PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

With five splits it’s interesting to take a look at how the riders moved up and down the rankings as they moved through the sectors. This chart shows each of the top 20 riders’ overall position at each split. Bruni’s dramatic drop to 14th between split 4 and the finish catches the eye but there’s some other interesting points as well.

Troy Brosnan had a mid race dip down to 10th place before recovering to 4th at the finish. Josh Bryceland also shows up as a slow start but recovering by the mid sector and just being pipped to a podium slot by Brosnan’s late charge in the final sector. In contrast, his Syndicate team-mate Greg Minnaar had a solid start but dropped gradually back through the field as the race went on to finish a disappointing 15th by his standards.

The final way we can cut this is to look at the heat map of individual sector positions for the top 20 riders. The heatmap shows better placings in darker colours (exact placings are in the boxes).

This is where it gets really interesting. Of the top 3 overall, none of them took a fastest sector but, as is often the case, their consistency was what pulled them through to a top finish. Steve Smith went 4th, 10th, 7th, 3rd and 10th but this was enough to take 2nd place overall as others made mistakes around him.

The light coloured holes highlight where riders lost time and positions. for Troy Brosnan it was sectors 2 and 3, from Pierron it was sector 4. Another inconsistent rider that shows up here was Bernard Kerr. 5th place in sector 2 and 2nd in sector 5, but out of the top 20 in sectors 3 and 4.

As is often the case then, consistency won in the end, and when it’s consistency you’re after then Aaron Gwin is your man. All change with the bike and team but business as usual on Sunday afternoon. One thing’s for sure though, Bruni has signalled his intent. If he can stay on his bike for a few final runs this could be a very exciting season ahead.