Ronan 2nd Fastest Junior in Pila

I’ve just got back from one of the sweetest biking trips I’ve had.
I headed to Pila, Italy last Wednesday for the penultimate round of the IXS Cup series. After arriving in nearby town Aosta that night, me and dad explored the area in the car which ended up with us up the road near Pila way above the town of Aosta. Luckily this meant that I got to do a 20 minute long dh ride at 8 o’clock at night as there is a wicked dh track from Pila to Aosta which is the longest constant dh I’ve ever ridden.
Thursday arrived and it turned out to be a nice dry hot day. I did loads of riding with Martin Young, Neil Young and Matthew Scott and even got to check out the dh track early.
Friday was the first day of practice and after a bit of hassle for everyone with signing in practice got under way well into the afternoon. It rained a bit and I did four runs on a track that got grippier in some places because of the rain settling the dust but also more slidy in the tree sections with polished roots.
Saturday came around and I felt up to speed and ready for seeding. My seeding run was going well until I went off the rack on one of the tighter corners and then shortly after got a puncture. I didn’t want to wreck my rim or tire so I just pushed down the bottom half of the track and then went straight up the lift again to watch the last of the Elites and walk the track. I didn’t really mind getting a puncture as it was only seeding and I felt confident after watching the elites as I was sure I could hit some of the sections I watched them on nearly or as fast as them.
Sunday, Race Day. I did 2 practice runs, one of which i was going to time but I caught some riders so had to stop. I knew that I was riding descent but I was getting quite a lot of hand pump towards the bottom of the track so i wasn’t sure how that was gunna go in the race run. My goals for the weekend were top 20 overall and win Junior. I started the race as one of the first Elites down because of my puncture in seeding. I was coming down after 2 rapid german riders who ride for bergamont so to be honest I didn’t expect to go into the hot seat.Surprisingly I came down and took over the hot seat by over 4 seconds from Rick Balbierer. My run felt pretty descent as I didn’t really make any mistakes, but I did feel I held back quite a bit which kinda made me think I was going slow. In the end I think this helped as a lot of people struggled not to slide out in the super dusty conditions. I knew my time was descent as it would have been 11th fastest in seeding.

It turned it was a really good time as I sat in the hottest hot seat ever for nearly an hour as something like 120 riders failed to beat me. In the end I ended up 14th overall and 2nd in Junior which I was stoked with as thats my best result at an IXS Cup this year.
The day after I went to Morzine which was fun and rode for 2 days with some of the fast english lads.
All in all a very successful trip.
Ronan.
photos by Kenny Taylor

Posted by Ronan Taylor on August 26, 2010 at 4:57 pm | Race Reports