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GT News: GT Bicycles Nissan Lisbon Downtown Race Report

5/26/2009

GT Bicycles team riders Marc Beaumont and Mick Hannah didn’t get much of a break after the Andorra World Cup as they hopped a short flight to Lisbon, Portugal for their next event. A huge crowd of 20,000 people were in attendance for the Nissan Lisbon Downtown Downhill and even more were able to witness it on the live broadcast on EuroSport Television. The Lisbon event was the first international urban mountain bike downhill event and is now celebrating its 10th year of unique racing.
 
The very heart of the Portuguese capital was transformed for one day into a downhill track. Instead of mud, stones and trees, participants had to negotiate severe obstacles made along the centuries by men including stairs, tram rails, sharp curves, slippery pavement and even a few cars. This would be the ingredients for the hot dish of racing along the 760-metre racetrack between the historic Saint Jorge Castle and the Tagus River.
 
 
After all of the select group of invited athletes made their race runs Mick earned a very close second place, only .018 seconds behind eight-time Lisbon champ Steve Peat.  Mick ran a great race until the last turn out of the tunnel where he hit the wall scrubbing some of his speed before the finish line. After spending the day bombing down the streets of Lisbon Mick said, “It has been two years since I raced here last and it was fun to be back.” With much of the field running modified set ups for the paved and cobbled surfaces Mick noted “I ran my GT Fury with the exact same set up as I used in the last race in Andorra and the Fury rode awesome!”    Teammate Marc Beaumont earned a spot in the top-10 with an 8th place.
 
The team now gets a short break until the next race which is the UCI World Cup in Fort William, Scotland on  June 6-7.
 

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