Video by: John Lawlor
What a weekend of racing from the UCI MTB Downhill World Cup Final at Snowshoe Mountain, West Virginia, USA! This was a new venue for the World Cup, making it a fairly level playing field as a season deciding race. Both men’s and women’s overall elite titles were still to be decided and the tension got dialled to maximum as the last riders came down the hill.
Even though Vali Höll had already secured the Junior Women’s WC series win at the previous round in Lenzerheide, backed up by a Junior World Champs win in Mont Sainte Anne last week, she continued her domination with a massive 12sec win ahead of Anna Newkirk. Everyone will be watching this amazing young talent when she moves up to the elite class next year.
In Junior Men, freshly crowned World Champ, Kye A’Hern got taken out this week by a crash in practice and a damaged wrist. Thibaut Daprela had been super-consistent in the early season, taking 4 race wins and his points lead meant he had also taken the series overall back in Lenzerheide. Even so, Daprela put down another scorcher, winning 6sec ahead of Luke Meier-Smith.
In the Elite Women’s race, the battle for the overall title was between Marine Cabirou and Tracey Hannah, no-one else was close. With just 150 points separating them and a max of 250 available, it meant that even if Marine won, Tracey just had to bring it home safely in 6th or better for the overall title. Sounds do-able right? Well Marine put down an amazing run, 2sec ahead of World Champ Myriam Nicole with just Tracey left at in the start gate. Hannah rode smart and nail-bitingly safely into 5th place, taking just enough points to secure her first World Cup Overall title.
If you thought racing couldn’t get any hotter, the Elite Men’s race had fans screaming and wishing for outdoor air-con. Loic Bruni and Amaury Pierron were in a close battle for the overall, with a 90 point advantage to Loic. But if Amaury won the race, Loic still needed to finish 3rd or better to win the overall. In theory, Troy Brosnan could also take the overall, but only if Bruni and Pierron had disastrous runs. But it turns out that things just weren’t that simple.
Pierron had a slow qualifier and started his race with 14 riders left to go. But his run was absolutely wild and in spots, well over the edge of control. He went into the hot-seat and it seemed that nobody could get close. Bruni made a few small mistakes and came into third spot behind Charlie Harrison. Last man on the hill was Danny Hart and the series would be decided by his run – If he took 2nd or 3rd spot, Loic would lose points and Pierron would win the race and take the overall. If Danny was to win the race, everyone else would lose points and Bruni would get the overall.
Danny sprinted out of the gate while Loic and Amaury could only watch the split times as their season result was decided for them. For most of his run, it looked like Danny was behind and Amaury was getting ready to celebrate, but then the last split showed green and Danny crossed the line in first for the win. Loic couldn’t believe that he would take the overall, Amaury was obviously crushed to see it come so close then snatched away at literally the last second. What a race. What a season. You really cant make this stuff up.
Elite Men
1st. Danny Hart: 3:03.627
2nd. Amaury Pierron: +0.656
3rd. Charlie Harrison: +0.971
4th. Loic Bruni: +2.149
5th. Greg Minnaar: +2.395
Elite Women
1st. Marine Cabirou: 3:43.032
2nd. Myriam Nicole: +1.995
3rd. Veronika Widmann: +3.482
4th. Tahnee Seagrave: +3.710
5th. Tracey Hannah: +4.825
Junior Men
1st. Thibaut Daprela: 3:11.898
2nd. Luke Meier-Smith: +6.093
3rd. Lucas Cruz: +6.921
4th. Matthew Sterling: +7.864
5th. Janosch Klaus: +8.211
Junior Women
1st. Vali Höll: 3:46.865
2nd. Anna Newkirk: +11.906
3rd. Mille Johnset: +12.634
4th. Mckenna Merten: +1:05.869
