Scott11: First World Cup Qualifying 2012

The Scott11 team may not have started the World Cup season off in qualifying the way they all hoped but sounds like they learned what needs to happen for results on Sunday's Finals.

Qualifying in Pietermaritzburg confirmed what we knew already: We still have a bit of work to do until the season starts for real in Europe. Good thing though that we have a lot of time till the next world cup, that we can spend on training, testing and preparing. In fact, it's going to be 11 weeks to the World Cup in Val di Sole, Italy.

But: It's not all that bad, as Floriane Pugin managed to qualify in third, Brendan Fairclough in 31st and Emilie Siegenthaler in 9th position. Romain Paulhan was not able to start because of a crash in the first practice, but he'll be back for the next race.

Emilie:

It was a weird feeling to go to the start for the first time since last season right at a world cup! I had very good practice this morning and felt like I was riding well, especially on the jumps. I felt like I wanted to save my energy for sunday, as I really know that physically i´m not the strongest... I´m not happy with today's 9th place, but times are close and I'm confident to improve it on sunday: Courage ou dégage!

Floriane:

Well, as Emi said, it´s weird to start the season with a World Cup, that´s my very first race of the year but I´m quite happy with that first race run! I was in a good rhythm and I haven´t done many mistakes except that at some spots I felt that I could be much faster, - too much braking! And I still have to work on some jumps but no hurry, finals are on Sunday!! So that run gives me the confidence I was missing in those first few days and I´m on it now!

Brendan:

Despite the result I actually had a a good day I felt like I was riding good but the bike is not were I want it to be just yet. But we are working on things every day. It took me a bit of time to get into my run, then I made a silly mistake which I think cost me a few seconds up top. That was done though, I soon got back into it, then cased the table tops which put me back for the pedal. These are all excuses but I learnt a lot and it was good just to finish a run. I'm looking forward to a race run with no mistakes on Sunday!