Video: Vallnord World Cup Downhill Winners

Last week we looked at Cédric Gracia’s track walk and Claudio Caluori’s POV run down the track at Vallnord, and read George Thompson’s excellent first hand account of racing it in the Master’s. All showed it to be a steep, highly varied, and technical track with some slippery sections, and this past weekend the pros arrived to show us how it’s done.

Myriam Nicole switched back to 27.5″ wheels and took the Women’s win with this blazing run, pulling back nearly 3.5 seconds compared to the first splits:

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Here’s Troy Brosnan squeaking over the line, ramping up the tension right to the very end:

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We’ve become used to seeing podiums covered in UK racers, especially in the women’s category, and Tahnee Seagrave came in second, but Rachel Atherton just missed out this time, coming fourth overall, which is still amazing considering she’s recovering from a dislocated shoulder.

Danny Hart managed fourth in the mens, also having switched back to 27.5″ wheels. Teams are still experimenting with 29″ bikes, and it’s probably too early to tell if one option is faster for sure, but a lot of riders seem to be pushing back to what they know at the moment.

If you’d like to see all of the runs and read a bit more, you can find full videos on Red Bull’s website. If you want to check out some other Brits, current world champ Danny Hart’s run features some ridiculous lines and near misses, and Phil Atwill is well worth a watch too. Rache Ahterton put in a very smooth, flowy run, with Manon Carpenter coming in only a couple of seconds behind her. Tahnee Seagrave was visibly faster than both and seemed to be pushing harder right out of the gate though.