George Brannigan took 4th overall in Rotorua

Another strong performance from our young rider, junior George Brannigan, in the last race of NZ series, just held in Rotorua. George took 4th overall in both seeding and final, just 2 seconds from the top; Luke Strobel won the race.

Rotorua race was the latest for NZ series cup and George was 4th overall, even in the final stadings, in the Elite category while junior.

George in action (picture from Picasa photogallery)


Here are the Elite results:

ELITE MEN
PL NAME SURNAME # FROM TIME GAP PL SEEDING OVERALL
1 Luke Strobel 43 USA 3:18.75 +0:00.00 3- 3:24.13 1
2 Nathan Rankin 7 Levin 3:18.88 +0:00.13 1- 3:23.17 2
3 Wyn Masters 11 New Plymouth 3:18.94 +0:00.20 2- 3:23.73 3
4 George Brannigan 10 Hastings 3:20.88 +0:02.13 4- 3:26.36 4
5 Cameron Cole 46 Christchurch 3:21.67 +0:02.92 16- 3:39.20 5
6 Glenn Haden 40 Wanganui 3:21.92 +0:03.17 5- 3:26.78 6
7 Des Curry 8 Rotorua 3:23.66 +0:04.91 7- 3:31.21 7
8 Matt Walker 26 Kawerau 3:24.44 +0:05.69 6- 3:29.82 8
9 Hayden Lee 20 Tauranga 3:26.75 +0:08.00 8- 3:31.82 11
10 Hayden McGregor 34 Tauranga 3:28.60 +0:09.85 9- 3:32.65 17
11 Sean McCarroll 12 Australia 3:30.13 +0:11.38 14- 3:37.93 18
12 James Dodds 14 Rotorua 3:30.68 +0:11.94 11- 3:34.93 19
13 Tim Eaton 27 Australia 3:30.86 +0:12.12 15- 3:38.42 21
14 Ken Faubert 36 Canada 3:33.32 +0:14.58 13- 3:36.59 24
15 Rob Venables 35 Canada 3:34.49 +0:15.74 12- 3:35.68 29
16 Joel Gebbie 25 Queenstown 3:35.88 +0:17.13 20- 3:42.29 33
17 Edo Franco 29 Italy 3:36.35 +0:17.60 21- 3:43.43 35
18 Martin Frei 42 Switzerland 3:38.13 +0:19.38 10- 3:32.88 43
19 Thomas Jeandin 41 Switzerland 4:02.06 +0:43.31 18- 3:41.27 90
20 Hillsey Hyland 38 Wanganui 4:57.13 +1:38.39 22- 3:46.05 149

Tauranga

Settimo posto a Tauranga per George, non male visto che non ha potuto spingere piu' di tanto per problemi alla forcella. Dopo la caduta di Roturoa ci dice che non scorre piu' bene e malgrado la abbia un po' raddrizzata, non è neanche parente di quella di prima Ci siamo mossi con l'importatore per fargliene avere una nuova per la prossima gara ,spedirla da qui non sarebbe arrivata in tempo.E' proprio un patire essere cosi' lontani e non potergli cambiare le cose danneggiate e rimettere al meglio la bici come quando ci siamo, non vediamo l'ora che sia da noi.

XC, Enduro or Downhill in Thredbo?

Rhys dropped us a few words about his last race in Thredbo, Australian National Downhill Series, where it was a mix of XC, Enduro and Downhill. Until we get more information from Rhys, read what he said:

Hi All,

Well no lightning, but it did rail all day, and the race was on. They allowed everyone one practice run, on a drastically different course. New lines formed everywhere, ruts were deep, holes were deeper, visibility not so good, pedaling slow and tiring. They had over 50 mils of rain over the last 3 days, and this made everything nice and muddy.

My race run wasn't good. I'd be at full speed and hit a patch of mud and I seemed to nearly come to a stop. It was like I just wasn't heavy enough to plough through the mud. So I ended up with 2 small offs and and finishing up in 12th place. Not Happy!!!

I just couldn't get excited about racing on this track. I can't wait to get overseas to race real downhill tracks. These flat tracks we are racing on aren't exciting to race.

I'm now looking forward to racing in New Zealand in March. It will be good to be back on a really exciting and technical track.

Cheers
Rhys

Here are the top 12 results:

1 72 Ben Cory 7:19.21 7:15.66
2 8 Bryn Atkinson 7:50.06 7:18.79
3 15 Shaun O'Connor 7:24.88 7:21.84
4 Chris Kovarik 7:08.61 7:23.11
5 1 Amiel Cavalier 7:13.69 7:26.42
6 7 Joshua Button 7:08.30 7:26.52
7 19 Rick Boyer 7:31.49 7:33.96
8 12 William Rischbieth 15:01.47 7:45.21
9 67 Deon Baker 7:45.62 7:47.42
10 16 Rhys Atkinson 7:34.95 7:48.15
11 35 Craig Yates 7:50.56 7:51.93
12 10 Rhys Willemse 7:47.98 7:53.00

Rhys Willemse's Report - Australian National series

Rhys stated a few words about his seeding run in Thredbo. Check it out.

Hi All,

I'm here at Thredbo about to take on Australia's best in the final tomorrow.

All I can say is "IT'S WET WET WET". We've had so much rain over the last 3 days that the track is just a mush pit. There are rumors that they might call off the race if it continues to rain like this overnight. I am not enjoying riding in the mud. I usually love racing in the rain but this is hard work on a 8 min track. I've been really working hard on my fitness lately, and I would say that my fitness is really good right now, but its a real struggle when your trying to pedal through so much mud.

I also broke my clip in pedal today, so I raced the qualifying run with flats. I managed to borrow a pedal for the finals tomorrow from Troy Brosnan. Thanks Troy!

So tonight I'll have a good sleep and wake up ready to lift my game for the finals. I qualified 9th but I had a small crash after making a silly mistake down the bottom of the track. To make things worse, I had to then push the bike uphill and roll to the finishing line. So as you can see from the qualifying top ten, my time wasn't real good.

Bring on Tomorrow!!!

Here are the top ten results:

Downhill, Thredbo
Elite Male
1 7 Joshua Button 7:08.30
2 4 Chris Kovarik 7:08.61
3 1 Amiel Cavalier 7:13.69
4 72 Ben Cory 7:19.21
5 15 Shaun O'Connor 7:24.88
6 19 Rick Boyer 7:31.49
7 16 Rhys Atkinson 7:34.95
8 67 Deon Baker 7:45.62
9 10 Rhys Willemse 7:47.98
10 8 Bryn Atkinson 7:50.06

Seeding run results

Italiano
In breve Rhys ci dice che la pista di Thredbo, che sappiamo gia' molto lunga sull'asciutto, con il bagnato ed in particolare il fango dopo ben 3 giorni di pioggia e' al limite del praticabile. Gli organizzatori potrebbero sospendere la gara se continua a piovere in questo modo anche questa notte.
Per parlare della gara di Rhys , un incoveniente al pedale lo ha costretto a correre con i flat, condizione per nulla gradita al nostro pilota ed una caduta hanno ulteriormente peggiorato il tempo.
Vedremo domani.

State sintonizzati

Ancillotti U.K.

Ancillotti U.K.è ormai da diversi anni uno dei piu' quotati team Britannici,nelle sue fila si sono formati ed affermati piloti del calibro di Fionn Griffiths,Matt Simmonds,Paul French,Tom Deacon,Joe Smith,Rich Thomas quest'ultimo eccellente e soprendente secondo classificato nella serie nazionale NPS, dell'anno scorso
Rich ,con noi da quando era Junior, ha confermato anche per l'anno prossimo la sua affezione al marchio

Ecco la sua bici in allestimento nella ben attrezzata officina del nostro importatore
Andy Ayers



Sarà con lui un altro aficionados Ancillotti, Jack Geoghegan al rientro da un infortunio subito l'anno scorso
Ecco Jack che mostra la sua, già assemblata


P.S.si,avrete notato, li hanno scelti arancio!
Ultima notizia ci sarà anche un giovanissimo della categoria esordienti a completare il team,faremo un'"ultra light" tipo Colombo per lui.

Giornata no per George a Rotorua

Ci scusiamo del ritardo ma abbiamo avuto dei problemi di collegamento
Dopo aver realizzato il sesto tempo in qualifica purtroppo George si è impuntato con il pedale in finale ed è caduto storcendo fra l'altro la forcella
Ci dice:
The race this weekend was disapointing, my run was good but I crashed because I little hidden stump caught my pedal at the end.
Ora stiamo cercando di rimediare al danno, fra l'altro ci sono due gare di fila ed è un bel problema essere cosi' lontani e non poterlo assistere direttamente.Non c'è quasi niente di support tecnico alle gare NZ.

Australian champs video

Mitchell Pieras has made a short video of Rhys at Australian Champs in Eagle Park.

Thank to Mitchell for the video.

Rhys Willemse from Mitchell Pierias on Vimeo.