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UCI Mountain Bike World Championships took place in Les Gets, France this past weekend and as promised the course, the racing and the fans were all incredible! The World Championships is different than the World Cup series in that it’s a single day event versus a year long series and one run will crown the World Champion for 2022 and that rider gets to wear the World Champions rainbow strip jersey for a full year. This means the pressure to perform is immense and riders go into their race run with an all or nothing attitude knowing that it’s only the top step on the podium that gets the title of World Champion.
The Les Gets course is a rider favorite due to the many line options, consistently steep terrain and the technical nature of the rough and rooted course that changes constantly. Even thought there was some rain during the week the course on race day was very dusty and blown out with large braking bumps and ruts forming as the day went on. Powdery dust filled the ruts in the corners making it extremely difficult to see the roots that were being exposed as the course deteriorated.
Pivot Factory Racing had two riders racing in the DH event, Bernard Kerr competing in the Men’s Elite category and racing for Great Britain and Jenna Hastings competing in the Junior Women’s category and racing for New Zealand. Both Bernard and Jenna are having stellar seasons so far and both riders were carrying momentum from strong finishes in the last few WC DH events. Bernard had been anticipation this event all year knowing the Les Gets course would be a good one for him. His race run was clean and fast and he was up at split #1. The course between split #1 and #2 was the decisive sector all day and Bernard couldn’t quite maintain his pace in that sector loosing some time and his flow. His run was solid and he crossed the line in 6th place with a number or riders still to race. While not what he wanted Bernard ended up a solid 13th on a day where the French riders dominated in front of their crazy fans.
Now for Jenna’s day…WORLD CHAMPION!!!! Jenna capped off her stellar season with a run that saw here finishing almost 16 seconds ahead of 3rd place and 1.8 seconds ahead of the heavy favorite Gracey Hemstreet from Canada taking her first and Reynold first DH World Championship title!!! Jenna and the rest of the Pivot Factory DH team have been riding Reynolds BL289 DH wheels all season as it continues to be their weapon of choice with its World Championship winning performance and legendary durability.
Written by: Todd Tanner – Hayes Performance Systems
This past weekend was UCI World Cup DH #7 race at Mont-Sainte-Anne in Quebec, Canada. I was fortunate enough to attend the event and spend time with not only the Pivot DH team but also the Gamux DH team who Hayes Performance Systems also supports. Mont-Sainte-Anne (MSA) is an iconic event and is notorious for its fast, rough, and rocky DH course that goes from open and fast, open and rough, tight steep technical roots to rocks in the trees. This course has it all. This year was no different but with the twist of a new section in the woods with some very steep and technical turns.
More than ever, the MSA course was brutal on the riders and equipment. Many riders hit the ground and both Loic Bruni and Loris Vergier sustained shoulder injuries that forced them to sit out on race day. Wheels and tires were being destroyed almost every run. Team mechanics were frantically rebuilding wheels and looking for solutions to prevent flats.Â
With Pivot rider Jenna Hastings sustaining a wrist injury at Snowshoe, (even though she still finished on the podium) she decided to sit out MSA. That left Bernard as the sole rider for the team. He carried the momentum from last weekend’s 2nd place win and was riding super-fast right from the first practice run. Some rain fell early on day 1 of practice which made for some very slick conditions in the woods but also resulted in nearly perfect conditions the rest of the week. Bernard posted the fastest time in timed training and put in a solid qualifying time to seed him in 5th for Saturday’s final. However, with the course drying out and getting even faster, it was better suited to Bernard’s rivals as he excels in the tighter and more technical conditions.
The spectator turnout for Saturday’s finals were INSANE! I’ve never seen so many fans (thousands) lining the course to cheer for their favorite riders. The final was full of drama and Bernard laid down what I would consider one of his best runs ever finishing in 5th for his second straight podium!
CLICK HERE TO WATCH BERNARD'S MSA YOUTUBE VLOG
Immediately after the finals, Bernard and the team loaded up and caught a flight across Canada to Whistler where the weeklong Crankworx Whistler was going on. 3 of the other Pivot team riders (Morgane Charre, Matt Walker and Eddy Masters) had just finished day 1 of the Whistler EWS enduro event. Sunday was day 2 of the enduro with 4 tough stages ahead. All 3 riders had a good day 1 and were sitting in the top ten overall after Saturday’s stages. Sunday saw the 3 riders put in some fantastic stages with Morgane charging from 9th to 2nd overall and Matt and Eddy finishing 4th and 5th overall. The Pivot EWS team won the team category and continue to lead in the overall team rankings.Â
CLICK HERE TO WATCH BERNARD'S EWS YOUTUBE VLOG
It doesn’t end there! Bernard competed in the Crankworx Dual Slalom yesterday and pulled off a massive upset defeating the #1 seeded rider in the quarter finals with the fastest run of the day and the #4 seeded rider in the semifinals. Bernard then went on to take the win in the finals!!! Seeded #9 Bernard was an underdog going against some of the top dual slalom specialists in the world!
Lots more racing going on this week at Crankworx Whistler and Bernard will be competing in the RockShox Canadian Open DH Sunday before heading back to Europe for the World Championships Aug. 27th and the World Cup finals Sept. 3rd.
The entire Reynolds team and the rest of the Hayes Bicycle Group family of brands are jacked to see the success of Bernard and all of Pivot Factory Racing as they just can’t be stopped right now!
EWS Sugarloaf, Maine in the USA has been the past weekend and it's also been another one for the books!
It was straight back in after a successful weekend in Burke and the team wasted no time with Matt Walker winning his first Pro stage to start of the race on Saturday! Eddie and Morgane started solid but needed to lay some power down on race day!
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Unfortunately after a flat tire on the first stage of race day Morgane had a big task on her hands...actually here first mechanical at a race since she's been on the team so it was a good run. She fought hard all day winning stage 4 and getting 3rd on the final stage and clawed her way back to 8th overall. Still sitting in 2nd in the series with 2 rounds to go!
Eddie started the day in 13th after a sketchy pro stage but rode solid all day with multiple top 10 stage finishes to claim another 5th overall and keeping his 4th place in the series standings.
After the pro stage you get re seeded for the race day so Matt was last to drop on every stage making it an exciting day! With some pressure on his shoulders he started of the day with an average stage. After settling in he rode amazing all day for his first EWS odium outside of NZ with a 3rd place!!!!
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We won team of the day yet ​again and extended our points lead in the standings with 2 rounds to go!
Well what a crazy week its been...whistler Crankworx finally returned after the Covid break and the EWS made its debut on the East coast of the USA in Burke.
Lets start off with a quick Crankworx recap...Whistler was Wildy busy and bikers were out in huge numbers. First up was the A line race the day after landing. After 2 brief practice laps I just decided to ride a nice safe smooth run and do some scrubs for the fans. A solid 10th place result and a fun time was had on day 1 in whistler.
Next up was the dual slalom, one of my favourite events and on a new part of the hill for me. Only having my 170/160mm travel Firebird 29er I wasn't expecting a lot and just went along to have fun and shred. After a solid qualifying and getting through to the early heats to the final 8 before the live feed I realised we were going to able to turn things up a few gears.
The turns were honestly epic....so steep and fast you could just lean in with everything you had. After a fierce coupe of battles, I was in the final...feeling confident and riding high after the world cups we put the after burners on a took the Win in front of another sick crowd. It was rad start to the week.
Next up was whip off where I really just had a good time and did a bunch of trains with the Pivot next gen riders, Dane Jewett and Ryan Griffith where the pretty much showed me up! haha
The Canadian open is the DH race at the end of the week and is always a super dusty blown out track...although we had a dashing of rain pre qualie's and after a sketchy moment up top on wet rocks I rode it down safe for a 6th place.
Finals on Sunday, the track was running so fast and rough, unfortunately after going green at the first split I tipped it into a rut just a little too much and caught my inside foot on the floor kicking the bike out from under me and putting me on the floor... An unfortunate mistake but luckily a very slow speed crash. Its out the way and we are ready for world champs in Les gets in 2 weeks time!
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EWS
On the other side of the coast, Morgane, Matt and Eddie were riding some east coast jank rock in Burke Vermont. The day was super physical with some good sections bust some also very questionable ones. A solid start for both Matt and Eddie in 4th and 5th on the pro stage meant they were once again feeling it for the main day Sunday. Morgane unfortunately not riding to her full potential ending the pro Stage in 8th but not loosing too much time for the main day.
Race day and the fans were back in the masses again, mountain biking really seems to be in a good spot right now when it comes to fan attendance and race day vibes.
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Eddie had a crash on stage 5 that pushed him back a little but still another super solid day with a 7th place.
Matt rode amazing and strong all day claiming another 4th place making it 2 weeks in a row and moving up to 8th in the overall.
Morgane had time to make up and she got to work hammering those flat pedals all day and all the way back to another 2nd plac...her 4th one in a row this season! Also narrowing the gap on the lead in the overall standings.
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Yet again Pivot were the team of the day and extend the points lead in the overall team standings.
