Miranda Factory Team with Double Downhill Wins at Portuguese National Champs

The Miranda Factory Team athletes took the Portuguese Downhill National Championships in both Elite class with José Borges, and in the Junior class with Gonçalo Bandeira. The most important round of the Downhill calendar took place this weekend in Águeda.

ACTIB took care of the event’s organization with the neuralgic center located on the beautiful river beach of Alfusqueiro and counted with around 130 athletes at this round of the 2019 edition of the Downhill National Championship.

On Saturday, everyone had the chance to get to know the several changes done to the bairradino course. With more than 2.2kms in length, the track of Préstimo assured some physically demanding sections, with bold jumps and a highly technical finale, arriving to the river.

On Sunday morning, the qualification run was set to give a good show. After our Miranda Factory Team athletes did their quali runs, the expectation of a great result was building up. Borges and Bandeira won their class, with Tiago Ladeira clinching a 4th place in the Elite class.

In the last run of the day, Gonçalo Bandeira was the first one to celebrate the most wanted victory in the junior’s top step class. Tiago Ladeira finished in 5th place in the Elite class and José Borges – the last one going down - clinched the biggest trophy.

At the end, Borges shared: “I’m super stoked with this win, although it was never the main goal. I decided to be here due to the proximity of the race, being in the city from where my team’s HQ is and the track was my style. I chose an enduro bike who turned out to be crucial for the first part of the course and I can say I got an advantage on that section. I want to thank my team and all my sponsors. This title is also yours”.

After clinching this title in Águeda and will be representing Portugal in the 2019 World Championship, Gonçalo Bandeira said: “I’m quite happy for conquering the third champ jersey of my career. I want to thank Miranda, my whole family and friends. Now it’s time to focus on the World Cup, where I’ll fight to be on top5”.

Tiago Ladeira concluded: “I felt good all weekend, chose good lines and I was fast. Unfortunately, on my last run I made a mistake that costed me a lot of time. I also want to congratulate my teammates for their wins”.

Starting next weekend, the team will be present in the National Enduro Championship in Vouzela, while the next international round will be the italian Downhill World Cup round – from 2nd to 4th of August, in Val di Sole.