2016 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb: Qualifying
Cycle News Staff | June 24, 2016
Cycle News Road Test Editor Rennie Scaysbrook has ridden to the fastest time of the official qualifying session for the 2016 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
Riding a KTM 1290 Super Duke R with help from KTM USA, Scaysbrook set a 4:14.737sec pass across the bottom third of the Pikes Peak mountain, the section used for official qualifying.
Scaysbrook bettered Cycle World’s Don Canet (Victory Electric Prototype – Electric category) by 3.453 seconds in the overall standings, with Canet’s teammate Jeremy Toye (Victory 156 – Exhibition Powersport category) taking third iin the overall classification.
In the Heavyweight division, Scaysbrook topped the timesheets by 9.995sec from Bruno Langlois, the Corsican Kawasaki Z1000 rider suffering tire issues that prevented him from challenging further up the ladder.
“I felt pretty good this morning,” said Scaysbrook. “The bike was absolutely beautiful and the track heated up nicely across the two or so hours we had running this morning. It was a nice surprise to see the time because I certainly didn’t expect to do a ’14. Even though it’s nice to see my name as P1 it’s a bit of a false dawn, because I’m still not comfortable across the top of the mountain, and that’s a section Bruno is extremely fast in. He’s all I can worry about, really, whatever Don and Jeremy do won’t affect my standings within the Heavyweight division, so that’s where my main focus lies.”
Rennie and Team Cycle News/KTM North America will have a rest day tomorrow with the 100th Anniversary of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb set for a race start at 7:30am this Sunday, June 26.
