There was carnage in the 4X today and some big-time dendrophillia (love of trees) going on in the downhill. Victor Lucas was there to capture the action, fresh from Vallnord, Andorra.
Jared Graves had everybody out of the gate and threw it
sideways into the the shaley first turn, but there was a big gap on the
inside with Roger Rinderknecht and Joost Wichmann not needing a second
invitation to take the lead. Wichmann made his move in the last straight and
took the trophy.
The womens 4X final was a bit of a destruction derby. Jill
Kintner made a pass on Jana Horakova in the first turn, only to be taken out
in the second. That left the gate wide open for Anneke Beerten and Fionn
Griffiths to cruise through. Griffiths won.
It was pretty amazing to have a 4X that wasn’t run in the dark
under suspect artificial lighting, and the weather was pretty nice too.
The DH course may seem straightforward with no major features,
but there are plenty of places to make mistakes when running flat out
through the forest. Both Sabrina Jonnier and Tracy Moseley had problems that
cost them time in their qualifying runs, Sabrina made it out of the woods
first by a couple of seconds.
Dan Stanbridge is such a nice guy he stops every now and then
to hug a tree that takes his fancy. And there are a lot of trees on this
course. All the same he managed a healthy 22nd place. Go Greenpeace.victors-5-a-day
