EWS LA THUILE ROUND one
THE KONA GRAVITY TEAM ROLLS OUT IN LA THUILE
Three out of Four Ain't Bad
As predicted, the weather played a role on race day for riders at round three of the EWS in La Thuile, Italy yesterday. The Kona Gravity Team had three riders contesting the steep, technical, and at times muddy course. Connor Fearon, fresh off his DH podium finish in Les Gets, Miranda Miller, and Spanish ripper Carlos Langelaan. All three riders were hoping to build on their results at round one, for the most part, that was achieved.
Like in Canazei, three of the four tracks suited our trio, with the steep climb on stage four wreaking havoc. After three solid stages (a 14th on three), Connor crashed on stage four before the climb, damaging his derailleur, he was then forced to run the climb, moving him from 27th overall after the first three stages to 56th at the end of the day.
Miranda again kept things consistent, kicking the day off with a tenth on stage one, then dropping back a few places for stages two and three. Miranda confesses she’s not attacking quite as hard as she should on her bike, if following Miranda’s off-season on MGM has shown us anything it’s that she CAN ATTACK and that she can most definitely handle anything on the bike.
After a full two weeks on the bike, Carlos is finding some of that enduro fitness he was missing at rounds one and two, riding his Process X CR DL to 46th after some great mid-pack finishes.
We cant wait to see what these three can pull off for round four over the weekend before they all take a well-earned break.
Noah Hoffman landed a clean 6th place in Jr. Men’s.
The athlete experience
The race yesterday was fun. The tracks had a lot of steep sections and only one stage was really physical on the pedals which I liked. I felt like I made improvements on my enduro racing skills, but at times fell back into my downhill race mentality of letting off the brakes at any given chance and getting caught out by some janky enduro corners. I was happy with my first three stages and was confident of another top 30 finish, but I had some problems on the longest stage (stage four) and lost too much time. I think the thing I need to work on most is memorizing the tracks, whether it’s walking the course where possible or watching my practice helmet cam runs ten times over.
Coen Skrypnek will race in Finals tomorrow after qualifying 20th place.
The athlete experience
I started the day well but slipped back through the day and then really fell apart on the final stage. It was an awesome day, testing, but really great. It’s cool to have another shot this weekend to try and improve, with a couple of days to allow me time to tweak my bike set up and rest up. Unlike round one, the tracks here are very similar making it challenging to remember them, but creating a cool test of forcing yourself to ride based on reactions.
The multi-talented Spaniard Carlos Langelaan was back again and improved on his Canazei performance with some sold top 50 stage finishes ending round three of the EWS in 46th position. Like everyone else here in La Thuile he has the same goal of improving on those results come round four on Saturday and Sunday.
Team sponsors
As always, thank you to our team sponsors for their support.
Latest from the cog
Want to read more? Check out our latest posts on the Kona Cog.
Kona Dream Builds: Kevin’s Razor Sharp Single Speed Honzo ST
It's been a minute since the crew at Chain Line Bikes dropped one of their epic dreamy builds, that all changed last week when they posted up this insane Honzo ST that they built for one of their regulars. Kevin's Honzo ST is a no-expense spare single-speed beast. I...
Kona Dream Builds: Jono’s Custom Painted Process X CR
You may not know who Jono AKA The Trail Mole is, but we are pretty sure you are familiar with his dog Moka. Moka went viral a few weeks back with this post and has racked up over 3 million views! Well, now it's time to meet the custom painted Process X CR DL that Moka...
Kona Dream Builds: Tayte Proulx-Royds’ Process X CR
Boy, do we have a treat for your Friday! It's Kona Factory rider Tayte Proulx-Royds Process X CR, all built up with her 2024 Team Parts. The multi-disciplinary wunderkind will be riding a bunch of Kona bikes in 2024 to tackle everything from Cross to Freeride. For...
Around – A Year of Biking Around the Globe with Tito Tomasi | Kona Bikes
https://youtu.be/l_8Yn_73_1Q?si=sgKt8NHmXV8JlIQq One year to shoot around the globe and even more time to work on such a project - here is AROUND, Tito Tomasi's 2023 project, and his last one with KONA bikes. This video summarizes Tito's vision of mountain biking in...
