A drying track greeted riders at the opening round of the UCI Downhill World Cup in Leogang with four riders taking the 200 points on offer.
How good was it to see the World’s best back between the tape? Leogang delivered the goods for the opening round of the 2021 World Cup downhill.
Junior Women
Sophie Gutohrle mad it two from two and took the full haul of points in the Junior Women’s race at Leogang. She’d extend her quali win of over seven seconds to over ten. The dry conditions meaning she’d take a massive chunk of time off her qualifying time, much like everyone else. Was this just home advantage or is the Austrian the one to beat in 2021?
Leona Perrini would make good her DNF in qualifying by bagging second place, bumping Izabela Yankova being bumped to third.
Junior Men
Drying conditions mixed things up for the Junior Men, meaning Christopher Grice who looked comfortable in qualifying, facing a strong run from the rest of the pack. Pau Menoyo Busquets went fourteen seconds quicker in the dry, only losing one sector to second place Jackson Goldstone who would miss out on the win by a whisker.
A strong showing from the UK in third and fourth with Dennis Luffman and Jordan Williams not far off the podium.
Last year’s World Cup and World Champion Oisin O’Callaghan would be back in eighth despite not looking to have any issues.
Elite Women
Oh. My. Days.
What a race.
The Elite Women’s race would get the pulses racing as it went down to the wire in Austria. The lower woods section again, playing havoc with what might have been. Vero Widmann would be floored by the tricky woods section, as would a charging Myriam Nicole. Nina Hoffman also ate dirt in her own inimitable fashion.
Reigning World Champion Camille Balanche would be the first to look entirely unphased by the lower woods and showed why she got the Rainbow Stripes here in 2021. All eyes would be on Vali Höll who looked to be a dead cert for the win, over two seconds up with the finish line in sight and BAM… She’d hit the deck leaving the woods.
Even with that crash, Vali would finish second, just 1.412 seconds off the win. Gutted. Balanche would take the win but Vali only trails the Swiss rider by ten points in the overall.
Elite Men
Trek Factory Racing’s Loris Vergier would be stung by a puncture that rolled the tyre off the rim after split number one took him out of action. Greg Minnaar would be visibly scrappy, the GOAT pushing hard on his run but it didn’t mean he was fast enough.
Danny Hart and Laurie Greenland would make it two of three Brits in the top 10.
Benoit Coulanges bags his first World Cup podium, making it almost a clean sweep for Commencals on the podium. Reece Wilson would repeat his fourth place from Fort William in 2017 with a clean run.
Amaury Pierron would lay down a strong run early and sat in the hot seat for an hour plus as the race headed to the sharp end. Thibaut Daprela’s run was WILD. Despite a stall in the woods he’d pip Pierron to take the hot seat.
It didn’t matter though, Troy Brosnan would win the race in the woods despite being back on the motorway. A clean, attacking run meant that he’d take his first World Cup win since Andorra in 2017.
