All aboard the 2013 Val Di Sole World Cup Express! It was flippin’ exciting racing this weekend, Val Di Sole is one of, if not the hardest track on the circuit, which was highlighted when some of the big contenders ended up crashing out on their race runs. It was more a competition of who could get down the track with a clean run!

In our recap, we look at all the photo galleries, DirtTV episodes and all the added extras, that we’ll chuck in for fun!

Wednesday:

Photo’s of day one with Laurence Crossman Emms

Kapow! The Parkin brothers have brought out the heli-cam for this banger of a track walk video.

Thursday:

Gstaadt-Scott team manager Claudio Caluori takes us down the track, this gives us an insight into how difficult the track is!

Day two with Laurence, keep an eye out for the audio clips in the gallery.

Parkin brothers practice gold

Peaty and Ratboy take us down the track

Friday – Qualifying:

Qualifying action through the lens of Laurence.

DirtTV Qualifying.

Qualifying Results:

Men:

1st Gee Atherton: 3:15.475
2nd Aaron Gwin: 3:16.837
3rd Stevie Smith: 3:17.482

Gee takes the win in qualifying ahead of a back to form Aaron Gwin.

Great results for Jack Reading and Bernard Kerr, and it’s interesting to see that a lot of the top performers from last weekend are showing great consistency by being right at the top once again. Full results here.

Women:

1st Rachel Atherton: 3:51.866
2nd Emmeline Ragot: 3:58.054
3rd Manon Carpenter: 4:02.444

With a lead of over 6 seconds Rachel Atherton has once again shown the rest of the women’s field a thing or two. If she continues like this then the others are going to be questioning whether she can even be beaten this season.

It’s great though to see Manon Carpenter continuing her good form with a third place here in qualifying. Hopefully she can make it onto the podium again in the finals… Full results here.

Junior

1st Phil Atwill: 3:28.095
2nd Noel Niederberger: 3:28.668
3rd Innes Graham: 3:32.742

After a puncture in qualifying at Fort William Madison/Saracen rider Phil Atwill has just put in a blinder of a run in qualifying at Val di Sole. Last weeks junior winner Noel Niederberger managed to get within just over half a second of Phil, but then there was a fair old chunk of time separating the rest. Taylor Vernon was almost ten seconds back in 8th place. Full results here.

Saturday:

Saturday is quite a slow day as far as riding goes, as most riders were mentally preparing for race day.

Slowmo Saturday, from the big RED!

Sunday – Race day:

Steven Jones gives us an introduction to race day.

Results:

Men:

1st Gee Atherton: 3:12.185
2nd Stevie Smith: 3:13.186
3rd Greg Minnaar: 3:13.435

Absolutely incredible ride from Gee Atherton today…is this the year for Gee and Rach? They are both on a ‘two out of two’! They look pretty much unstoppable this year. Gee managed to win by a whole second from Stevie Smith on a dry and dusty course…could it be something to do with his new bike? Many of the other riders that were in contention for the win had big crashes; Brook MacDonald lost his saddle and Aaron Gwin was off the pace by 4 seconds, finishing back in sixth. A return to form of sorts, but he is still not his usual ‘crushing’ self. A great result for Smith in second (but he will be searching for the win), Minnaar will be more than pleased to be back on the podium in third after his performance in Fort William. And young guns Loic Bruni and Troy Brosnan will be ‘stoked, pumped and amped’ with fourth and fifth. Full results here.

Women:

1st Rachel Atherton: 3:43.810
2nd Emmiline Ragot: 3:49.045
3rd Floriane Pugin: 3:55.863

Another win from Rachel Atherton this time she’s 5 seconds ahead of the competition, can anyone stop the Athertons from dominating the World cup series? Full results here.

As Dan Atherton put it…

Junior:

1st Dean Lucas: 3:24.630
2nd Phil Atwill: 3:24.790
3rd Luca Shaw: 3:24.818

With less than .200th of a second between the top 3, it was quite a close race. Young GT rider Taylor Vernon ended up crashing in some style, which someone managed to capture on video, we’ve been assured that “Tay is fine, he’s a tough cookie!” Full results here.

Also if you missed any of the race action, you can watch the replay here.

Current standings after the first two rounds

1st Gee Atherton: 490 points
2nd Stevie Smith: 352 points
3rd Brook Macdonald: 262 points

Full standings here.

1st Rachel Atherton: 500 points
2nd Emmeline Ragot: 380 points
3rd Manon Carpenter: 300 points

Full standings here.

1st Dean Lucas: 90 points
2nd Noel Niederberger: 60 points
3rd Phil Atwill: 60 points

Full standings here.

World Cup racing is over for a couple of weeks now but we’ll have all the same high quality coverage then!