Hart Top-5 after Austria World Cup

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Hart negotiates the slippery roots and rocks on the Leogang World Cup course. Gary Perkin photo.
 
Giant Factory Off-Road Team rider Danny Hart maintained his top-five position in the UCI World Cup Downhill Series with a sixth-place finish at Round 3 in Austria Sunday. The 19-year-old Brit rode his Giant Glory to a solid finish on a rough technical course in Leogang, which will play host to World Championships next year. He now sits fourth overall in the series.

Hart posted a time of 3:53 on the 2.6-kilometer course, which turned muddy and slippery after early morning rains but was drying throughout the day -- causing changing conditions for the riders. After qualifiying 10th, Hart handled the conditions well, moving up a few spots in his finals run.

Hart’s teammates, American Duncan Riffle and South African Andrew Neethling, were among the many riders who crashed on the tricky course in finals. Riffle finished 65th and Neethling was 72nd. Riffle remains in the top-25 after three rounds.

The next round of the World Cup Downhill Series will be held in Canada, as the series moves to North America for two rounds (Mont-Ste-Anne, Quebec, Canada; and Windham, New York, USA) in early July.


12 juni 2011