Monday, July 10, 2006 - posted by Chris Fairclough
Brendan Fairclough - European Junior DH Champ - Again!
With a bike cobbled together at the last minute, Brendan Fairclough retained the European Downhill Championship this weekend, winning his class emphatically by 12 seconds. Not only that, after posting the fastest qualifying time, his race run put him in fourth spot over all, narrowly beaten by Fabien Barel for the senior bronze medal.
The run up to this event was a test of Brendan's character to say the least. A tragi-comic series of events saw Brendan return from his travels to the World Cup rounds in Mont Sainte Anne, Canada and Sao Paul, Brazil - without his bike. The airlines had cancelled and rescheduled flights so often, that the eventual disaster that occured was almost inevitable. Basically. Brendan arrived back in the UK not entirely sure of which continent his Orange 224 had ended up on. Either way he didn't have it the day before having to set off fo the European Championships event in Vale di Sole, Italy.
In a needs must scenario, a 224 frame was sent down from the Orange factory. Justin, Brendan's mechanic built a new set of wheels with rims bought from the local bike shop, brakes were stripped from his 4X bike and a pair of incomplete Rock Shox BoXXer World Cups were chucked into the bag as they set off for the airport. A two hour delay on the M25 while the police swept up a multi-car pile-up meant that Brendan and Justin missed their flight. All in all not a good start to a stressful weekend.
So you can imagine we were pleased to hear the news that somehow Brendan had managed to get those BoXXers rebuilt and working sweetly and reported back that he had the fastest practice time. Pleased? more like elated.
We would argue that his race run went pretty well too, as he retained the junior Euro DH title he won last year. Brendan felt that he didn't have such a great run!
We'll find out more tomorrow as Brendan is back and we'll have the story from the horses mouth.