Leogang in Austria is a firm rider favourite in the race calendar. The bike park course is a mix of fast flowy jump lines and technical wooded sections requiring pinpoint precision.
Following on from Rd. 2 in Poland, the team were looking to build on a collective move up the results sheet and have another strong and productive race.
Coming into the race there was quite a bit of the wet stuff, so the course was changing all the time. Never great for the confidence.
However, the team persevered and went into qualifying looking strong.
Up first in the Junior Men's were Ryder Lawrence and Oscar Griffiths. Ryder had a consistent run in qualifying and was feeling pretty confident, unfortunately in his qualifying run he crashed in the woods and this put him down in 49th place. He had this to say:
‘I was feeling really comfortable on the track and felt like I was going to do well... I'm really bummed on how it turned out but I know that the speed is there and I'm looking forward to the next race.’
Also in the Junior men's race was Oscar Griffiths, who had a tough time of things. After some fun times in practice it all went a bit pear shaped in qualis as he had a mechanical issue followed by a crash and didn't end up finishing his run. After the race he was feeling pretty philosophical about it all:
‘Leogang was a tough one for me, but there’s a lot to learn from that... ...A lot learned and ready to take into Val Di Sole!'
Following on from the Juniors was the Elite Women. After a significant improvement in results for Lou in Round 2, she was ready to get stuck in in Leogang.
Lou was super consistent across the weekend, first qualifying in 9th, then getting 9th in the Semis and then crowning it off with a 9th in Finals, with really consistent run times throughout the weekend, an awesome performance and showing that consistency pays off. Lou had this to say about the weekend:
‘Proud of our team for the massive effort this week. Had some fun on track and felt like we’re building some momentum and consistency. Keen to work on my race run intensity though to get onto the podium’
Rounding out the weekend was Elite Male rider and Team owner, Joe Breeden. Joe's had a tricky start to the season and has been on the cusp of qualifying for finals and missing out by the smallest of margins but it was in Leogang that Joe started pulling it all together. After qualifying 22nd, Joe got 21st in Semis and then 20th in the finals showing again that consistency is the key to results coming through.
'Felt great to be back at the sharp end in Leogang after a consistent week going 22nd, 21st and 20th in Finals. Great step forward but for sure hungry & focused for more.'
Onward to Val Di Sole in the next instalment...