Yesterday was qualifying day at Salzadella. We started the day with race to qualify runs for classic luge, women and juniors and freeride runs for open and street luge.
There were 5 women, 6 juniors and 9 classic lugers who had to battle it out for their starting position in the finals. Starting with classic luge, 4 rounds, 3 heats with 3 riders each. It was no surprise Mikel Echegaray-Diez was in superior form on his 'home turf', taking 4 first places, followed by Jan Tarradas, who only became second in one heat, because he was up against Mikel. So no real surprises there.
Then women, 5 started the rounds, but only 4 made it through. In round 3 Cristina Verdu took a nasty fall on the straight after a big ass wobble, which caused her to twist her ankle (if I'm correct) and she's now stumbling around on crutches. Get well soon Cristina. From the 4 women that were riding Myrjam Weißschuh was the fastest, finishing first or second in every heat.
The juniors were doing 4 rounds of 2 heats with 3 riders each. The top 3 riders were Lui Priester, Antonio Conte de Souza and Fabrizio Clausi. They will also ride open class, so on final day they have to ride in the morning and in the afternoon (as do the women).
We then took a very long lunch break and continued 'a bit' later than planned. Luckily the ambulances were able to stay a bit longer, while we worked our way through the heats for street luge and open.
In street luge it was Mikel and Jan again who took the first and second qualifier positions, followed by Raul Rodriguez Alcaide on third who had a hard crash in the last run, but was able to finish his run.
In open there were 4 riders who all took first place in every heat they were riding. There four were Kevin Reimer, Sebastian Hertler, local Javier Tato and Quirin Ilmer. If they end up in the same heat, it will be a very interesting heat. The fastest junior in open was Lui Priester on 17th place.
Tomorrow open will ride a 64 man bracket, which means all riders are qualified for the final bracket (but some will be of course eliminated in round 1). Tomorrow we'll see what the outcome will be.
With the town party still going strong in the background, I'm signing off because tomorrow we RACE !
