Val di Sole is a track that often brings out the very best runs and this weekend was no different as the big Frenchman marked his return to the top.
Amaury Pierron’s winning run POV looks like a computer game. Inch perfect on a rapidly changing track and building on a lead the whole way down the hill to win by a serious margin puts it down as one of the greatest runs of all time.
It’s fair to say that Amaury Pierron is back. After a being cleared by a doctor to race in Lenzerheide, he would unknowingly race with a broken neck. He would undergo surgery to bridge the complicated fracture of his C5 to the C4 and C6 vertebrae. Some questioned whether he would ever be able to return to the sharp end of the sport he dominated in recent years.
After a dark year, the big Frenchman would be in the top ten in qualis in Fort William before finishing on the box in Poland. Solid runs in Austria showed he was back on pace but good lord, Val di Sole saw the return to a wicked pace. That said, we’re used to Pierron riding the ragged edge (see his winning run in Les Gets), whereas in Italy, he made the infamous Black Snake look easy with a smooth, precise run.
Almost exactly a year to the day, Amaury Pierron would win in Val di Sole after what can only be described as a perfect run to finish some 4.8 seconds up on a Dakotah Norton who had kept the hot seat warm for a long while and looked to be leaving with his first World Cup win.
Pierron’s run is up there with Danny Hart at Champery, Sam Hill’s runs at Val di Sole World Champs and Champery in 2007, Gwin’s chainless Leogang win, Mulally’s almost World Champs win in Norway with no chain, Rachel Atherton’s Worlds win in Val di Sole, Barel’s return at the 07 Worlds, Bryceland snapping his foot in Hafjell, Pierron and Brunis’ wins in Les Gets… There’s plenty to choose from.
