The third World Cup DH of the year took place in Austria. Here are the results, race report and highlights vids from Loegang.
RACE HIGHLIGHTS, Elite Women, Leogang Round 3:
RACE HIGHLIGHTS, Elite Men, Leogang Round 3:
DH World Series Rd3 Leogang: Women’s Elite results
| # | Rider | Time | Gap | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gracey HEMSTREET NORCO RACE DIVISION | 03:21.962 | – | 250 |
| 2 | Anna NEWKIRK FRAMEWORKS RACING / 5DEV | 03:22.827 | +00:00.865 | 210 |
| 3 | Valentina HÖLL YT MOB | 03:24.389 | +00:02.427 | 180 |
| 4 | Marine CABIROU CANYON CLLCTV FACTORY TEAM | 03:25.117 | +00:03.155 | 150 |
| 5 | Jess BLEWITT CUBE FACTORY RACING | 03:25.932 | +00:03.970 | 120 |
| 6 | Tahnee SEAGRAVEORBEA / FMD RACING | 03:26.259 | +00:04.297 | 90 |
| 7 | Camille BALANCHE YETI / FOX FACTORY RACE TEAM | 03:28.596 | +00:06.634 | 80 |
| 8 | Harriet HARNDEN AON RACING – TOURNE CAMPERVANS | 03:29.571 | +00:07.609 | 70 |
| 9 | Gloria SCARSI MS-RACING | 03:30.026 | +00:08.064 | 60 |
| 10 | Louise-Anna FERGUSON AXESS INTENSE FACTORY RACING | 03:30.501 | +00:08.539 | 50 |
DH World Series Rd3 Leogang: Men’s Elite results
| # | Rider | Time | Gap | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jackson GOLDSTONE SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE | 02:57.229 | – | 250 |
| 2 | Loic BRUNI SPECIALIZED GRAVITY | 02:57.288 | +00:00.059 | 210 |
| 3 | Henri KIEFER CANYON CLLCTV FACTORY TEAM | 02:57.764 | +00:00.535 | 180 |
| 4 | Lachlan STEVENS-MCNAB TREK FACTORY RACING DH | 02:58.437 | +00:01.208 | 160 |
| 5 | Laurie GREENLAND SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE | 02:58.638 | +00:01.409 | 140 |
| 6 | Ronan DUNNE MONDRAKER FACTORY RACING DH | 02:58.799 | +00:01.570 | 125 |
| 7 | Troy BROSNAN CANYON CLLCTV FACTORY TEAM | 02:58.906 | +00:01.677 | 110 |
| 8 | Andreas KOLB YT MOB | 02:58.910 | +00:01.681 | 95 |
| 9 | Thibaut DAPRELA ROGUE RACING – SR SUNTOUR | 02:58.921 | +00:01.692 | 80 |
| 10 | Max HARTENSTERN CUBE FACTORY RACING | 02:59.093 | +00:01.864 | 75 |
Race reports and photos courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery Sports:
UCI DH World Cup is Canadian Once Again as Hemstreet and Goldstone Triumph in Leogang
For the second weekend running, Gracey Hemstreet (Norco Race Division) and Jackson Goldstone (Santa Cruz Syndicate) ruled the UCI Downhill World Cup for Canada in a scintillating Saalfelden Leogang – Salzburgerland (Austria) round that saw the overall lead of both competitions also change hands.
Both Elite races rewarded absolute commitment from lighter riders on a fan-favourite stop of the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series, featuring the famous motorway section that would prove decisive for Goldstone.
Goldstone clinched his win by less than a tenth of a second from Loïc Bruni (Specialized Gravity) while Hemstreet enjoyed a wider margin of victory but was made to wait on the edge of her seat until the very end with Valentina Höll (YT MOB) last off the ramp and looking set to snatch the win until the final metres of her run.
Meanwhile Rosa Zierl (Cube Factory Racing) gave the packed Austrian grandstands something to cheer about by winning the women’s Junior Finals and Oli Clark (MS-Racing) made inroads on the overall Men Junior title with his triumph.
A STAR IS BORN AS HEMSTREET BACKS UP MAIDEN WIN
A slow-burn women’s Elite competition exploded into life in the final few runs as Nina Hoffmann (Santa Cruz Syndicate) was absent following a crash in morning practice on the wall run.
Marine Cabirou (Canyon CLLCTV Factory Team) required Q2 to reach the final but showed she was keen to make up for lost time at The Epic Bikepark.
Nailing the exit from a tricky root section into the iconic flat-out motorway section is the key to The Speedster trail and Cabirou flew through the first two time checks, smashing Harriet Harnden’s previous best run for AON Racing – Tourne Campervans by four cavernous seconds.
As rider after rider crossed the line without even getting in touching distance of Cabirou, a first Saalfelden Leogang – Salzburgerland victory and ninth career UCI World Cup seemed more and more likely… until Hemstreet went down the ramp.
Immediately ahead, Hemstreet lost some time in time check three but piled it all back on and more at the next one as she hammered the steep forested section that was the last opportunity to make up serious time.
She crossed the line three seconds ahead of Cabirou and the podium soon became Canada followed by America as Anna Newkirk (Frameworks Racing / 5DEV) missed out on a first UCI World Cup win since 2019 by less than a second.
That meant it was all down to star-crossed fastest qualifier, home favourite and reigning UCI World Champion and World Cup overall winner Höll, who looked destined to complete a rampant hat-trick on local trails when she went a second up at the penultimate time check for YT MOB.
But the Hollywood script was rejected as Höll likewise fell victim to Hemstreet’s scintillating finish and slipped to third to audible groans from the crowd, handing Hemstreet a dream second win in the space of two weekends. She becomes the sixth rider to back up a maiden win with another consecutive win following in the footsteps of a certain Höll and Cabirou in 2021 and 2019.
“I definitely didn’t [expect that], I hadn’t really been feeling too confident this week and it just clicked. There actually felt a lot more pressure than I expected, I struggling at the motorway all week but I just pedalled as hard as I could. I felt it at the bottom so I was happy,” Hemstreet said.
And Hemstreet’s supremacy means she’s also the new overall UCI World Cup leader after Tahnée Seagrave (Orbea / FMD Racing) started strongly but appeared bothered by an old injury in the more technical second half as she hemorrhaged time and wound up sixth while winless Höll is still waiting for her title defence to truly ignite.
GOLDSTONE FLOATS TO MAPLE DOUBLE
The jumbled men’s Elite qualifying meant stars were littered across the startlist and there was action throughout, beginning with the second run of the finals as Ronan Dunne (Mondraker Factory Racing DH) unclipped but still became the first rider of the weekend to break the three-minute barrier after disappointment in Loudenvielle-Peragudes (France) – he’d finish fifth overall.
‘Double O’ Oisin O’Callaghan (YT MOB) was in touch with his compatriot until he was spat off a tough triple-apex corner and hit the deck hard, before his teammate and home hero Andreas Kolb almost sent the crowd into rapture as he exited the woods in the green but his slender 0.066s advantage was dashed on the run to the line.
However, Dunne’s reign ended four minutes later when Lachlan Stevens-McNab (Trek Factory Racing DH) put together the scorching run he’s been threatening all season – he was ahead at the opening round in Bielsko-Biała (Poland) when he crashed but nothing could stop the Kiwi this time as he went into the hot seat.
Despite winning the opening round, Bruni needed a big run to re-establish himself in the overall fight after a poor showing last time out and he produced it, resetting the otherwise tight men’s field by putting 1.4 seconds into Stevens-McNab.
It didn’t last long though as Jackson Goldstone played to his strengths – floating like a butterfly over the stump section and motorway before launching an unbelievable pull into the wall run showing commitment which paid off when he crossed the line ahead of Bruni by the blink of an eye – 0.059s.
With plenty of household names still to go including fastest qualifier Loris Vergier in the rainbow bands and UCI World Cup leader Amaury Pierron (both Commencal Muc-Off by Riding Addiction), Goldstone was far from home and hosed and he was visibly shaking as he watched the remaining riders. However, the strongest challenge came from unheralded Canyon CLLCTV Factory Team rider Henri Kiefer.
The German was the only rider apart from Bruni and Goldstone to lead a sector as Pierron always looked unsettled and nearly came a cropper on several occasions with the green jersey appearing heavy on the Frenchman’s back on the way to 17th place, and Vergier couldn’t replicate his rapid Friday pace as his 1,000-day wait for another UCI World Cup win continues.
Goldstone’s win was even more emotional in the wake of fellow Santa Cruz Syndicate rider Hoffman’s crash earlier, while teammate Laurie Greenland finished fifth and was the first to congratulate the Canadian after Vergier crossed the line.
“That last split and the stump section going into the motorway, those were the two crucial sections for me that I needed to work on and I definitely felt like I couldn’t have got those better in my run,” Goldstone said.
“It’s just crazy, you go through all the emotions of the riders getting close to beating your time and it’s so many ups and downs, you feel for the guys that went down or had mistakes in the run, it’s just a rush of emotions.”
Pierron’s slump means Bruni takes over the UCI World Cup lead with an advantage of 45 points over Goldstone, who said in his winner’s interview that Bruni had joked he won’t speak to the Canadian for a week after such a close-fought race.
HOME FANS REVEL IN JUNIOR TRIUMPH
Rosa Zierl kicked off Downhill finals day in the best way possible for the partisan home crowd, the Austrian national champion was the final rider off the ramp and duly saved the best until last to oust Aletha Ostgaard (Canyon CLLCTV Factory Team).
Ostgaard had been the class of the field, over four seconds quicker than the next best rider, but Zierl traded fastest sector times with the American early on. She never decisively pulled away on the course but overturned a deficit of a second at the penultimate intermediate time check to lead ahead of the final section and went clear in the final few hundred metres.
“It’s incredible, I’m super happy, tight battle with the girls. I knew this track so I was just keen to ride it and have fun,” Zierl said afterwards.
Oli Clark denied overall leader Max Alran (Commencal Muc-Off by Riding Addiction) a second successive Leogang triumph in the men’s junior final, by less than a second.
Asa Vermette (Frameworks Racing / 5DEV) had set the time to beat before the two fastest qualifiers were unleashed onto the mountain, but they showed it was a two-horse race as Alran led through the first two sections before letting victory slip through his fingers.
“It’s pretty surreal, I’ve been working hard to get here so I’m just happy to be here, I’m glad it’s paying off,” Clark said. “I don’t feel pressure, the only pressure I put on is myself.”
Oh, and this happened:
DH World Series Overall Standings: Women’s Elite
DH World Series Overall Standings: Men’s Elite
What’s next?
Next up, the Whoop UCI Mountain Bike World Series heads to Val di Sole in Italy from 20-22 June.
Replies (50)
Comments Closed
I’d argue (and I believe Bruce is too) that the lower ranked rider would broadly benefit from the earlier start (no blown-out course, at least)
FWIW I quite like the suggestion
(question (I honestly don’t know): do the Q2 riders start according to their time and slotted into the other 10 or do they start in 15th to 11th? I’d suggest that, if Bruce’s rule doesn’t apply, they should run 15th to 11th)
Again, it’s not really demonstrated by the results. Course can get better over time as well as worse.
Q1 = 11-30
Q2 – 1-10
So the latest start you can get from Q2 is the 10th start time. The slowest in Q1 then gets the 11th start time.
https://www.rootsandrain.com/event13445/2025-may-18-whoop-uci-world-cup-dh-1-szczyrk/results/#h-elitem
The problem i see is, if you look at race 1, how do you decide who’s ‘worthy’ of being in the ‘close to the last ones down’. You could argue Jackson by default, but is that fair on people like Rude, Hartenstern, even people like O’Callaghan, how do they not match up, each and every one of those could hit the podium. Troy in 29th, Lachie, i could throw in a case for either of those. The sport is what it is and any one of the top 30 could easily hit the top 5…
Sure. But if we are talking about a sudden change (ie, sudden downpour or berm blowout) then a deterioration is far more likely than an improvement.
Wind can obviously go either way, but for everything else (like the track drying out or perhaps a new line becoming feasible) it’s going to be something that happens over many runs.
I never really understood before why World Champs start order is determined by World Cup standing rather than qualifying time but I guess it’s an acknowledgment that the World Cup standings are a good proxy for a rider’s likelihood to win. For a high stakes one off race you wouldn’t want to risk it being decided based on who had the worst qualifying day.
The more I think about it the more I’m struggling to see any advantages of the start order being time based (well, not entirely time based as Q1Q2 is going to jumble the order up a bit).
That’s exactly my point. It’s no longer 80 riders the majority of whom have basically no chance of getting on the podium. With 30 riders anyone could podium.
Therefore why not ensure the top guys in the overall are racing in the most similar conditions possible?
Either base it on last years results for the first race or just go by qualifying time for the first race?
OK, maybe we can look at this in a different way. What are the advantages of basing the start order on quali time* other than it’s just the way it’s always been done?
*Or rather, partially basing the start order on quali times as the Q1Q2 format means it’s not entirely based on quali time.
I honestly can’t comprehend your point… they ARE… if they’ve made finals there’s only 60 mins between the first/last, maybe 90 mins. How close do you want it ?
What happens if it rains half way through that and your guy who was 3rd down has been put to 3rd last (Bruni for example) and now loses all chance of the win because you’ve move him 26 places further up the order because of his rank.
I don’t see how your system is any better honestly.
I’m not sure I understand here. You’re saying that Bruni missed out on Q1 for some reason and came third last in Q2 so he’s third rider down the mountain?
IF it rained half way through then it would be a very boring second half of the race because Bruni is obviously going to win (and he’l massively extend his lead in the overall).
If Bruni qualified 3rd last for whatever reason but was still last one down the mountain then he wouldn’t win but he’d be in the same boat as Pierron, Williams, Vergier, etc. Whoever was fastest before the rain came down would most likely win.
Maybe we’re talking about completely different things here because now I don’t really understand what you’re saying.
You almost got it..
In your scenario, he never came down 3rd… he came down 2nd last or even last due to being ranked #1… So he didn’t get the win and actually finished 17th as loads got dry conditions.
He’s going to be proper unhappy about that surely ?
Yes, but as you say, it’s just racing.I’d imagine Pierron, Vergier, and Williams (who in this hypothetical scenario qualified 1st, 2nd, and 3rd) would be more pissed off if Bruni won and extended his series lead just because he crashed in Q1 and it pissed down halfway through the race.
I’d rather see a relatively unknown rider get their first win with the series leaders finishing mid pack. Especially if it didn’t affect the overall.