Competitions

Trek World Racing Report from Méribel.

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In his first World Cup season, 17 year old Laurie Greenland from Bristol in the UK, backed up his 2nd place in qualifying with his first ever World Cup podium by taking a solid 2nd on race day. Greg Williamson of Scotland took another top 10 result for the season by taking 12 seconds off his qualifying run, to finish up 9th for the day.

The universally approved track in Méribel, France, was the perfect venue to host the dramatic final round of the 2014 series in front of a crowd estimated at more than 10,000. The steep technical track opened out into a wide open grass slope that gave the spectators at the finish line close to a minute of racing to watch. Unfortunately for both Neko Mulally and George Brannigan, their race would end before the open grass section, as both suffered rear punctures. Brook MacDonald suffered a small time loss in the first sector but rode strongly to the finish. His 15th place belying how good his run was as only 0.9sec separated him from 7th place.

Laurie said: "Such a great way to cap off the year, I can't describe how amazing this feels. This whole season has been a learning process for me, and I've had nearly every type of race from the disappointment of not qualifying with a puncture in Windham, to muddy racing in Cairns, an amazing experience. To have my family here to see me on the podium made it very special".

Greg said: "The key today was not overthinking the run and staying off the brakes as much as possible. My qualifying was a little conservative and I knew there were areas where I could push so I focused on carrying speed in those sections. It feels good going into Worlds at Hafjell, I track I've also done well on in the past."

The overall results have Brook in 11th, Neko in 12th and both George and Greg in the mid 20's. Laurie's overall of 6th in Juniors has him as the highest ranked 1st year junior for 2014, meaning he'll receiving the number 1 plate at round 1 in 2015.

Team now goes into training ahead of the 2014 World Championships in Norway, September 1 to 7.