Some serious close qualifying rounds just went down in a dry and loose Loudenvielle for the second round of the 2025 UCI Downhill World Cup.
The one thing we have learned is that Q2 makes for some very exciting racing and it should probably be televised if there was a means to.
Junior Women
Santa Cruz Syndicate’s Eliana Hulsebosch takes the fastest time in Junior Womens’ qualifying, some 1.798 seconds up on Cube Factory Racing’s Rosa Zierl. Aletha Ostgaard was the best part of a second up at split one, only to finish 0.2 down at split two, finishing almost six seconds back in third.
Junior Men
MS Racing Zerode’s Oli Clark is the meat in the Alran bun. The Kiwi would finish second, 0.884 behind Till and 1.194 ahead of Max. Clark would be green at the first three splits but would lose time in the final two. Asa Vermette in fourth would also be green at the first two splits.
Elite Women Q1
Myriam Nicole is the fastest of the Elite Women that go direct to finals crossing the line in what actually might be the exact measurement of a moving French whisker, some 0.208 seconds ahead of Tahnee Segrave. The Orbea FMD Racing rider green at splits one and two, but clearly this isn’t where the race will be won. Gracey Hemstreet would close out the top three just half a second back on Tahnee.
Cami Balanche, Gloria Scarsi, Mille Johnset, Monika Hrastnik, Louise Ferguson, Hattie Harnden and Phoebe Gale would all be racing again in Q2.
Jess Blewitt and Vero Widmann would sit out qualifying due to illness and injury respectively.
Elite Men Q1
Five seconds separate the top 33 finishers in the Elite Men’s race… Four of the top five are French, with only Finn Iles stopping it being a French whitetwash. French unit Amaury Pierron finishes 0.154 ahead of round one winner Loic Bruni. His bessie mate Loris Vergier is in third, 0.244 back on Pierron.
The amount of previous World Cup winners having to go again in Q2 should see this race broadcast as well. It really has put the cat amongst the pigeons. Jordan Williams, Troy Brosnan, Matt Walker (UK), Reece Wilson, Danny Hart, Alex Fayolle, Laurie Greenland, Ronan Dunne and Aaron Gwin will race again in Q2. We know Dunne had a mechanical which involved his rear wheel not having any rubber on it…
Elite Women Q2
Phoebe Gale goes fastest in Q2 with a time that would put her 9th in Q1. Cami Balance is 0.7 seconds adrift of her with Gloria Scarsi 1.7 adrift of the Brit. Monika Hrastnik and Lousie Ferguson make the top 5 cut to go through to finals.
Hattie Hardnen and Mikayla Parton miss out on the big race tomorrow.
Elite Men Q2
Talk of the two qualifying rounds was Ronan Dunne and his back wheel. He would detonate a back wheel in both runs, leaving him out of finals and scoring zero points in Loudenvielle.
With only ten riders going through in Q2 some big names would also miss out tomorrow. Sacha Earnest would be the only Trek Factory Racing rider to make finals. The likes of Ethan Craik, Richie Rude, Oli Davies. Laurie Greenland, Martin Maes and Dylan Levesque would take stock and get ready for Leogang next weekend.
Tuhoto-Ariki Pene stormed to the win in Q2 with a time that would put him in fifth in Q1. Antoine Rogge would cross the line another French whisker behind him in second. Jordan Williams took third some 1.1 back. Plenty of big names only scraping through to finals…
