Fabien is back..on the podium
Great news from the SUBARU mountainbike pro team is that Fabien Barel is back in action and on top of the podium in DH REGIONAL DE ROUBION.
The team travelled to the regional downhill hosted by team partner, Roubion. Damien Spagnolo made the trip down to the south of France to get some more time on the bike in a “no-pressure” environment and to ride with his team-mate Fabien. The riders were greeted with perfect weather and a great track and a full field of almost 300 riders.
The training went well for the team and eventhough Fabien was not 100% comfortable riding downhill with an extra 1.2kg’s worth of knee braces he felt good on the bike and realised that his recovery goals are realistic. Damien was also enjoying the track but struggling with the conditions. The extremely dry hard pack track riddled with holes and dusty turns was proving to be a challenge for a rider who prefers the wet.
As is the case of most regional DH races the best run of two is taken. Damien performed well in his first run despite numerous mistakes due to washing out on the turns he finished second, 6sec behind Fabien who had a good smooth run. The second run did not go as well for Damien as he decided to calm his pace in the hope of eliminating the mistakes of his first run, unfortunately this did not work out and he ended up a sec slower which cost him 2 places. Fabien was able to replicate his first run almost identically showing that he really is within his current capacity and is taking every precaution to recover 100%.
After the race Fabien was really pleased with his performance and especially with his progress over the past week. The team will now travel to the 1st French Cup in Lac Blanc and then to the 4th world cup in Fort William, the next 2 races will be critical steps for Fabien deciding if he will continue the season or undertake knee surgery.
Final results:
1. Fabien Barel 3:00.02
2. Paul Rovigo 3:05.44
3. Yohan Barelli 3:05.83
4. Damien Spagnolo 3:06.73
5. Richard Marini 3:09.20
