Ryan Dungey and Lindsey Vonn were the stars of the show this weekend, as both athletes picked up impressive victories. Find out more and check out the highlights in pictures.
Red Bull/KTM Factory rider Ryan Dungey secured his second win of the season at the eighth round of the AMA Supercross Series in front of the sold out crowd of 70,000 fans at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, USA. It was KTM’s second win in this highly competitive class.
“This was such a great way to end the week. “After seven weeks I finally got to return to the east coast and train at home. I came into this race feeling confident and refreshed and it all paid off today. My team did an amazing job on my KTM and we had no issues today, just a really great race.”
Ryan Dungey in action in Atlanta © Hoppenworld
James Stewart joined Dungey on the podium by finishing in third place in Atlanta to move up to third in the overall championship standings.
“The heat race was good but the bad start in the main event…well that’s been a little bit the story of my season," Stewart said. "I made some good passes and some aggressive ones to get up through the pack. I was catching those guys up front and then I slowly had to roll the triple at one point and that ended the race right there. I did my best and the team was awesome. We definitely had the chance to do it tonight but the start killed us.”
James Stewart prepares to land in Atlanta © Hoppenworld
Ken Roczen recovered from getting stuck in the starting gate in the Lites category to finish in sixth place in Atlanta.
He suffered a clutch problem after the gate was held for an extended period of time, which caused him to leap forward before the drop, locking his front tyre underneath the gate. Once untangled, Roczen charged past half the field to be in 10th at the halfway mark, but was unable to close the eight-second gap to the leading five. He still finished in the points and is currently lying fourth in the standings.
“I am really upset that I got stuck in the gate," Roczen said. "It was hard coming through the pack in the first few laps because a lot of the slower riders don’t jump all of the jumps and I had to work harder to get around them. I was able to come up to sixth and almost got into the top five. I was happy with my line choices and glad to finish safely. I am looking forward to St. Louis and hopefully getting my first win of the season there.”
Ken Roczen flying high in Atlanta © Hoppenworld
The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team went to Montevarchi in italy this weekend to contest the opening round of the Italian Championship specifically designed to fine tune their equipment and performances ahead of the World Championship season.
Tony Cairoli concentrated on testing equipment and was happy to finish second in the MX1 class and overall sixth in the Elite class.
Tony Cairoli in the air in Montevarchi © Taglioni S/KTM
"I liked the way I started the day today," Cairoli said. "I had a bit of practice but then I wasn’t feeling so good so we changed the settings for the race and the bike was going really well.
“I took the holeshot in the Elite race but then I didn’t feel so comfortable with my riding. I had some small problems with my goggles but we are trying out different stuff at the moment and these races are also for testing this kind of stuff. I will do all the races in the Italian Championship and hopefully we will have some nice races like today.”
Tony Cairoli on the podium in Montevarchi © Taglioni S/KTM
There was a strong result for Dutch rider Jeffrey Herlings who won the MX2 class in Montevarchi ahead of his KTM factory teammate Jeremy van Horebeek. Jeffrey and Jeremy also put in a strong showing in the Elite class to finish 3-4, despite a crash by Jeffrey and some arm pump problems for Jeremy.
Herlings and Van Horebeek fight it out in Montevarchi © Taglioni S/KTM
“I really liked it here, it was a brand new track for me,” Jeffrey said. “I won the MX2 race and I finished third when we rode together with the MX1 guys and that was also alright. I had a crash in the second race, otherwise maybe I might have been able to stay in the front but it happened and I am not making any excuses. Anyway I am really happy with my riding and I think it is already a big improvement on last year.”
Herlings and Van Horebeek on the podium in Montevarchi © Taglioni S/KTM
Lindsey Vonn collected yet another winners trophy in the FIS World Cup, with a win in the Super-G in Bulgaria.
The victory put Vonn ahead of Austrian Renate Goetschl, who won 17 Super-G races in her career, as the most successful female Super-G skier of all time. On the men's side only Hermann Maier has more victories in the discipline, with 24.
Vonn was behind on the top part of the course, which, with its constant vertical pitch and many turns, several racers named as the toughest of the speed venues. Then she made a big mistake about halfway down the track, nearly losing her footing.
She dropped to more than a half a second behind Weirather. But that’s when her turbo speed kicked in and the American somehow ate up the bottom half of the course and crossed the finish line in 1 minute, 15.66 seconds for her 10th win of the season, just 0.05 ahead of Weirather as Merighetti notched the first super G podium of her Cup career, 0.07 seconds back.
“I just hit a bump funny and lost the line, I knew it was a bad mistake, so on the very bottom I knew I had to take a lot of risk,” Vonn said. “I have a good ability to take speed from a pitch onto the flats. I have a turbo waiting in the wings in case I need it.”
Lindsey Vonn celebrates her Super-G win © Lindsey Vonn
Austria won Gold at the ski flying World Championships in Vikersund. Martin Koch, Thomas Morgenstern, Gregor Schlierenzauer and Andreas Kofler won with a total of 1648.4 points. It was the third Austrian victory in a row for Austria in team competitions in ski flying World Championships.
Morgenstern and Schlierenzauer celebrate gold © thomasmorgenstern.com
In the opening round of the 2012 World Superbike season both Jonathan Rea and Hiroshi Aoyama finished in the top-10 at Phillip Island, Australia.
Rea posted seventh and fourth placed finishes, while Aoyama had to settle for eighth and ninth.
"We’ve still got a bagful of points to go on to Imola with but we wanted to be on the podium in both races," Rea said. "I honestly feel like we got a bad tyre in race one and in race two we didn’t want to run in the same situation, so we were thinking about changing the tyre, but all our logic and race runs throughout the weekend told us to keep this [harder] tyre in the heat."
Jonathan Rea racing at Phillip Island © www.hondaworldsuperbike.com
"I think it’s not so bad for my first Superbike weekend," Aoyama said. "We had a not-so-easy start on Friday when I had one crash and we had a lot of problems. That didn’t help us to go much faster and we tried many things but couldn’t improve. In the races we managed to finish in the top ten with eighth and ninth and I want to say thanks to all the guys who worked for me."
Hiroshi Aoyama racing at Phillip Island © www.hondaworldsuperbike.com
Bad weather in Laax, Switzerland could not prevent the Junior Halfpipe event taking place at the Burton European Open, where 51 groms under 14 years representing 14 countries were competing.
The youngest participant was five-year-old Siria Poltera, a LAAX local, who received a lot of support from the crowd. The happy winners of the event were 14-year-old Zoe Kalapos and 14-year-old Kyle Mack.
The podium of the boy's competition © Marcel Lämmerhirt
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