Bart & Warner, such an odd combination which really works!

Neff at the front is pinning it….

Ooooff

Really nice racing, on a really hard looking course.
Neff is crazy, good skills for sure, but utterly fearless.

She seemed brush it off pretty well! Like Warner said – doesn’t seem to know what stress is!

I don’t normally watch sports – but a friend is out there working so i took an interest – that was fantastic racing, she had it nailed, fell, recovered, punctured, got caught & then laid down her dominance again. Fantastic! (shes a bit squeaky though – i guess i’d be after that too).

Men’s elite on now. Grant Ferguson in 7th. So good having a Brit at the sharp end to root for.

Just got interesting, not the usual 1-2

Oh dear – Le French will be happy !

Great race, looked like a good course. Shame schurter flatted twice but pleased Absalon won.

Neff
[/url]2016-05-29_06-56-34 by martinddd, on Flickr[/img]

Batty
[/url]2016-05-29_06-57-27 by martinddd, on Flickr[/img]

Nash
[/url]2016-05-29_06-58-03 by martinddd, on Flickr[/img]

Mini Mig
[/url]2016-05-29_06-59-06 by martinddd, on Flickr[/img]

Evie Richards did great in the U23 women’s race, getting silver. Maybe GB will represented towards the sharp again in the elite over the next few years.

I really enjoyed watching the men’s race (legitimately, for free on the internet.. Not sure how that’s economic, but thanks Redbull.tv)

There’s a good picture round-up of both women’s and men’s races on pinkbike : http://www.pinkbike.com/news/a-nations-pride-xco-finals-round-3-la-bresse-2016.html

And I’m not sure how I missed this – perhaps the best, least informative and funniest course preview ever : http://www.vitalmtb.com/videos/member/Rob-Warner-Rides-XC-and-Makes-a-Meal-of-It,31576/iceman2058,94

Pink bike are doing a good job of the xc photo stories, hopefully will mean xc racing becomes more popular again

It’s impressive how they persist when all the comments seem to be “Oh, XC actually looks good” / “OMFG why don’t they have droppers” / “OMFG some of them do have droppers”

Some surprising tyre choices given the conditions.
Zooming the photos shows both Neff and Fontana running a ralph on the front, would have thought Ron or maybe even Nic would have made more sense given how slippy it was.