Gee Atherton cantered down the Lourdes course this afternoon to claim the quickest time in Timed Training. He was followed by Danny Hart and Bernard Kerr, making it a Brit 1-2-3 on the day.

Gee flew down to Lourdes early and clearly that time has paid off as he posted a final time of 2:57.972 (final time tbc). All three boys must be feeling good though as they were around Gwin’s course record of 2:58.

It’s no secret that these guys will have been treating this as a proper race run but, as always with timed training, we should say that these results bear no influence on what might happen on Sunday, often it’s simply a case of who has decided to show their hand early.

After all the hype and speculation, the Syndicate failed to trouble the top spot. Loris and Luca were just inside the top 10 while Minnaar ended up puncturing with the tyre off his rim in his second run and way down the standings. Bad luck or a bad choice?

In the women’s category Atherton domination continued with Rachel taking the top spot by nearly ten seconds. Manon Carpenter was second on her new Radon with Emilie Siegenthaler third.

In the juniors, Finn Iles started strong but was chased hard by Matt Walker and Slvain Cougoureux.

Provisional results