Monday, May 12, 2006 - posted by Alan Milway
Brendan Fairclough wins French National downhill!
With the 3rd round of the UK National Points Series cancelled this past weekend some UK riders made the trip over to the French Alps to compete in the first round of the French National series. Montriond was the race venue and is based next to the popular mountain bike holiday town of Morzine. A large group of UK talent were staying in Morzine with Riders Retreat and enjoying the weather and a weekend away racing.
Temperatures were high and the sun was out- perfect conditions one would think- but the organisers were frantically scraping and shovelling SNOW off the track to make it race-able! A heavy end of season snowfall had left quite a covering of snow on the slopes of Linderets- even now, but it was rapidly melting in the hot sun. This made for mixed conditions as some sections that were very wet and soggy dried out nicely, and others that were next to banks of snow became wetter and wetter as the melting snow kept it constantly irrigated.
The track wasn't liked immediately as it didn't flow from section to section, and there were some very tricky rocky and rooty sections that remained damp in the trees. However come Sunday (race day) most were feeling a lot more positive about it. Brendan, riding his custom 224 was enjoying the course and in qualifying put in a 'cruisy' run according to him, but still qualified fastest junior and 3rd Fastest overall!
Brendan was confident going into the final and was clearly looking for the overall win- even though he is ranked as a junior he wanted to beat all of his world cup colleagues in a field that included Mickael Paskal and Cyrille Kurtz.
After a very quick top section, Brendan entered a woods section and was caught out by some wet roots and went down face first covering his goggles and hands with mud. He charged the lower sections and came over the line to still win Junior and end the day 4th overall! Just 10 seconds off the winning time of Pascal's
| Photos from Paul Thomas | ||||
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| Gregory Gilson, Orange 223 | At the top | Brendan on course | Brendan being interviewed | Podium |
"I'm devastated to crash in my final, but I guess that's racing" he commented when asked about his run. Winning Junior category was some consolation, but the overall victory was clearly on his mind.
The organisers were clearly happy to see a UK rider, riding for a UK team come over the ride their race and there was a lot of press in attendance asking for interviews, children for autographs and television coverage from the hovering helicopter of the event'a far cry from a British round!
It is now back to back weeks of travelling for the young man from Hampshire, returning to England before travelling the USA, then Canada for NORBA and World Cup duty for Orange UK.
Alan Milway
Read Alan's extended 'Eurofighter' report on www.descent-world.co.uk