World Cup Finals
Schladming, Austria
Sept. 10th, 2006

FINAL PRACTICE SESSION OF THE UCI SERIES

Heading into the UCI World Cup Finals in the charming Austrian village of Schladming, Santa Cruz Syndicate’s Steve Peat lead the points race by 178 points over Greg Minnaar. Mathematically, Peat was assured of atop two finish, but by no means felt he had a lock on the series overall. Minnaar was bringing his best game to the table and was going to challenge Peat to the end.

The long course tumbles down the mountain with high-speed sections, trees, and open, grassy off camber turns, and the track is rough as hell. The grassy corners toward the bottom of the course were particularly challenging, and I must say that Kovarik ruled the corner with his attacking, let it loose style. Practice sessions went well for Rennie and Peat; their Santa Cruz V-10’s lessened the beating from the demanding track. “It’s the kind of course that you are constantly turning on. There are short straightaway sections, so you have to keep linking up the turns,” said Rennie.

Peat says, “It’s a good track, technical. I feel good in practice. I’m just trying to have fun with it, get some drifts going. I like to do full runs, I don’t really like to section things too much. It’s nice toride the V-10 on a hard course. We’ll see how the day goes.”

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