Race day brought bright blue skies and the pressure of the first world cup. The riders were feeling good and knew that it would be a very tough race! Damien took the start with all of his usual motivation and professionalism however he made some small errors in the top section whilst trying to push past his limits which cost him valuable seconds, he suffered on the pedaling section and gave everything he had to the line but did not manage to improve on his qualifying place of 42nd. Aurelien was really motivated and made a good start but with the track now being so much faster and rougher he found it difficult to pick up his pace, after a tough year in 2010 he was happy to finish with a solid 24th place.

The star of the day and the king of come-back again stamped his authority on the track showing that determination and hard work do pay dividend. Fabien pushed hard on the upper part and rode clean fast lines giving him 3rd fastest split time, he knew he would have to save energy for the pedaling as he is not yet 100% recovered from his injury. Everything was going to plan until he landed one of the jumps in the middle section a little hard on the saddle and broke the rail, maybe this gave him the motivation to stand up and pedal harder. By the time he came into the 4X section he was battling to focus due to his fatigue and slammed hard into a rock with his rear wheel, loosing air he was battling to stay on his lines but managed to hold it to the finish and earn himself his first world cup podium finish for 2011.