A rapidly drying course meant that riders would have to adapt fast in the ever-changing conditions for finals in Leogang.
Here’s who stepped up on finals day in Leogang, whether it was rocking the quali win confidence into finals or dusting themselves off after a crash and getting the lead out.
Junior Women
Phoebe Gale would shrug off yesterday’s disastrous qualifying round to lay down a serious marker to not only her Junior counterparts but to the Elite Women too.
Yesterday’s qualifying winner Jenna Hastings would have to settle for second, some fourteen seconds adrift of the Brit, with your Fort William winner Gracey Hemstreet a second back on the Kiwi.
Junior Men
Madison Saracen’s Jordan Williams would also put aside his terrible run in qualifying to take his second win in a row. Jackson Goldstone would be in touch before a crash left him chasing the young Brit. He’d still finish second, some four seconds back.
Lachlan Stevens-McNab would round out the top three, with Davide Capello hot on his heels. These four would be streets ahead of the rest.
Williams’ time would be two seconds faster than Benoit Coulanges’ qualifier.
Elite Women
Louise Ferguson laid down a marker that it looked would stand for a while as riders fell more than once in the lower woods.
Eleonora Farina would be the first to nudge Louise off the hot seat…
Holy smokes, Marine Cabirou hits the deck hard in the stumps. Ferguson is about to podium…
Myriam Nicole goes five up.
Vali Holl goes down in the same spot as Cabirou some eight seconds up, then again in the woods.
Camille Balance. World Class. Eleven seconds the better on Nicole.
Elite Men
Jacob Dickson would be in the hotseat with 30 riders to go. His time would be a full six seconds faster than Coulanges’ qualifier, so the track is running hotter than yesterday.
Dakotah Norton pips the Irishman by a couple of seconds, the Intense Factory Racing man stays on his bike while up on the splits. Norton is still in the hot seat with 22 to go.
Dylan Levesque pulled a screamer in the key section but Vergier goes 1.6 up and takes the hot seat.
Bernard Kerr is in touch going into the woods but goes down. Game over.
Minnaar gaps the wallride before overshooting the turn and leaves the track. Not to be for the reigning World Champ. He’d still tag the fastest key section at this stage in the race.
Pierron is in touch going into the woods after sporting a unique line on the opening camber. Green in the woods. 2.6 seconds the better in the woods. 1.4 better than his countryman Loris Vergier.
Angel Suarez trades green and red splits with Pierron in the first three splits. 0.6 up in the woods. Suarez goes into the lead by 0.16.
Andreas Kolb is just 0.2 back going into the motorway. Another 0.2 back going into the woods. That Austrian slips back in the woods. Only David Trummer can take the home win now. Kolb goes third.
Aaron Gwin on course. The American superstar slips back at all the splits and goes into 6th. A glimmer of what Gwin is capable of. Hartenstern does much the same but clips a tree before hitting the deck while trying to push on in the woods.
David Trummer goes 2.5 down on the motorway alone, has the wind picked up or is he on spikes? The high line in the woods would indicate spikes. Still two down in the woods. No home victory today.
Hatton pulls back 1.2 to split two. Suarez Alonso’s final sector before the woods is holding strong but he can’t rain in the Spaniard on the lower slopes.
Thibaut Daprela is pushing on and getting messy. It all comes undone in the woods as he wraps himself around the tape in the woods.
Brosnan can’t get close but it’s great to see the Aussie back and flying in the mud for qualifying to finish 6th. What could have been if the rain kept coming?
Greenland was on a heater, three seconds up at split one but loses it and can’t recover.
Danny Hart is back on form and bumps Suarez out of the hot seat.
Matt Walker trades splits with his former team mate and takes the hot seat by a whisker.
Iles is on a charge but his fourth split pulls the rug out from underneath him.
Benoit Coulanges is flying. Green at every split before a disaster in the woods with a crash.
Matt Walker wins his first ever World Cup, the young Brit back on form after an up and down 2021. The 2020 World Cup Champion brings home the goods in the Austrian Alps.
