Val Di Sole – Thursday

With a dry start practice got under way at the penultimate round of the 2010 World Cup series at Val Di Sole, Italy. Rain soon drifted in later and it stayed for quite a while, in fact it just stopped after practice finished for the day.

The dry conditions for the first few hours showed just how dusty this place is, with the forecast looking hot hot hot for the race weekend we can expect these conditions but in the meantime riders are having to deal with a different kettle of fish as the heavy rain adds to even more tricky to the already tricky course.

Stand outs today were evident from the get go…Lew Buchanan though the first rock section looked like he was riding his home trail at Innerleithen, he took three bounces to clear that section..only the likes of Hill have been seen to do that before…everyone watched him in awe! Greg Minnaar was looking his usual smooth, he still has work to do if he wants the overall as Gee Atherton is within reach points wise for the overall…expect a right old ding dong this weekend between those two.

Peaty was looking relaxed as he cruised the pits in the rain only to ensure Cedric Gracia was inducted into the scruff gang! Ben Reid is nursing an injured hand from last week, we hope the ice pack and painkillers do the trick and he manages to get on the bike for the rest of the weekend…he did one run today.

Photos by Jon Beckett

Photos by Jacob Gibbins