UCI MTB World Series race in Les Gets was expected to be the wildest one in the series, and the French fans didn’t disappoint. The race was wild, with thousands of fans along the track and especially in the finish bowl. We had a weekend of highs and lows, with Léona showing her best world cup performance of the season and Ben taking a nasty crash.
Third weekend of back-to-back racing was going great. Both Léona and Ben love the track above Les Gets, we can also say that this is a home race for Léona, despite her living couple of hours away. The week was not without setbacks, but Jure, Anže & Ange did everything to give riders the best possible support and the good quality info from the track, so they quickly came on the pace.
The D-day for our turned out to be Friday, the day for the qualifications. Léona was first on her race run and showed a very good performance, in fact it was her best race run of the season and final confirmation that she’s ready to race – the season wasn’t easy for her, especially with the injuries in Val di Sole and Fort William. With the tough competition on the race it wasn’t enough for qualify for the semi final, but she was just 2 seconds off and it could easily turned out differently. The most important outtake – she is now again hungry for more race runs!
Ben went fast on the track for his quali run, with times at splits 1 and 2 among the fastest riders of the day. But then everything went wrong. He had a crash ahead of split 3, jumped back on the bike and tried to take some time back. Doing that he pushed over the limit and crashed again, this time with far more serious consequences. Ben injured his wrist and was taken to the local hospital for the first aid; the doctors quickly realized the seriousness of the injury and Ben got scheduled for the surgery right away. It was done on the following day in Annemasse, after that Ben traveled back home to Sweden for the further treatment and rehabilitation.
With last two round of the world series just behind the corner, this of course means that Ben will finish his season early and focus on recovery and rehabilitation. Later the team has decided not to travel to Snowshoe and Mont-Sainte-Anne, but the season is not quite over jet. We already have Stan in Verbier for the last round of the iXS European Downhill Cup season.
Photos: Grega Stopar
