So the last round of the World Cup series of 2015 brought us to Val di Sole, Italy, and what a track to decide the WC overalls – technical from the word go and steepening towards the bottom. On paper this course would favour Jacob (Dickson, junior), being what Wyn Masters described him as a ‘technical wizard’, and on that basis the team went into the weekend feeling optimistic for some good results to round out the WC season.

After Phil’s (Atwill) recent spell of bad luck with injury at the last few rounds, he was riding with vengeance, and swagger (check out the hand drag swag video if you haven’t seen it – instagram @orangedirtworldteam), which brought a lot of good comments from the media. He was out to prove himself, and so he did – landing the top 20 he’d been looking for all season. Check out what he had to say below:

“So I’ve just been knocked off the hotseat by Mr. Harry Heath. My run was really good – I was pushing really hard at the top and I knew I was on a good’n, so I tamed it down a little to make sure I got down the hill, but I think maybe I tamed it down too much. It will be the best result I’ve had this year so I can’t complain! Yeah, I finished up 19th, I’m pretty happy at the fact I’ve finally held a run together – shame it has taken me all year but it’s great to finish the year on a good result.”

Jacob on the other hand was focussed on the win and nothing else. After qualifying 1st twice this season and landing two 2nd places, everything built towards the end of the season to get that elusive win either here at Val di Sole, or in Andorra next week for World Champs. Check the word from Jacob:

“My race run was steady, I just tried to stay in one piece as the arm pump here is really bad. One thing that didn’t help was that I brought up two right handed gloves to the top and I had to run one inside out, so it had no grip. I kept braking and my hand was sliding off the grip, so that was not good… but I tried to put that aside and cracked on. I stayed smooth and ended up 2nd, and 3rd in the overall which was a bonus, got a nice trophy for that so I’m pretty stoked on that. I’m heading back home for a week now, then back to Andorra for worlds to hit some steep tracks, and hopefully get the rainbow jersey.. I’m hoping.”

Isak (Leivsson ) on the other hand was unfortunate to not get on too well with the track here, and sadly didn’t make the cut to qualify – which was uncharacteristic of him after such a steady and consistent positioning in recent races. He’s now focussed on practising his steep skills ready to represent Norway at World Champs. See what he had to say from the weekend:

“My weekend sadly ended early, I just couldn’t get into it. I had a really bad run so I didn’t make the qualifying cut – it was real messy and I just couldn’t get on with the track. Now I really need to get some redemption with the last race in Andorra. Time to go home now and practice some steep stuff and then hopefully f*ckin’ kill it in Andorra.”

So that’s that for the 2015 World Cup rounds. Up’s and downs, junior podiums galore and elite top 20’s for the team this year leads us onto World Champs next week in Andorra with the potential for a junior win and elite top 20, be sure to keep an eye on our boys. We’re off to Lake Garda now for a well needed rest, peace out from the Orange Dirt World Team!