Qualifying went down yesterday and it was one hell of an eventful few hours! After crashing in practice Junior leader Luca Shaw took it steady down his run coming down in 14th 13.693s back on the winner of the day Loris Vergier. Laurie Greenland and Taylor Vernon took 2nd and 3rd spots and will both be coming in hot for finals later. The points battle is tight and the last few digits available make all the difference, full results are here.
Rachel Atherton made it count pulling things together right at the close of the season, Manon is still on for the overall if she lands a podium but Rach won’t be giving up without a fight. The race is on between Manon and Rach, just 0.662s separate them with Ragot being just short of three seconds back. Tracey Hannah is looking fast and took 4th spot and was in touch with the top three times at 4.483s back. From there the times dropped back, Tahnee Seagrave took 5th spot with Morgane Charre a further 5 seconds back, then things opened up but they will no doubt close in some more come race runs later today. Full results here
The Men’s qualifying was threw out some surprises and we are in for one hell of a race today. Aside from the winners and points on offer it was Francisco Pardal who stunned everyone with his 4th place, the Portugese rider has had top 20 results before and is currently National Champion. He can ride fast for sure but today was just one of those days where everything slotted into place for him. He was practicing with the Syndicate guys and couldn’t believe what he had done coming across the line, all that and he buys his own bikes! Maybe not next year though…
We haven’t seen too many punctures here but they can come at the worst time. Troy Brosnan and Greg Minnaar both flatted but the points loss for Troy will be a tough pill to swallow, he is now further back on Josh but anything can happen come finals. For the first time Matt Simmonds took the win and bagged 50 points in the process, he seemed pleased with his run even if it was a bit scrappy but he would have been pipped by Bryceland had he not crashed in his run. Ratboy is one fire, he definitely has the speed and landing 2nd place even with a spill in impressive when everyone was holding it wide for the last race of the season.
Check out all the action from Meribel right here:
