Fresh track, soft dirt, mega ruts, greasy rocks were all in full effect as the qualifiers went down in Snowshoe, West Virgina.
Here’s who took the opening scalps in Snowshoe as the sixth round of the UCI Downhill World Cup hotted up.
Junior Women
Canyon Collective FMD’s Phoebe Gale made a statement with an 18 second win over Izabela Yankova. Aimi Kenyon would round out the top three 24 seconds off the pace.
Finals is where the points appear though, so tomorrow is the run that counts.
Junior Men
Another Junior making a statement would be Jackson Goldstone. He’d cross the line almost 12 seconds the better over Lachlan Stevens-McNab. Tegan Cruz would round out the top three just over a second off the Kiwi.
Jordan Williams would finish 5th some 15 back on Goldstone.
Elite Women
When things get hectic, the cool cucumber that is Camille Balanche rarely falters. Pompon might accuse her of being ‘disrespectful’ again, with a near 7 seconds between them. Vali Holl completes the top three some eleven seconds off the Swiss pinner.
UK’s Mikayla Parton qualified 12th with some lie downs in the lower woods, so expect a run from her tomorrow if she can keep it rubber side down.
Elite Men
Top four men separated by 1.1 seconds… Three of them French… A revitalised Amaury Pierron leads out his team mate Thibaut Daprela, Bernard Kerr slots into third with Bruni hot on his heels.
Ronan Dunne. What a guy. 5th place. Jamie Edmondson is also building with a 10th.
