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The Olympics are over and it’s time to move on to other sports. First, let’s take a look at mountain biking, not the version we know from the Olympics, but downhill biking, because in a few weeks we will start the last part of the World Cup season here.
Fort William
The women’s season got off to an exciting start: Valentina Höll from Austria made a mistake at the top of the last lap but was still more than half a second ahead of Germany’s Nina Hoffmann at the bottom. Britain’s Tahnee Seagrave took her first podium finish, nearly two seconds behind Höll.
Luic Bruni immediately showed his top form: the Frenchman was almost two seconds faster than Australian Troy Brosnan and Canadian Finn Els on the classic Scottish course and started the new year in impressive fashion.
Bielsko-Biala
Hall crashed about twenty seconds later and had to settle for sixth place, just ahead of the World Cup standings. One woman benefited greatly: Frenchman Cabirou fought hard to win, ahead of Swiss Camille Balanche in second and Hoffmann in third.
In the men’s race, young Irishman Ronan Dunne went flying. Bruni was 0.064 seconds behind at the finish, with his compatriot Loris Vergier finishing easily in third place after American Dakotah Norton crashed in second. Bruni did extend his lead in the standings.
Saalfelden-Leogang
With an unbeatable run, Hall showed everyone and her home crowd how it can be done, even on a very slippery track due to rain: the Austrian won with a huge lead of more than 7 seconds over the American Anna Newkirk, while Myriam Nicole won. The runner from France was happy to take third place. Logically, Hall retained her place in the World Cup ranking.
Bruni once again performed well in the men’s race, this time the Frenchman won by more than two seconds ahead of Ayres, and the men’s race was a huge gap. Surprisingly, young New Zealander Lachlan Stevens-McNab finished third, ahead of top Irish talent Oisin O’Callaghan. Naturally, the leader of the rankings was still Bruni.
Sun Valley
The Italian road surface was so slippery that Hall slipped. This led to a thrilling battle for victory, which was eventually won by Seagrave: the Briton was three tenths faster than Cabirou, while Slovenia’s Monika Hrastnik rounded out the podium in third place – Hall’s lead in the World Cup was not threatened.
He broke his back last year, but Amaury Pierron made an encouraging comeback and proved in Italy that he really is back: with a near-epic run he was nearly five seconds faster than Norton, who in turn was a second faster than Ayres. Bruni’s fifth-place finish was good enough to take the World Cup lead.
Leger
It was a strange race on a really wet track, with world champions falling one after another. But that didn’t happen to Eleonora Farina: the Italian veteran ended up taking her first World Cup victory, well ahead of the Norwegian Mille Johnset and twenty seconds ahead of Seagrave, the best of the crashers. Hall finished fifth and remains in the World Cup lead.
After his victory in Val di Sole, things just kept getting better for Pierre: in front of many crazy home fans, he played one of the most iconic runs of all time, which earned him a huge victory. Austrian Andreas Kolb surprisingly finished second, ahead of South African legend Greg Minnaar, who almost won again at the age of 42. Bruni finished seventh this time and is still at the top of the rankings.
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