IN
THE
WIND
P36
PIKES PEAK GETS
UNDERWAY!
T
he 2016 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb
has officially begun with two days of tire testing
completed on the mountain.
It's been a case of "steady as she goes" for our
Pikes Peak program, with our Road Test Editor
Rennie Scaysbrook making his first tentative steps
with the KTM 1290 Super Duke R and America's
Mountain.
Cycle News is competing in the Heavyweight
class and after the second day of testing Scay-
sbrook clocked the fastest time on the lower half
of the mountain, stopping the clock at 4:20.914
seconds.
"The bike felt great today," said Scaysbrook.
"The bottom section of the track really suits the
KTM, plus I really enjoy this part as it's more like
a road race track than the side of a mountain. The
weather was great and the track had plenty of
grip, and with slicks on you can really feel the bike
digging in and hooking up. I'm not too concerned
by the times—it's nice to see P1 but this is just the
tire test and everyone will really step it up for the
race so there's no point getting ahead of our-
selves."
Scaysbrook admits he's still not confident
across the top of the mountain and knows there's
plenty of work to do between now and when of-
ficial practice starts on Tuesday, June 21.
"Man, that top section is something else!" Scay-
sbrook said. "It's so fast and there's absolutely no
margin for error. I know I can keep a decent pace
up there; it's just convincing the brain that I know
where I'm going and not to back off the throttle!"
Rennie will be doing a video blog of his Pikes
Peak experience that will be uploaded to Cycle-
news.com, our YouTube channel and our Face-
book page starting this Saturday, June 18, so
make sure to check back in to keep up to date on
this exciting project! CN
Baby steps for
Rennie, but it's
been a positive
couple of days on
the bike so far.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
RANDELS
MEDIA
