Team Pivot Weekly Update

Some news from the Dainese-sponsored UCI MTB team.

This week end was a Muddy one for the Quebec cup in Mont Saint Anne for Hans Lambert, with a muddy course from top to bottom Hans was able to stay on the track and have a great time ridding his Pivot and finished in 3^rd place behind Neko Mulaley (usa-Trek World racing) and in first place was pro skier Chris Delbosco. Hans had 2 full days of muddy  practice and the course got faster and faster as the day had gone  with the sunshine.

For Kyle Strait he has decided to Pack all of his things and head off to Highland Mountain bike park in New Hampshire  to coach young athletes for the week and practice for the upcoming claymore challenge next week end. This is the start of a long trip for Kyle he will not return home before the august.

At the moment I am with Will Rischbieth and we are in Geneva and just arrived from Leogang and he is recuperating from his hands injury’s  and keeping his training up and positive mind set to be 100% for Mount Saint Anne and I am attempting to fix our Europe truck that we have been having  transmission  trouble with by lately(what a new challenge).

Thank You for all your support

Team Pivot Cycle Update

An update from Team Pivot Cycle after the last 2 rounds of the UCI Downhill rounds in Ft. Williams (Scotland) and Leogang (Aust.)

"Leogang was a hard week end for the team and the rest of the field, there was many crashes and injuries across the all the competitor’s . For Hans Lambert and Bernard Kerr they both had crashes in there qualifier due to the rain and muddy conditions and was unable to qualify. Unfortunately it his hard for these guys after all the months of preparation and hard work.

For Will Rischbieth, after having a somewhat good Fort William race last week  he had a bad crash early Saturday morning practice and fractured his right hand and his left index finger and went on to tapping up his hands and racing the qualifier and ended up 81 out of 276 racers, having a hard time holding on to the bars Will used a the bigger ODI rogue grip for a softer feel for his hand. The doctors says that in 3 to 4 weeks he should be ok but he has already source out a brace and is riding his xc bike on the road, this has not slowed down his motivation. He should be ready for Mt Saint-Anne World Cup.

For the next stop for the team will be Kyle going to the Triple Dip event next week end in Solvista Colorado and Hans Lambert will be racing the Quebec championships at Mt Saint-Anne and getting ready for the next world cup.

Thank You to all our sponsors for supporting us.

Joanna Petterson takes 3rd at Mountain-Bike World Cup in Mont Ste Anne

Congrats to Dainese's Jojo Petterson for her 3rd place finish in the UCI World Cup 4X round at Mt Sainte Anne in Quebec, Canada on Saturday.

Jojo's race report:

"Mont Ste Anne is the stage for the 2010 World Championships and in preparation for the event the organizers have spent a lot of time on all the race tracks. The DH track had extensive time and energy spent on it, with some great new changes, fun sections and more jumps. 4X was redesigned from top to bottom and now includes two good rock sections.
I started the weekend on my new 2010 SuperTeam frames, making a change to how I set up the DH bike I was feeling good in DH and felt strong heading into qualifying. As it seems to go for us this year, it started raining half an hour before our qualifying began. My run began a bit on the cautious side to feel out the conditions, but after a few moments I realized it was still pretty tacky so I let the brakes go a bit and hit my lines. But as it goes, in a really fast section I ended up losing my traction in a fast berm and completely came off the bike. I jumped up and grabbed my bike, straightened my bars and headed back on track. I had broken a pedal though and came unclipped in the rock section, losing more time. From then on I knew I wasn’t going to make the cut, but I pushed as hard as I could and crossed the line without qualifying for finals.
In the process I managed to sprain my wrist slightly, so for 4X I was taking it easy to see if I was able to hang on. Good thing I did. Racing started Saturday with a round of 16 for the women, 4 heats. My first heat I was 2nd to Anneke Beerten, and the next heat was going to be a challenge. I was up against Anita Molcik, Anneke Beerten and Melissa Buhl. Taking outside lane choice I had to find a passing opportunity. In the first turn I was in 4th just looking for a pass, Anita slid out and I passed her on the first berm. Following Anneke and Melissa I took the outside through the rock garden while Melissa took the inside. Unfortunately for Melissa she went down hard in the rock section and I passed her there.
I was into the finals with Anneke, Jill Kintner and Fionn Griffiths.
Again I had the outside lane choice so passing would be my only opportunity for finishing better than 4th. We started and headed down with myself in 4th. I followed the pack looking for a pass. Anneke and Jill took the inside line on the jump section and Fionn and I headed outside for the big double. On the lip of the jump, Fionn slid out with a rear flat and I narrowly avoided her and cleared the jump, pulling into 3rd. Ahead in the berm Jill had crashed and I wasn’t able to pass her, so Fionn snuck around us and I was back into 4th. Jill and I pedaled for the finish and I was again unable to pass, when Jill took another painful sounding crash and I was able to pass her taking finishing 3rd.
The racing was great and I think everyone needs to be congratulated on a great course and some really fun competition.
Thanks to everyone for their continued support.
Now I’m after No.1 ! "

Dainese's World Cup DH and 4X rider Joanna Petterson

A few photos from Dainese's World Cup DH and 4X rider Joanna Petterson.

Dainese's Joanna Petterson gets Top 10 at UCI World Cup in South Africa

Here's Joanna's report on the first round of the UCI Mountain-bike World Cup in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

"

2009 Pietermaritzburg, RSA World Cup Report

The World Cup season kicked off in a country I haven’t had a chance to visit since I left when I was 13. Despite the fact we left such a long time ago I can still proudly represent South Africa while competing world wide. I spent a few weeks prior to the event visiting family and it was a bit of an emotional roller coaster but part of me felt very much at home. Kauai is my home but SA still has a part of me. Something that I can’t really explain but I am sure you are all familiar with.

So, onto the most important part for you all, the story about racing.

The 4-cross track was a great effort on the part of the builders, longest in history but also a bit stretched out. It was a good track with just a little too much space in between the features of it. It had a few good sized jumps that I was able to enjoy before qualifying and unfortunately between practice and the start of my qualifying run I made a few changes and ended up being 1/10 of a second off the 8^th position and was cut. There was a great group of girls in attendance though, so riding with them was really my benefit from the weekend. And not making the final eight just gave me little more energy for the long pedal in Sunday mornings DH.

Being a town with no snow, therefore no ski lifts and therefore a truck uplift for Downhill this had to be one of the most odd experiences for all of us. We loaded into moving trucks, sat on bubble wrapped hay bails strapped to the walls and got driven to the start of the DH. The truck meandered through the streets, drove onto the freeway for about 3 kilometers filling our air space with noxious exhaust and then proceeded to exit and drive through some more neighborhoods, past some farms and through the cane fields lining the top of the hills. We got dropped off and rode down the hill a bit to the start line. The track consisted of a steep rock section at the top and then gradually made its way through the beautiful eucalyptus forest to the base of the hill. It had quite a few pedal sections, some good sized jumps and a challenging gap jump that had me off at quite a high speed on my first attempt. But I was just a little bruised and ended up clearing it in my final and making up a few seconds instead of going around. The crowd in South Africa was great! People attended practice and qualifying and cheered all the way down. When I crossed the finish line the crowd was so loud and electrifying. A few people even told me they got goose bumps when I finished. My run was good and clean from top to bottom and I needed a bit more gas in the tank though and finished up with a time of 4:42.48. I gave up the hot seat to Sabrina Jonnier and was thrilled to have gotten there. The day ended with me in 9^th. I am happy about the event and my position and currently stand in 9^th overall in the World Cup Standings.

Thank you to everyone for their efforts at the start of the season, getting me my product and helping to me get to the races. It’s a good season ahead.

Next stop is Belgium from April 29^th-3^rd for the next World Cup 4X race.

DH FINAL RESULTS

1) Tracy Moseley

2)Emmeline Ragot

3)Sabrina Jonnier

4)Fionn Griffiths

5)Claire Buchar

6)Floriane Pugin

7)Melissa Buhl

8)Miriam Nicole

9) Joanna Petterson

10) Emily Siegenthaler