Patrik Butler crashed on his way to 2nd place.

Nothing really special happened in today’s training session. Suspension setups are done and the tires are chosen already. For sure Riders took the last chance to test some different lines to find the last tenth of a second for the race, but also this is business as usual. We are ready for tomorrow and we can’t wait to race. Stay tuned and follow us on redbull.tv.

Start times finals:

Junior Patrik Butler: 11:14:00

Brage Vestavik 14:51:00

Mike Jones 15:09:00

Johannes von Klebelsberg 15:28:00

Brook MacDonald 16:16:30

Laurie Greenland 16:20:00

Live Timing

: BrookMac- low altitude flight.

: Laurie a little bit more sideways

: today was the day for "scrub" studies- Mike Jones.

: Laurie Greenland

: Brook MacDonald

: Johannes von Klebelsberg

: Pat Butler- solid training today.

: BrookMac looked confident.

Well, this qualification was a good start, but we don’t want get to excited as at worlds riders keep their cards close to their chest.

1^stBrook MacDonald: Brooks hasn’t had a good run. He made a few mistakes and couldn’t believe he finished in first place.

2^ndLoris Vergier

3^rdConnor Fearon

23^rdMike Jones: Like Brook Mike had quite a few mistakes and he was not happy with his run.

39^thLaurie Greenland: Laurie was on a cruising run. He is counting on different conditions on Sunday and kept his grains for Sunday.

41^stJohannes von Klebelsberg: Johannes went down in his race run, but still managed to qualify and finished as best ranked Italian rider.

69^thBrage Vestavik: We saw a top perfomance thurout the training session of Brage and so it was not a big surprise he will qualify for the finals on Sunday.

This means all MS Mondraker riders did qualify for the finals on Sunday and Pat Butler completed this result with a 2^ndplace.

: Pat Butler managed to finish his qualification run in 2nd.

: Brage Vestavik- qualified for the world championships final in 69th place.

: Johannes von Klebelsberg finished in 41st position

: Mike Jones 23rd place.

: Laurie with his national coach Michael Vickers.

: Laurie on a cruising run- 39th place

: Brook was able to decide the qualification in his favour- 1st place in qualy.

: the bulldog showed the teeth.

There were no big surprises in the first training session. The riders know the track pretty much from the world cups of previous seasons. There is only a new wood section in the lower third of the track, but this new section didn’t cause any problems so far. Today it was more about sorting out the right set of tires for the qualification tomorrow. While Laurie and Brook are protected as they finished the season in the top 20 of the UCI world cup ranking, Mike Jones, Johannes von Klebelsberg and Brage Vestavik have to qualify for the world championships race on Sunday afternoon. Stay tuned for more news tomorrw!

: Laurie leading the MS Mondraker again-

: Brooks world championships training kit from Alpinestars

: Brage on fire on the first day.

: Laurie in his world championships training kit from FOX

: Mike jones is pretty confident on this track.

: Azuro Johannes von Klebelsberg

: Paddi Buttler ripping in his national color Puls Wear Kit.

: Brook- ready for a podium this weekend?

The 2018 world championships bike design looks very similar to what we have been racing this season. The reason therefore is simple: we had a good season and these were our “lucky colors”. So designer Alexis Vazsquez combined the colors with a gradient and pimped the design with rider individual details.

: Laurie Greenlands bike

: Fox fork decals fro Brook Mac

: Brook Mac

: Mike Jones

: Laurie Greenland

: special DT Wheels for worlds

: national details for new zealand

: world champs special edition.

Here we are in Lenzerheide for the highlight of this race season: the 2018 UCI mountain bike world championships. Lenzerheide has been a good venue for us in the past with a victory in 2016 and with the first Elite world cup podium of Laurie Greenland last year. The track didn’t change too much from the past years and from what we know from course walk, the track is world championships dignified.

World championships are very different to world cups as this event is federation driven, which means rider stay with the national federations and their national team colleagues. This made it even better to see that no matter what the Ms Mondraker crew stuck together for course walk and that they share lines as usual.

We are also pretty proud that we have a very strong contingent at world champs as we are represented thru 6 riders and 5 nations:

Laurie Greenland GBR

Brook MacDonald NZL

Mike Jones GBR

Johannes von Klebelsberg ITA

Brage Vestavik NOR

Patrik Butler AUS

: old stagger already: Laurie Greenland now and junior

: MS Mondraker walk the unchanged top section down to the road crossing.

: head mechanic Ben with Brook's bike

: not just a punch of good mechanics, but also good friends...

: sticking together thru the world cup season and so they do now.

: Brook and Lozza think hard at the infamous rock garden.

: big support from Mondraker at this special event

: man in charge.

23 August 2018

worldcup round 7 La Bresse

admin Allgemein, racing brage Vestavik, brook macdonald, Fabian Ulrich, france, frankereich, ici mtb worldcup, Johannes von Klebelsberg, La Bresse, laurie greenland, mike jones, patrik butler, worldcup2018

Day 4:

La Bresse- UCI mountain bike world cup 2018 is in the books with a final, which had potential for going into the books of history. Like in qualification rain kept pouring down. The conditions were already difficult on the day before, but every rider since then had a massive impact on the track. Roots were coming out, ruts appear and the dirt became real loamy.

Mike was the first of the MS Mondraker squad- he had (by his own words) a too conservative run and was not able to beat the time of Martin Meas, who crowed himself to the winner of this final world cup round. Mike finished in 23^rdplace. Laurie, still handicapped by his twisted ankle, also could beat the time of Meas and finished in 18^thplace. This got him into 5^thplace of the UCI overall world cup ranking. As it looked like no one could beat the time of Martin Meas or even could get on the podium, Brook started into his run. With the two fastest top split times, he opened the race again. He lost some from split 2 to3 and some more from 3 to 4, but he was still in reach of second place. Brooked crossed the finish line in 3^rdand there was just one more rirder to come down. Season dominator from France Amaury Pierron was the last man to come down and it looked like he would beat the time of Martin Meas until he crashed in the last corner before the finish jump. In the end Brook finished in 3^rdplace and managed to make up some positions in the overall from 8^thto 6^thplace.

Overall we had a very good race weekend and we can’t complain of how the season went. We showed a strong performance and we were in touch with all top teams. We finished as 4^thin the team overall ranking and we are proud to achieve that with our rider squad.

Now we have a weekend of till we head to our season highlight the world championships in Lenzerheide/ Siwtzerland. Stay tuned.

: massive crowd in La Bresse.

: Brook MacDonald on his way to 3rd place.

: Mike jones had a little bit too conservative run and finished in 23rd.

: happy to be back on the podium- Brook MacDonald.

: another "shoey" for Brook.

: Champagne shower.

: Laurie with another UCI trophy: 5th place in the overall standing. Mission accomplished.

: overall world cup podium.

Day 3:

Massive weather-change from training days to qualification: after 2 ½ month of no rain in La Bresse the sky opened it’s doors and it was pouring down for the qualification round. While Brook qualified in 4^th, Laurie took it easy to save some corns for finals- Laurie finished in 49^th. Mike had a massive mistake in his run. He cased the first jump out of the woods and had no speed for the upcoming jump line. Apart from that he had a good run and managed to finish in 9^thplace.

The co-factory had a bad day. While Fabian could not start because of an ongoing knee injury, Patrik, Johannes and Brage could not qualify in these horrific conditions- shattered dreams.

: pouring down rain- no doubt!

: disappointed Johannes von Klebelsberg- missed qualification.

: no happy about conditions and be holden back by a twisted ankle.

: shattered drames- Brage Vestavik could not qualify!

: Also not qualified for the finals for the last world cup of the season- Pat Butler.

: Johannes showed a strong performance in timed training, but the conditions probably changed too much.

: Laurie on a cruising run.

: very wet and difficult conditions in qualification.

Day 2:

Even the track is short it seems to be amazing. Riders like the mix of natural sections, with man made jumps and berms in combination with rock drops and flat out pedaling. As said the track is with 2:20:00 pretty short, but the timesheet from timed training showed it’s going be a tight race.

Brook was on fire and finished 5^th. Johannes had a pretty good day as well and finished in 16^th. Laurie was still a little bit handicapped because of his twisted ankle from Mont Saint Anne and finished 41th without having a full on run so far and Mike Jones finished in 33^rd.

: Brook on fire again these days... 5th place in timed training.

: Laurie still a little bit hold back from his twisted ankle, but he should be fine for the race.

: Mike is building up again and will be ready for world champs.

: Can Laurie make another podium this weekend?

: co factory train with Brage Vestavik and Pat Butler.

: MS Mondraker train is on track.

: Also on fire these days is cofactors rider Johannes von Klebelsberg- 16th place in timed training

: for sure one of the contenders this weekend.

Day 1:

Here we are at the last round of the 2018 UCI MTB world cup in La Bresse/ France. We have been racing here back in 2009 and 2011, but on a different track. The memories were not the best and so the excitement level wasn’t really high, but after track walk we have been happy. The Track shows everything we want to see: flat, pedaling parts mixed with steep bits and man made sections mixed with natural terrain. The track will be around 2:30:00 long, but we will know for sure after the first training session.

: co factory boys a little bit unsure about this drop

: Brook and Mike sharing and discussing lines.

: team manager- not often seen on course walk, pretty sceptical though...

: Mike and Brook spending some time to find the right line.

: Laurie's ankle is not 100% yet, but he is fit enough

: track walk time... not hard to say who owns this calfs.

: last drop down/ rock section out of the woods.

: Brook collecting impressions... this part is one for sure to remember.

10 August 2018

world cup round 6 Mont Sainte Anne

admin Allgemein, racing 2018, brook macdonald, laurie greenland, mike jones, mont sainte anne, patrik butler, UCI, worldcup

Day 4: finals

Well that race was a little bit of a disaster for us.

Laurie could not start because of a bad ankle from a smaller crash on the day before, Mike hasn’t had a good run, but also a flat tire and Brook crashed in his race run with in reach of the top split times, got back on the bike and had a flat tire as well.

Laurie had a DNS (did not start), which drops him from 3^rdto 6^thposition in the overall. Brook finished in 53^rdand dropped one position in the overall from 6^thto 7^thplace. Mike finished in 27^thand dropped 1 position in the overall.

The only real highlight for us this weekend is the 4^thplace of Pat Butler I the juniors race. That got him from 9^thto 6^thplace in the junior world cup overall ranking.

Obviously we are not happy with this and we came to Mont Saint Anne to do better, but this is how racing is: sometimes you win and sometimes you lose- we are not desperate but looking forward to the next round to fight back! Stay tuned for the next round, which is the season final in La Bresse/ France.

Day 3:

Riders were struggling in the first training session before qualification. With way less runs as they are used to, they had some try and errors, which is why we saw quite a lot of crashes. Brook went down pretty hard and Laurie rolled his ankle. Almost no able to walk his ankle got taped up by body mechanic Martin New Hill and at least Laurie was able to roll out of the start gate. Laurie got a DNF (did not finish) but as he is a top 10 rider he is protected for the race. Brook finished in 5^thwith a massive mistake in the top part. This let us hope for more as he was just 2,2 seconds off on 4.20.00 track. Mike was far off being happy after his run. He said that he made every mistake you could have made on this track and caught all the wrong and slow lines- not happy with his run, but happy with 20^thplace.

Junior Patrik Butler finished in 5^thwith a solid, but not error free run- we will see if he can make himself a birthday present on race day or not.

: crash marks say it all...

: Laurie hurt his ankle in last training session and just rolled out of the start gate.

: Mike (by his own words) rode like a beginner, but was happy to qualify in 20th place.

: Brook Mac in one of the typical sections of MSA

: Pat Butler- turning 18 today- will he make a present to himself today?

: Laurie before he rolled his ankle. Look super fast again.

: struggling with his ankle...

Day 1 +2:

Mont Sainte Anne/ Canada hosts the 6^thround of the 2018 UCI world cup. This year it is the one and only world cup round out of Europe and coming here includes special preparation such as flying over earlier for acclimatize and getting over the jetlag.

The weather in Mont Sainte Anne this year is unusual hot which are the best circumstances for storms and unstable weather. On the first day of training one of those storms kicked in with heavy rain and thunder. Training got interrupted for 2 hours because track marshals got evacuated from the mountain, the gondola got stopped and the riders got a maximum of 4 training runs on the first day. The good thing was that we showed again that we are a force to count with: Brook 3^rdand Mike 7^thElite time training and Pat got 2^ndin juniors timed training.

: here we are- Quebec City sight seeing tour first day

: Laurie in slippery conditions in the first training.

: Mike coming back after a good rest for his wrist

: boys going back on track after the first storm.

: just 4 training run in total- 4th run in timed training was the first full run and he finished in 3rd.

: Laurie back on one of his favourite track even the conditions were really difficult.

: Mike 7th place in timed training session.

: happy faces, good team: Ben and Brook

12 Juli 2018

world cup round 5 Vallnord

admin Allgemein, racing 2018, anodrra, brage Vestavik, brook macdonald, Johannes von Klebelsberg, laurie greenland, mike jones, patrik butler, vallnord, worldcup

In the Elite category Johannes von Klebelsberg was the first rider of the Ms Mondraker team to come down. Coming from a very strong 26^thplace in the qualification he was able to improve his time by one second, which was not enough to repeat the result from the day before. He dropped down to 46^thposition.

Mike Jones was struggling all week with some big crashes and a sore wrist, which hold him back. To make it into the race run, Mike decided to use a wrist brace, which might be a handicap, if it was not tested before, but as it turned out later, the wrist brace was not going to be his biggest problem in his final run. Mike started out of the start gate pedaled thru the first section and snapped off his chain and derailleur. While we saw already fast runs without a chain, this one was different. The derailleur kept hanging on the cable and the risk of going fast was too big till the derailleur finally ripped off, which was too late to make up positions in the ranking. Mike finished in 60^thposition.

Brook was next to come. With a very strong 4th place from qualification he knew he could make it onto his first world cup podium since Val di Sole 2015. Brook went into a fully commited race run, but lost some time in the first section, while he was faster thru some of the lower section than later winner Loris Vergier. Just in the last corner before the last open bit Brook went hard into a corner, but was able to catch up and crossed the finish line in 3^rdposition with 3 more riders to come.

Laurie Greenland was next and again he showed a wild ride. Laurie dangled a little bit in the lower woods, where he almost got send over the bars. Laurie crossed the finish line 1,4 seconds off Brook and still two more riders to come.

Former team-mate of Laurie Danny Hart could catch up with neither Brook nor Laurie and qualification winner Luca Shawn crashed. Brook finished in 3^rdplace and Laurie completed this sensational result with a 4^thplace.

2 riders on the podium got us into 2^ndplace of the ranking for the team of the day and this 2^ndplace got us also into 2^ndplace of the overall team ranking. We again leave a world cup round with big grins on our faces.

We are now heading back home to prepare for the next world cup round in Mont Saint Anne/ Canada in about 3 weeks. Stay tuned and wait for our team video release on Wednesday!

full results

: 6th place- another top result for Paddy Butler.

: Johannes went one second faster than in Qualies, but that was not enough to replay the position from the day before- 46th place.

: Again bad luck for Mike Jones- check out his bike: chain missing, derailleur missing... 60th place.

: Laurie had a little hanger in the woods, which almost send him over the bars.- 4th place and another podium for him!

: Brook is back on the podium- 3rd place

: 2 MS Mondraker boys on the podium- well deserved!

: the newer generation podium.

: 3rd and 4th- two guys on the podium- thats more than you can ask for!

Day 3: qualification

Another very strong sign of the MS Mondraker in the qualification at the 5^thround of the 2018 UCI MTB world cup: Laurie Greenland finished in 3^rdposition just 0,006 seconds of 2^nd, Brook MacDonald finished in 4^thplace with a little mistake in the wood section where he clipped out of his pedal, Mike Jones got 22^ndwith a sore wrist after a big crash in the first training and Johannes von Klebelsberg managed to finish in 26^thplace. This 26^thplace is another strong result, which underlines his ascending performance curve. Brage Vestavik was riding a little bit to conservative and hold back too much. He did not qualify for the race and finished in 85^thplace. Last but not least Pat Butler qualified in 8^thplace in the junior category.

Overall we showed a very good team performance and we are looking forward to a tight race on Saturday- stay tuned and follow us on redbull.tv

: Mike Jones was riding with a sore wrist (from the crash on the day before) into 22nd place.

: Laurie Greenland finished 3rd- 0,006 seconds off 2nd place.

: Brook MacDonald with this little mistake in 4th place- 3,795 seconds off first, 1,226 seconds off 3rd.

: highspeed in Vallnord

: Brage was riding a little bit to conservative and could not qualify-85th place

: Best world cup qualification for Laurie Greenland so far- 3rd place.

: A little bit unlucky at the moment- Mike is riding fast, but is holden back by a sore wrist.

: Incredible performance of Brook MacDonald. Strong season so far especially considering his fast comeback after a broken collarbone at the beginning of the world cup season.

Day 2: first practice

We had a pretty good training day and the MS Mondraker training train was on again. In total it was a good day- a few mechanicals, a few little crashes and one bigger “digger” of Mike Jones, which was a little setback fro him as he tweaked his wrist again, but he will be able to ride today. Brook crashed in his timed training run and still got 10^thand co-factory rider Johannes had the 20^thfastest time of the day- so we are not worried about our pace or performance- bring on the qualification!

: BROOK 10th in timed training- with a crash!

: something we are really proud of- our MS Mondraker team train- watch out!

: one of the man made sections in Andorra.

: Mike Jones on fire. he wants to prove himself and is pushing

: a little bit to hard sometimes...

: ...but he is okay.

: Brook showing again a really strong performance

: Laurie- easy going in timed training- no doubt he knows his lines!

Day 1: track walk

Back to back weekends of racing on another sick track. We are here in Vallnord/ Andorra- a little country between France and Spain in the Pyrenees about 3 hours north of Barcelona and 3 hours south from Toulouse. The track in Vallnord is known as being a very fast track with some ambitious sections and we are coming here with some good memories such as the team overall world cup win in 2016.

: Laurie stoked about his #2 number plate

: Brook back in Vallnord

: big take offs

: mix of natural and man made sections

: man made section super fast and tricky when it's wet

: natural rock section- Laurie and his dad on course walk

: sharp rocks

: Brook in yoga mode

7 Juli 2018

world cup round 4 in Val di Sole

admin Allgemein, racing 2018, brage Vestavik, brook macdonald, Johannes von Klebelsberg, laurie greenland, mike jones, patrik butler, val di sole, worldcup

With Laurie’s 2nd place, Patrik’s 3rd place in juniors and Brooks 9th place we won the team ranking of the day- an amazing result for us for sure. Check out the impressions of this weekend captured by Björn Hunger.

Music credits:
„broken pieces“ by Not Scientists
„blue pill“ by Uncommonmenfrommars

Day 4:

This day was one of these days, which pay off for all the blood, sweat and effort… but let’s start at the beginning. First important race for us today was the junior world cup, where we have been represented by the Australian Junior Patrik Butler. Patrik missed the first couple of race because of a broken scaphoid and Val di Sole was just his 2^ndworld cup race in 2018. After qualifying 5^thPatrik showed that there is a chance for him to enter the podium. Because of his figure and his body language he looked like flying over the track. He beat some of the stronger and bigger riders and got 3^rdwith 3.3 seconds off first.

In the Elite race we have been represented by three riders and first of them to come down was local Johannes von Klebelsberg. With his so far best qualifying result in his pocket, Johannes rode a little bit to conservative and repeat the position from the day before. Johannes finished in 38, which is still his best world cup result so far.

Brook showed top split times in timed training as well as in his qualification run and so he was in a good mute for the race. On race day he struggled a bit with finding the right suspension setup before his race run. The problem lead into his race run and Brook rode a little bit too consistent to be able to get on the podium- 9^thplace for him. Last to come down one more time was Laurie Greenland. Laurie had a run, which was evocative to his run of world championships in 2016. He showed some wild lines, which paid off in the end. He crossed the finish line in lead and jumped into the hot seat with 4 more riders to come. Vergier crashed at the very top and was not able to attack the podium anymore. Luca Shawn was a few seconds of in the top split times, made up time in the lower part, but couldn’t beat the time of Laurie. Former team mate Danny Hart came close to Lauries split times, but could beat him in the end. Last men to come down was Amaury Pierron, the two times winner of the 2018 race season, who pointed out his strength in qualifications with a fabulous time and for sure he was the favorite for this race. Amaury was ahead at split one, back at split 2, back again at split 3 and a few tenth of a second ahead again at split 4. The French men crossed the finish line 0,524 ahead of Laurie, who got 2^ndin the end.

With the 2^ndplace of Laurie, the 9^thplace of Brook and the 3^rdplace of Patrik in the junior race we won the team ranking of the day and made up some point in the team overall ranking.

We are now heading to the 5^thround of the 2018 UCI MTB worldcup in Vallnord/ Anodrra- stay tuned.

: Brook MacDonald on fire.

: style shot by Nathan Hughes of Brook MacDonald

: racing at it's best in front of an awesome crowd

: the last seconds waiting in the hotseat and last man is coming down

: happy days with happy people...

: junior Patrik Butler with his first podium in 2018.

: that does not happen very often- this is why it is so special: team of the day!

: Mr. MS himself and Brook MacDonald- again happy people.

Day 3:

Again heavy rain over night- the conditions were difficult and Mike Jones struggled riding with his sore thumb from the crash from the day before. Mike crashed again and could not qualify for the race on Saturday. Brook came down with top split times, but unfortunately crashed in the so-called “Sam Hills corner”, which is the second last corner before the finish. With no speed Brook pedaled into 25^thplace. Laurie had a constant run and finished in 10^thplace. Big surprise of the day was co-factory rider Johannes von Klebelsberg, who finished in 21^stposition- not just his best qualifying result so far, but also in front of his home crowed. Last but not least Patrik Butler qualified in 5^thposition.

: steeeeeeeeeeep.

: mudd action marks

: crashed again in qualifications- Mike Jones

: Laurie on fire as in 2016

: Mike Jones

: Laurie Greenland

: Brook MacDonald

: Laurie Greenland

Day 2:

First day of training is done. We had some heavy rain over night, which made the track being even more tricky. The roots and rocks get even more slippery and the dusty ground changed into a loamy surface. Mike Jones slipped in one sections and crashed, not hard, but he caught a crack and dislocated his thumb. Brook and Laurie didn’t push too hard in timed training and finished in 7^thand 36^thposition.

: Laurie in the zone

: Mike following Brook.

: team work

: the MS Mondraker training train

: sew SDG dropper seat posts seen on the trainings bikes of Brook, Laurie and Mike

: Brook in stoned stones section

: Mike dislocated his thump

: Mike just before the crash happened.

Day 1:

Comezzadurra in Val di Sole host the 4^thstop of the 2018 UCI MTB world cup. The track is known as rough and unforgiving. We are always come to this place with mixed feelings- for sure it is an exciting track to race on, but we are always happy to leave this place in one piece. There was nothing really new to discover on track walk and so it was just about finding the fastest line… a lot to discuss on and off the track.

: nice overhauling for the race bikes

: Brook and Ben discussing the bike set up for the first training session

: the MS Mondraker factory team

: factory team riders helping out co factory riders with line choices... Johannes appreciates that help

: well... this is where we go thru

: talk shop

: pretty difficult line choice here and there

: steep and gnarly...

19 Juni 2018

Innsbruck Crankworx

admin Allgemein, racing, special events 2018, brage Vestavik, brook macdonald, crankworx, fabian urlich, innsbruck, Johannes von Klebelsberg, laurie greenland, mike jones, patrik butler

That was the second issue of Crankworx Innsbruck. Laurie Greenland, Brook MacDonald, Mike Jones, Brage Vestavik, Johannes von Klebelsberg, Fabian Ulrich and Pat Butler compete in different disciplines and showed some good action… watch here the summary of our week in Innsbruck by Björn Hunger!

Day 3:

Even it looked like Brook might not race because of a bruised hill, he was back in the game for race day, owing to the help of Innsbruck local physio therapist Jon Örarbäck from Loft 41. With some special heel caps and after some days of rest, Brook decided to race at least to represent the team in front of our home crowd.

The training started with a shock as co-factory rider Fabian was carried down by the mountain rescue team because of a ripped front ACL as it turned out after further checkups.

The conditions where difficult, the track and lines changed with every rider going down. Pat race in the under 19 category- he struggled a little bit and crashed in the wood section. His time showed that the pace is there, but after a long break riding because of a broken scaphoid he is still building his confidence on the bike and his constancy. Pat finished in 7^thposition.

Brage and Johannes went into the race with early start times and both showed good runs. While the run of Brage was maybe a little bit too conservative, Johannes pointed out with a strong 19^thplace in a well casted field with some big names!

For the top riders like Mike, Brook and Laurie, the very late start time, was a bit of an issue. The long break between the last training and the late start after 17:00 made it hard for them to keep the tension they need for their race run. Mike kept building his constancy was able to put a guaranty top ten run together and left with a 7^thplace in his pocket. For Brook is was just about to do another race run, the heel didn’t really hold him back, but for sure it was affecting the performance as he was also missing a full day of training- Brook finished in 11^thplace. Laurie started into the race as 6^thlast. The track changed quite a bit from his last trainings run and he couldn’t put his dream run together and end up in 10^thplace.

All riders enjoyed the track a lot and so they will stay for a few more days in Innsbruck to recover and train.

Full results of the crankworx downhill race.

: big crowd in Innsbruck

: Brook was hold back by a bruised heel, but race for the crowed!

: solid performance of Laurie Greenland!

: Mike Jones with another top 10 result- 7th!

: track changes from rider to rider...

: Johannes on the very tight line...

: Mike loved the track... bummer that this track is closed most of the time!

: Mike in front of the main partners of the MS Mondraker team...

Day 2 part 2:

One of the highlights of the Crankworx Innsbruck event is the so-called “Whip off” contest. Highlight for sure because of an unique panorama, an perfect shaped jump and an amazing crowd somewhere high up the mountain. The MS Mondraker team was represented by Laurie, Brage and Pat. While Laurie and Brage are known for their whip off skills, Pat was one of the dark horses in the field. In a jam session format Laurie and Pat qualified for the top 10 finals and performed well in an amazing show. They couldn’t win the whip off in the end, but they enjoyed every take off and this is what counts in events like this.

: Laurie enjoy the jam session format

: that whip off put a smile into Brages face

: young gun Patrik Butler was flying...

: more airtime...

: moto whip

: Laurie going siiiiiiideways...

: Young gun and even younger gun...

: Laurie and the fabulous Innsbruck crowd

Day 2:

The Day started with downhill training. The course walk showed that the local track builders did a good job. All the top names of the flied lauded the track as it had a little bit of everything and a good amount of natural features, which the riders really like. Brook had an incident after he tried to jump a gap- he hit his heel, which end up in a heel bruise.

: Brook loving it... considering the DH track of Götzens as one of his favourites!

: co-factory train with Fabian and Pat

: happy days for Laurie Greenland...

: Johannes on one of his Innsbruck home tracks

: Mike in one of many root sections...

: Pat Butler

: Mike Jones raved about how good the ground is...

: jungle shot by Nathan Hughes

Day 1:

Because of heavy rain we started into the week on Thursday and the first event for us was the pump track race. This is one of those formats, where riders of different disciplines converge. While some of the riders see this as a fun event there are quite a lot of riders, which are focused on this one event. Mike and Brook came into the event with limited training time on a brand new bike and they had a tough lot in their first round. Brook was racing against the BMX professional Niels BENSINK and Mike against pump track specialist and four cross legend Tomas Slavik. Both Brook and Mike tried hard, but dropped out. Last man in the race was Brage Vestavik from Norway. Also Brage faced a difficult log with Joost Wichman, a retired athlete, but famous for his BMX skills. Brage managed to qualify for the evening’s finals. In the first round of the evenings finals Brage faced Adrien Loron and lost both heats.

Summarized the pump track race was a fun event and a good opportunity for us to warm up for the upcoming races!

: MS Mondraker boys are in town...

: Mike's first pump track attempt after 3 years not being on a hardtail...

: Brage pushing hard...

: ...and qualified for finals

: top 16 finals

: Brage with some backlog...

: pushing hard...

: but out after the first final round...

9 Juni 2018

Leogang world cup round 3 with the first podium

admin Allgemein brage, brage Vestavik, brook, brook macdonald, fabian, fabian urlich, Johannes von Klebelsberg, laurie greenland, Leogang 2018, mike jones, mtb worldcup, UCI, worldcup

Another video summary by Björn Hunger of our fabulous week in Leogang… good things happen when you don’t expect them! 4 elite men in the finals, 3 out of 4 in the top 10, 1 podium with a 3rd place and the 2nd place in the team results… you can’t ask for more- we are stoked!

Day 4: Race day

Another race is in the books and we are catching up. We went into the race day fully excited, as we knew we were on a good pace. All the riders from the factory program qualified in the top ten, as well as Johannes qualified for the men’s final and new add on Patrik qualified for the juniors final. The times from the day before were very promising, which let us hope for the jackpot.

Patrik was the first in juniors race and struggled a bit after coming back from a broken scaphoid. He did some mistakes and crashed in the last section of the track. In the end he became 16^th, which was maybe a little setback for him, but the result from qualifying is something we can build on.

Co-factory rider Johannes was the first to come down. Johannes didn’t find his flow, made some mistakes, which send him back into 54^thposition, but we think positive, as we know what to change to get him up in the rankings.

Mike Jones was net to come. He already showed in the first timed training session that you have to have him on the radar. His 2^ndplace was motivation was enough to qualify in 10^thposition with a steady run. In his final race run Mike put a solid run together which got him into 8^thplace in the end.

Laurie was next to come. He qualified in 6^thplace, which was the perfect position for an attack- and so he did. Laurie had one of these runs he is known for- wild and on eth edge, but controlled and precise at the same time. He was just a few tenth of a seconds of the time of current leader Aaron Gwin and crossed the finish line in second position, but got 3^rdin the final result.

Last man of the MS Mondraker team was Brook MacDonald. Still not 100% fit and missing some weeks of riding after a broken collarbone, Brook shows an incredible performance. A 2^ndplace in qualification got him into the circle of favorites. Brook was the second last man to come down today. He lost some time in the top parts and took a different line in the lower section. Brook got 9^thin the end… maybe he was not really satisfied with that, but happy to know that he is on the pace to keep up with the current podium riders.

The 3^rdplace of Laurie was our first world cup podium this season and the fact that we had three riders in the top 10 brought us into the 2^ndplace of today’s team ranking. We are now back in 4^thposition of the team overall world cup ranking and keep catching up.

Here you can find the complete set of results.

We are now heading to Bikepark Innsbruck for the second round of the crankworx series- meet us there!

: Patrik Butler, had some good split times but crashed at the end of his final run

: Johannes von Klebelsberg- always 100%

: Mike Jones is back. The top 10 is his new home along with both his team mates MacDonald and Greenland.

: Brook sending it into the panorama...

: check out the line and where they took off...

: Laurie was again on a pinner... 3rd place

: Ex team mates, Brook and Greg after one eventful afternoon in the woods.

: first world cup podium for the MS Mondraker team with Laurie Greenland in 3rd

Day 3:

We had an amazing qualifying day today. Brook, Laurie and Mike from the factory squad qualified in the top 10, as well as Johannes from the co-factory team qualified in 40^thposition. This result got completed with the 6^thplace in qualification for the men junior race of Patrik Butler, which is pretty promising considering his situation of a coming back after a broken scaphoid. We are now in a very good position for the race tomorrow. Stay tuned and follow the race on https://www.redbull.tv/live/AP-1VPHMM9GS1W11/mercedes-benz-uci-mountain-bike-world-cup

: "habt acht" boys are ready for action

: Mike Jones at one of the bike park wallrides- prefers the natural sections for sure.

: Laurie 6th in qualies...

: Laurie enjoyed riding the new version of the worldcup track in Leogang

: Johannes qualified in 40th position

: Brages was sick all week- too enfeebled to qualify

: Brook again on fire- 2nd place in qualies

: typical bike park section... wall ride action

Day 2:

First day of practice was wild. The riders couldn’t wait to ride the new version of the DH world cup track in Leogang. Laurie, Brook and Mike got on speed really quick and they were on the same pace thru out the open training session. Mike was leading in the timed training session for quite a while and got 2^ndin the end. Brook got 14^thwith a solid run and Laurie got 20^thwith a so-so run and an almost crash, where he hit a tree. We have a good pace and everything is open for tomorrows qualification.

: Austrian rider Fabian Ulrich

: the MS Mondraker train is on course

: Brook is getting stronger and stronger after his broken collarbone

: The Viking Brage Vestavik- will he qualify this weekend?

: no question- Laurie like the new version of the track.

: new for this weekend- Patrik Butler from Australia joined the cofactors squad

: our Italian rider Johannes von Klebelsberg- also known as"putega internazionale"

: Mike Jones- a 2nd place in timed training get him back on the screen.

Day 1:

In the past few years Leogang was maybe not the most popular track on the world cup circuit. Too easy and to “bikeparky” was the common sense between the riders. Even more we have been surprised on track walk when we saw the modifications the organizers did to the track- especially the nice new grass off camber section was in favor of all the riders. The new common sense?! Bring on the race and lets rock!

: Greenland getting all out of shape on the first kicker.

: Mike Jones keeping up with the MS squad.

: the boys are sharing lines...

: thats the way to go...

: Brook and Ben doing fine adjustments

: the good stuff for the cockpit- Renthal bike components

: Laurie and Brook switch to hike mode ready to go find out what awaits them up the mountain.

: bike is getting a overhauling

We had an amazing qualifying day today. Brook, Laurie and Mike from the factory squad qualified in the top 10, as well as Johannes from the co-factory team qualified in 40^thpositi

3 Juni 2018

Fort William- the world cup’s classic tour stop

admin Allgemein brage, brage Vestavik, brook, brook macdonald, fabian, fabian urlich, fort william, ici worldcup, johannes, Johannes von Klebelsberg, laurie, laurie greenland

this is the video summery by Björn Hunger… lots of impressions, with some niche tunes by Sons of Buddha and Supermunk- enjoy!

race report:

Heavy rain on Saturday evening changed the track overnight. The track soften up a bit, with the consequence that the early morning training sessions of the women and juniors caused new holes on the track and some roots came out, which were pretty slippery. The weather forecast looked again unstable, with a high chance for heavy rain after 4 o’clock.

Mike was the first starter of the MS Mondraker Team. After the bad luck at the first world cup round where he couldn’t qualify because of a mechanical problem, collecting points is the highest priority. Mike improved his result from 28^thplace to a 24^thspot in the end.

Next to come was Brook- even he is not 100% fit after his crash from Losinj and even it was not about the win this weekend, Brook pulled out the maximum. A few mistakes hold him back from entering the top ten- 11^thplace for Brook and a 12^thplace in the UCI world cup overall ranking.

Laurie was the last man of the MS Mondraker team on the mountain. He made a few little mistakes in some of the sections and landed almost off course on one of the jumps in the so-called motorway section, which cost valuable seconds in the end. Laurie finished in 16^thposition, which dropped him in the overall into 10^thplace.

Overall we had a good weekend. Maybe not the top results yet, but the performance curve is promising.

1st Amaury Pierron

2nd Loris Vergier

3rd Troy Brosnan

11th Brook MacDonald

16th Laurie Greenland

24th Mike Jones

Results:

: Laurie- not to happy with his run and the final result... but he will strike back for sure in Leogang.

: no room for mistakes... rock garden from top to bottom

: Laurie- 16th place today

: 11th place for Brook today after a broken collarbone 5 weeks ago

: Mike finished in 24th position

: Mike on the 2nd last jump before the finish line

Day 3:

The mission was clear- all riders qualify for the finals. Even this was an ambitious mission this is what all riders are going for. From the early morning we knew that the weather might be the Grinch of the day. The weather forecast looked unstable and so we had to fight with changing weather conditions during the qualification. We had 6 riders on the start and 3 got into the finals of the top 60 men. While Laurie, Brook and Mike qualified without big effort, Brage, Johannes and Fabien struggled a bit with the changing conditions and the sporadically heavy rain and could not manage to qualify.

Qualifying results:

Brook 18th

Laurie 20th

Mike 28th

: Brook sending the Red Bull road gap before the motorway

: Laurie one fire

: Brook on fire- even not 100% yet, he keeps going and tries to not fall to far behind.

: Laurie in the lower woods- demanding section with a lot of rocks

: Also not qualified for the race was Brage Vestavik- it is hard to qualify for the finals with the best 60 men of the world... but he is getting closer!

: did not went as planed for Johannes- even he did not qualify he showed a good performance. now it is about consistence- next race next chance!

: Laurie in the zone... last few minutes before his run... on the trainer bike and fully focused.

: 9 seconds back today, the Bulldog is set to bite back tomorrow.

Day 2:

It was the first day of training. The dry and hot weather of the past week turned the track into being very slick. It wasn’t a very big surprise that we saw very fast times in the timed training, but the comeback of the Brook after his broken collarbone at the first round with a 4^thplace in time training was a little sensation for us. Laurie as well as Mike was on a good pace, while the riders of the co-factory riders where struggling a little bit with the conditions and the setup.

: Brook and his mechanic Ben working on the fine tuning of Brook's cockpit: Renthal father 30 mm rise with a Renthal 50mm stem

: Laurie and his brand new signing card

: 5 weeks later and Brook's already back at the sharp end... and on one of the circuit's most notoriously physical tracks.

: unusual dry and warm weather turned the track into being very dusty and slippery- Brook in one of the section in the top part.

: Rocks from top to bottom- pretty slippery no matter if dry or wet.

: Johannes von Klebelsberg fully focused.

: Mike Jones on a mission- after a non qualifier at the last round in Losinj the qualification for the top 60 is the first goal of the weekend.

Day 1:

Coming to Fort William is coming back to one of the 2 world cups classics. Far north in Scotland we race on the highest peak of the United Kingdom. The track is well know and does not change a lot as it is a man made track from top to bottom with some wooden bridges as well as a lot of rock gardens. One of the new parts from last year got reshaped and redone with rocks and changed so to a man made rock garden- in the dry not too difficult, but in the wet probably a game changer.