Minnaar Fastest in Pietermaritzburg Quailfying
Greg Minnaar is going to be the man to beat come Sunday, qualifying fastest, although last year’s winner Aaron Gwin was just eight hundredths of a second behind him with Steve Smith in third, still less than a second behind Minnaar. Expect to see some extremely tight racing!
Minnaar and Gwin both posted sub four minute runs, remember Gwin won here last week with a time of 4:14! Gee Atherton pedalled in to fourth and Troy Brosnan has qualified fifth on a track many expected him to struggle on. Mick Hannah, who qualified fastest last year is in sixth spot, followed by Cedric Gracia who had the quickest run in timed practice on Thursday.
1 Greg Minnaar 3:59.620
2 Aaron Gwin 3:59.628
3 Steve Smith 4:00.491
4 Gee Atherton 4:01.387
5 Troy Brosnan 4:01.890
In the women’s race Tracey Hannah set the fastest time, beating Emmeline Ragot by nearly four seconds! The French domination still continues with four riders within the top ten. Manon Carpenter was up on Tracey’s time at the second split, but must have had trouble in the final section, and ended up in tenth spot ahead of the race on Sunday.
1 Tracey Hannah 4:36.85
2 Emmeline Ragot 4:40.40
3 Floriane Pugin 4:40.51
4 Sabrina Jonier 4:40.83
5 Jill Kintner 4:43.28
Remember you can watch the race live on Sunday thanks to Red Bull!
Fri 16th Mar, 2012 @ 2:38 pm
