Friday's glowing sunshine and dry, dusty conditions were replaced with low cloud, mist and rain at the Erzberg Rodeo on Saturday as the conditions brought the second prologue run to a premature halt.
With the track open from 8am local time a low-lying veil of cloud made visibility almost non-existent in the higher altitude faster sections of the Iron Mountain course, thus forcing an early end to the morning's prologue.
A number of riders were able to venture out early on but shortly afterwards the session was cancelled, with the results from the previous day's run standing as the official prologue times. They will now determine the starting order for Sunday's Hare Scramble race.
One rider who will be absent from Sunday's showpiece is David Knight, the KTM man who crashed in Friday's prologue and injured his right elbow. Alex Doringer, the Factory Team Coordinator for the Austrian outfit, confirmed that after spending the night in hospital the Brit had returned to the UK.
“He'll spend two weeks recovering and then head to Italy one week before the next round of the World Enduro Championship [June 30-July 1] to get some time on the bike and check his recovery,” Doringer told redbull.com.
With one of the pre-event favourites sidelined it was Rocket Ride winner Seppi Fally who topped the prologue times, with Red Bull-backed Jonny Walker third fastest and another favourite Graham Jarvis in the top six.
American Kendall Norman, riding in his very first Erzberg Rodeo, timed in with a hugely impressive eighth spot, and will be joined on the front row by familiar names such as Paul Bolton, Homero Díaz, Xavier Galindo, Dougie Lampkin, the Hemingway brother Ben and Dan and Taichi Tanaka.
Another rider to make the cut for the 500 starters was British talent Jane Daniels, the 18-year-old who clinched the Ladies Cup and who ranked 156th quickest in the qualifying order for Sunday's race.
The full entry list for the 2012 Erzberg Rodeo Hare Scramble can be found here.
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