USN Racing – 4X ProTour 2017 – Winterberg, Germany Race Report
Scott Beaumont
Qualifying – 7th
Race – 17th
The second round of the 2017 4X ProTour took place in Winterberg, Germany at the weekend. After a strong start to his 2017 season, Scott Beaumont was looking to cement himself in the running for the overall title in Winterberg with a track that really played to his strengths.
Held as part of the Dirt Masters Festival, this event attracts thousands of fans who flock to Winterberg in Germany to watch 4X ProTour, IXS Downhill Cup and the impressive Slopestyle event.
The race had nearly 200 riders entered so practice was busy and the track had a constant flow of riders as everyone got to grips with it. The weather was dry for qualifying making the track super-fast and dusty. The sun was shining and the track was absolutely perfect.
Scott has had some great results here in the past and always rides his track well so we were confident heading into qualifying.
With all the top riders injury free, this year’s 4X ProTour looked set to be one of the best ever. With 10 of the elite men riders all more than capable of taking wins and the overall title, the strength in depth of 4X ProTour is now better than ever. Scott knows that consistency will be the key and was looking for a decent qualifying run to put himself in a good position for racing.
In his qualifying run, visually, Scott looked one of the quickest on course and as he crossed the finish line the time agreed placing Scott in 7th position. Disappointed with the run Scott said:
“I made a great start and rode all the lines well. I was a little conservative due to the cross wind on the table tops lower down on the track. It was a good run but to be 0.8 seconds off and all the way down in 7th is disappointing.”
Race day rolled around and Scott was ready. The Yeti race bikes were prepped and Scott rode a couple of practice laps to prepare for the racing. Winning his first round of racing Scott was looking good. In his second round Scott made his best gate of the weekend and led the race into turn 1 but disaster struck. Losing his front wheel Scott crashed out. In a quick scramble for bikes, Scott remounted and was chasing the leading two riders. The amount of ground that Scott made up was incredible and if the track had been 200m longer he may well have been able to make the comeback of the season, but he simply ran out of track. Absolutely gutted Scott finished 3rd which placed him 17th for the day.
After the race, Scott said:
“Well that was a tough day in the office. The main thing is I have no broken bones or serious injuries. Hands up that was my mistake as I pushed hard into turn one and I just lost the front wheel. Mistakes are rare in our team but today is one of those days. I have 5 days now to get ready for Fort William and round three”.
As Scott mentioned there, the teams next event is 4X ProTour round 3 in Fort William, Scotland this Saturday. In the meantime, our team diary edit will be live from Winterberg tomorrow. We will send it out to you all in the morning.
