Italian Cup Round 1, Abetone

Just back from the first round of the Italian Cup series in Abetone Italy

We arrived in the ski town of Abetone on friday afternoon after a few wrong turns and 4 and a half hours of sitting in the van, we arrived with just enough time to set up the pits and head up the hill for a couple of runs to see how the track was looking,i have raced on the track a couple of times and was looking much the same as usual, but was rougher than last year and it was a bit wet in the tree sections which made for a bit of fun on the rocks and roots!!
Saturday was practice, and the weather was pretty average, it was super windy at the top and it was a bit nippy!

After having some good fun runs and some wild moments with Petrucci my team mate, the wind at the top was getting too strong, and on our last run up the gondolas were almost hitting the poles, so they decided to shut the lift for the day so practice was cut a bit short.
In usual European style there was some rain over night so sunday mornings practice was pretty loose as the track was super slick, but the sun was starting to make an appearance!
The first run was a seeding run, and after a 40 minute delay due to a crash in practice we were finally underway.

After a pretty good but slightly messy run i caught a pedal on a tree in the last rock section and got sent over the bars,after untangleing myself from my bike i rolled to the bottom and finished in second place, 4 seconds behind Marco Milivinti, my team mate Francesco Petrucci was 3rd,and the top dog Lorenzo Suding in 5th also with a crash,
i knew i had alot of time up my sleeve for the final run, I had a pretty solid run and came down in to first position with a time of 3.53, and ended up taking the win by 8 seconds over Milivinti.

Next weekend we have the 2nd round of the Italian Cup so looking forward to that!