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The Lisboa Downtown in Portugal seems to becoming almost a European Sea Otter – a big race shindig before the race season proper kicks off, and an opportunity for everyone to show off their new bikes/sponsors/kit. Downtown is nothing like as all-encompassing as Sea Otter, of course, being a single, invitation-only urban downhill race, but it’s still one of the first occasions in the year when the DH pros all get together. And if the results are anything to go by it’s going to be a good year for the Brits…
We’ve got a big report here, but it appears to have been translated from Portuguese to English via a couple of other European languages and doesn’t end up making all that much sense. Have a couple of paragraphs and you’ll see what we mean:
Early in the morning the bikers began training on the circuit surprising many tourists in the area. Besides having the same circuit as the last years, bikers could understand some added difficulties that would turn it slower. The first dismissal of the competition was french biker, Nolvenn Le Caer, nº2 on the world female ranking. She did tried to do it but she was unable due to a injury made 3 days before while training up. Ass the others bikers were up to the mark. |
You get the idea. To cut to the chase, 30 men and 10 women qualified for the finals, with Cedric Gracia (winner in 2000) and Anne-Caroline Chausson recording the fastest time in the semis.
In the finals, Anne-Caroline managed to knock three seconds off her qualifying time, putting her four seconds ahead of second-placed Anneke Beerten. Britain’s Helen Gaskell got third.
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Steve Peat qualified fourth fastest, so having clocked a 1:35.962 he had to wait for David Vasquez, Mick Hannah and Cedric Gracia to have their runs. None of them could match his time, though, giving Steve his third consecutive Downtown win. Let’s hope he can carry his form through the season…
It’ll be interesting to see how World Champ Greg Minnaar gets on during the coming season on his new Honda bike. It’s a complicated beastie with a continuously-variable gearbox thingummy tucked away in the frame – he got 7th in Lisbon so it obviously works, but can he win on it?
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