With winning times just outside 2 minutes there was no room for error or complacency at this weekend’s Tissot World Cup round on the slopes of Grouse Mountain, Vancouver.

After Steve Peat crashed out in Practice it was left to GT team mate Fabien Bariel to take victory by the narrowest margins. Chris Kovarik (Intense) had already set the fastest time in the Dual qualifiers, but then crashed in one of the heats and finished fourth. He recovered his speed in time to take second in the DH but at only 0.01″ adrift he must be cursing. Still he now overtakes Vouillioz (who could only manage 5th) to place 2nd in the overall rankings, behind Bariel.

Highest placed male DH Brit was Kovarik’s team mate Nigel Page in 25th with Rob Warner and Rob Jarman finishing in 32nd and 33rd respectively.
Kona rider Tracy Moseley upheld national pride with a superb 3rd place in the DH, her highest World Cup placing. Two steps up on the podium Anne Caroline Chausson just shaded Missy Giove for the DH victory.

Meanwhile back at the Dual, Eric Carter and an ecstatic Leigh Donovan won out, while Will Longden had a storming ride to finish 7th ahead of Nigel Page in 13th.

We’ll get you the XC results as soon as UCI confirmation comes through, but meanwhile here’s the weekend’s race diary from Russ Carty, team manager of Team Kona / Ford Focus.

“Hi All,
After along trip we eventually arrive in Vancouver, the home of Kona. We spent Wednesday morning visiting Kona and then in the afternoon we headed up to the course. Grouse Mountain is a new venue for the Tissot World Cup and so far it has turned out to be a great event. Both Scott and Tracy like the DH course, it is going to be very short though, times will be around two minutes. The dual looks good, Scott has been for a look and it is one of the better ones this year.

Friday – Dual Qualification and DH Practice

Today went well, no problems in DH practice and bikes + equipment were working well. Due to this weekend being a triple header (DH + DL + XC) the dual qualification was on Friday rather than on Saturday, so it was a very busy day. Scott liked the DL course, but felt that it wasn’t the best course for passing so really it was going to be another race out of the gate. Scott looked quick and his gates were great so was hoping to qualify high, but unfortunately he made one mistake and this cost him, he eventually finished 20th, but from 7th down to 27th were all on the same second, so if hadn’t messed up he would have been a lot higher.

Unfortunately with this placing it means he has some hard racing ahead of him, first up is Mike King (Haro), then Eric Carter (Mongoose-Hyundai), then Wade Bootes (Trek-VW), he has beaten all these guys before so hopefully he’ll make it into the final, we’ll see tomorrow.

Saturday – DH semi Finals, DH Finals and Dual Finals.

This morning was another early start, practice started at 9am so we had to be at the race site early. Scott wanted to get a few runs early on as he wanted to save himself for Dual. Tracy also managed to get a few runs and was really looking forward to the race and she was our first rider down, when she came into the last section she was on a good time and then when she crossed the finish line she came across in first place!

But she had to wait for Missy Giove and Anne-Caroline to come down the course, and they both came down less than 1.5 seconds ahead of Tracy. But Tracy was very pleased to finish 3rd as this is her best ever result in a world cup event.

Scott was next down and had a good run, he was pleased to finish 54th.

Next was the dual and Scott was going to have a very hard race, his first round was against Mike King so it was going to be a very hard race. Scott got the gate but then as they came up to the first double Mike had caught him up and they were level going into the first corner, Scott was leaning against Mike trying to push him out of the way but he didn’t budge and Scott had to back off, unfortunately Scott couldn’t pass on the rest of the course and he lost this round and finished 24th.

As you can guess, Scott was not happy as after his result last weekend at the Euros he was feeling really good, but luck was against him at this race. But next week we are in Durango for the next round of the Tissot World Cup, so hopefully Scott will get the result he deserves and Tracy will get on the Podium again!

Speak to you next week, Russ”