The second World Cup DH of the year took place in France. Here are the results, race report and highlights vids from Loudenvielle-Payragudes.
RACE HIGHLIGHTS, Elite Women, Loudenvielle Round 2:
RACE HIGHLIGHTS, Elite Men, Loudenvielle Round 2:
DH World Series Rd2 Loudenvielle-Peyragudes: Women’s Elite results
| # | Rider | Time | Gap | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gracey HEMSTREETNORCO RACE DIVISION | 03:39.179 | – | 250 |
| 2 | Valentina HÖLLYT MOB | 03:42.348 | +00:03.169 | 210 |
| 3 | Tahnee SEAGRAVEORBEA / FMD RACING | 03:48.081 | +00:08.902 | 180 |
| 4 | Camille BALANCHEYETI / FOX FACTORY RACE TEAM | 03:48.776 | +00:09.597 | 150 |
| 5 | Anna NEWKIRKFRAMEWORKS RACING / 5DEV | 03:48.865 | +00:09.686 | 120 |
| 6 | Phoebe GALEORBEA / FMD RACING | 03:51.588 | +00:12.409 | 90 |
| 7 | Gloria SCARSIMS-RACING | 03:52.415 | +00:13.236 | 80 |
| 8 | Monika HRASTNIKAON RACING – TOURNE CAMPERVANS | 03:52.866 | +00:13.687 | 70 |
| 9 | Louise-Anna FERGUSONAXESS INTENSE FACTORY RACING | 03:54.047 | +00:14.868 | 60 |
| 10 | Sacha EARNESTTREK FACTORY RACING DH | 03:57.975 | +00:18.796 | 50 |
DH World Series Rd2 Loudenvielle-Peyragudes: Men’s Elite results
| # | Rider | Time | Gap | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jackson GOLDSTONESANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE | 03:13.192 | – | 250 |
| 2 | Amaury PIERRONCOMMENCAL/MUC-OFF BY RIDING ADDICTION | 03:14.729 | +00:01.537 | 210 |
| 3 | Jordan WILLIAMSSPECIALIZED GRAVITY | 03:16.163 | +00:02.971 | 180 |
| 4 | Nathan PONTVIANNE | 03:16.352 | +00:03.160 | 160 |
| 5 | Luca SHAWCANYON CLLCTV FACTORY TEAM | 03:16.776 | +00:03.584 | 140 |
| 6 | Ryan PINKERTONMONDRAKER FACTORY RACING DH | 03:17.056 | +00:03.864 | 125 |
| 7 | Loris VERGIERCOMMENCAL/MUC-OFF BY RIDING ADDICTION | 03:17.122 | +00:03.930 | 110 |
| 8 | Antoine PIERRONCOMMENCAL SCHWALBE BY LES ORRES | 03:17.198 | +00:04.006 | 95 |
| 9 | Oliver ZWARORBEA / FMD RACING | 03:18.308 | +00:05.116 | 80 |
| 10 | Luke WAYMANCONTINENTAL ATHERTON | 03:18.506 | +00:05.314 | 75 |
Race reports and photos courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery Sports:
CANADIAN STARS HEMSTREET AND GOLDSTONE TAKE VICTORIES IN LOUDENVIELLE – PEYRAGUDES
Canadian riders Gracey Hemstreet (Norco Race Division) and Jackson Goldstone (Santa Cruz Syndicate) proved their technical skills as they won the women’s and men’s Elite titles at round two of the UCI Downhill World Cup in Loudenvielle – Peyragudes (France), presented by FACOM.
Hemstreet recorded her first UCI Downhill World Cup victory, while Goldston marked his return from injury to take a third Elite career UCI World Cup race win. It was also the first time two North Americans have won both the Men Elite and Women Elite UCI Downhill World Cup races respectively on the same day since 1999. There was more history made for Hemstreet who became the first Canadian women to win a Women Elite UCI Downhill World Cup.
The cold and wet conditions experienced at the opening round in the Enduro Trails of Bielsko-Biała, Poland made way for warm, fast and dusty conditions in the French Pyrenees.
While several of her competitors crashed out Hemstreet completed a fearless run to take her maiden victory.
Goldstone won two Men Elite UCI Downhill World Cups during his maiden senior season in 2023. However, last season the young Canadian crashed into a tree and tore his ACL and MCL – ruling him out for the whole 2024 UCI Downhill World Cup series. Goldstone showed a masterful technique as he flew down the wooded slopes in the French Pyrenees.
The men’s Junior events saw another North American winner in the form of Bode Burke (Commencal Schwalbe by Les Orres) who carried the most speed into the finish to snatch victory. Meanwhile, Austrian Lina Frener (Norco Race Division) provided the most commanding win of the day in the women’s Junior category.
GOLDSTONE COMPLETES ROAD BACK FROM INJURY WITH SKILLFUL DISPLAY
Jackson Goldstone (Santa Cruz Syndicate) pushed the course limits to take his first UCI Downhill World Cup win since 2023. The 21-year-old, former Junior UCI Downhill World Champion survived a blustery top section and then used his technical ability to set a blistering time in the wood section.
The UCI ‘DH World Cup’ trail was created especially for the 2023 UCI Downhill World Cup and dry and dusty conditions resulted in exciting racing.
Former UCI Downhill World Cup winner Jordan Williams (Specialized Gravity) set the quickest time of the weekend of 3:16.1 to put pressure on those waiting in the starting house.
The technical course took a host of early victims as Tuhoto-Ariki Pene (MS-Racing), Davide Palazzari (Rogue Racing – SR Suntour) and Luke Meier-Smith (Giant Factory Off-Road Team – DH) were amongst those who saw their hopes ended by mistakes.
After missing last season through injury Goldstone survived the blustery top section and then found new lines through the woods to set the quickest time through the final two sectors to post a quickest time of 3:13.1 – almost three seconds faster than Williams.
Four French riders were amongst the final five starters and provided hope of victory for the home fans.
Nathan Pontvianne (Goodman Santacruz) pushed the bottom section to the limits and his time of 3:16.3 was good enough for fourth.
UCI Downhill World Champion, Loris Vergier (Commencal/Muc-Off by Riding Addiction) struggled for speed throughout the course and he finished nearly four seconds back in seventh.
Last year’s overall UCI Downhill World Cup victor, Loïc Bruni (Specialized Gravity), was quicker than Goldstone through the first sector before misjudging a ramp resulting in going 1.3 seconds behind. With time to find, Bruni was forced into mistakes and consistently lost time in the lower section to finish 15th.
Final starter Amaury Pierron (Commencal/Muc-Off by Riding Addiction) went close to the leading time, but some small mistakes on the lower section resulting in him finishing runner-up a second behind and Williams was third.
“It feels good to be back, I can’t believe that I won,” said Goldstone. “I really liked it and gave it everything in the bottom two splits.
“I got into a really good zone, I wasn’t nervous for some reason. I had so much fun out of there. Amaury [Pierron] had me on my toes there, he had such a good run going but the last two splits really helped me there. I’m stoked to pull it off.”
Talking about Canadian riders winning both the Elite events he added: “It’s huge for Gracey. I’m so stoked.”
After two rounds a second-place finish for Pierron gives him the series lead just 40 points ahead of French countryman Bruni.
HEMSTREET TAKES MAIDEN WORLD CUP WIN WITH FEARLESS RUN
British rider Harriet Harnden (Aon Racing – Tourne Campervans) was the biggest-name who failed to qualify for the finals, but many more left the French course disappointed after crashes.
Opting for full mud tyres on the slippery terrain, Swiss rider Camille Balanche (Yeti/Fox Factory Racing Team) sent a message to her rivals by setting an early leading time of 3:48.7.
The dusty and rutted terrain caught a host of riders out, with Eleonora Farina (MS-Racing) one of those who came down heavily on the track.
UCI Downhill World Champion Valentina Höll (YT Mob) showed formidable form as she mastered the slopes taking 1.8 seconds out of her rivals on the opening sector and increasing her advantage through each sector. Höll reached the bottom of the hill in a quickest time of 3:42.3 – over six seconds quicker than her nearest rival.
Marine Cabirou (Canyon CLLCTV Factory Team) and Nina Hoffmann (Santa Cruz Syndicate) were amongst those who saw their hopes ended by mistakes on the technical course. Meanwhile, 2024 UCI Downhill European Champion Lisa Baumann (Commencal Schwalbe by Les Orres) looked to be heading towards a podium place before also being flung off her bike after getting her tyre stuck in a rut.
It was Gracey Hemstreet who would provide the ride of the day. Despite losing three seconds to Höll on the top section the Canadian came fighting back on the technical wooded part and took a three second lead at the finish – posting a quickest time of 3:39.1.
Opening round winner Tahnee Seagrave (Orbea/FMD Racing) was the penultimate rider to challenge the time and recorded the fastest opening split of the day. However, the fearless middle and bottom section of Hemstreet was too formidable, with Höll finishing second and Seagrave third.
After two rounds Seagrave has a healthy lead of 116 points in the overall standings.
“I can’t believe it,” said Hemstreet. “This has been a dream come true forever, and it has finally happened.
“I just tried the death grip and went as fast as I could. I was a bit scared of the loose stuff but was fully pinned everywhere else. I was just cautious in those sketchy areas and then let it go on the rest. The triple at the top, I couldn’t hit it, I rolled it, it was hard.”
FRENER AND BURKE SHOWCASE TALENTS TO WIN JUNIOR EVENTS
Lina Frener (Norco Race Division) and Bode Burke (Commencal Schwalbe by Les Orres) provided masterful performances in the Women Junior and Men Junior UCI Downhill World Cups.
Burke recorded the quickest time in the final sector to win the men’s competition in 3:16.6. The American qualified in the middle of the pack and had to watch his rivals come close to his benchmark.
New Zealand’s Tyler Waite (Yeti/Fox Factory Race Team) was quick starting on the open sections but lost vital time on the bottom half as he finished five hundreds of a second behind in second.
Meanwhile, quickest qualifier Till Alran (Commencal-Muc-off by Riding Addiction) also suffered in the wooded latter stages and placed fourth, one place behind team-mate Max Alran.
Heading into the third round of the series Max Alran has a slender five-point overall lead over Waite.
“I’m so happy, I didn’t expect that,” said Burke. “I had a huge crash this morning. I’m so happy to get down. To do that was amazing for me. I took it easy in qualifying. Eleven seconds was going to be a stretch, but somehow it happened.”
In the women’s Junior event, Frener was a convincing winner and posted the quickest time on three of the four course splits. Frener went seven seconds quicker than her qualifying time to post a winning mark of 3:50.2.
Quickest qualifier Eliana Hulsebosch (Santa Cruz Syndicate) felt the pressure and needed to better her time from the previous day to take victory. The Kiwi went fastest at the first split before crashing out on a dusty left-hand corner to end her race challenge – eventually finishing fifth.
It was an Austrian one-two as Rosa Zierl (Cube Factory Racing) joined Frener on the podium, while USA’s Matilda Melton (Commencal Schwalbe by Les Orres) placed third.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” said Frener. “I just get down and have fun on my bike. I changed some of my lines from qualifying.”
DH World Series Overall Standings: Women’s Elite
DH World Series Overall Standings: Men’s Elite
Next weekend the Whoop UCI Mountain Bike World Series heads to Saalfelden Leogang in Salzburgerland (Austria) from 6-8 June.
Replies (36)
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These are the 29min highlights inc both the elite women and men, I watched last night – for better or worse, they’ve got Ric and others commentating:
I think it was the individual highlights for women and men that had no commentary. Agree with it being a complete custard duck of broadcasting – too many ‘highlights’ videos to choose from on the official YT channel.
Any link to his full run? I’ve only seen clips of it and it was exciting to say the least!
I just watched it in the race feed, but you’ve probably seen the best bit.
One of the wildest, loosest moments I’ve ever seen.
As previously mentioned google “tiz cycling"
Straight into the fantasy team after watching that run on Sunday. Absolutely fantastic.
Mind you I’ve also got Ronan Dunne still in my team so might not be the wisest move as they both seem like they are the type of riders to roll the dice. I reckon Ronan is going to come in swinging this weekend though.
Watched the Women’s & Men’s last night – fantastic racing.
I ‘caved’ and renegotiated our contract with Sky so I’m in effect only paying an extra £10/month for TNT/Disco+
I’ll be cancelling it so it finishes after the last race.
Rick is slowly growing on me – I like Neko’s insights, and quite like Josh as he gets pretty excited – not quite Rob & Cedric levels though lol
Q1 & Q2 seems like a good idea at the moment, there’s some big names that haven’t made it through which shakes things up a bit.
I really like the new Q1 / Q2 format and I think 30 riders is enough to be honest. I used to fast forward through 45-20 unless it was a specific rider I expected to have a wild / good run.
It is a shame that we see top riders missing out on finals at the moment but they will have to change their approach and ultimately, we still see the best riders that weekend (except for 1 or 2 that have double mechanicals, which would happen with a bigger field as well).
Also so glad there is no protected status – It was a massive disadvantage to those coming off a long injury or those unable to do the full season.
The coverage it pretty good too, some definite directorial issues aside (why did we only see 5 seconds of Anna Newkirk’s run?). I don’t mind Ric but I do think there needs to be a bit more excitement from the commentators. Sports like this where its against the clock really need someone to build the excitement & tension around what the rider is doing. We saw some absolutely wild runs in this race and whilst they communicated that, they didn’t build any excitement about it.
The riders are doing a phenomenal job, shame the broadcast is overpriced garbage.
Saw some interesting comments from Reece Wilson the other day on his IG story about the speed of the tracks and the risk associated to committing. I guess they figure the balls out speed is what sells and makes it exciting.
Interesting. Reece seems to be struggling to find the level a bit this year, like a few other big names.
Personally, I thought Loudenville looked like the toughest track to race since Leogang 2020 (where Reece won the stripes ironically). It was carnage up there and even Loic and Amaury got it wrong.
I’m not sure if it was “separating the riders" in a positive way, or just dangerous and a bit random though?
Also not sure we can pin that on WBD, so much as the local race organiser?
What do you all reckon?
Crashes sell clicks – just look at the viral clips from the cheese rolling last week. You can guarantee that high speed, high danger is part of the deal with WBD. They were pushing for 3 minute tracks and in some paces the only way to get that is to go flat out down the fall line. It’s part of the reason for Fort Bill getting dropped. The fact that that ends up with spectacular results is a bonus for them. They’re looking to promote the sport to the generic sports fan and big crashes are a lot easier to sell than slow tech.
Reece is one of the guys I am particularly frustrated not to see in the finals. But I guess if the speed isn’t there . . .
I think it’s a tough one for Reece. I think it was a GMBN video where I saw him say he doesn’t do any testing against the clock and if he feels good on the bike that is all he cares about. I remember thinking at the time that I wonder if you can get away with that now when we know all the top teams are doing so much timed testing and looking for every 1/100th of a second they can wring from the bike, but I’m certain he knows what he’s doing and maybe just needs a few races under his belt where he can dial up the speed.
I’m sure we’ll get a mudder soon enough where the speeds are a bit less and he and that lovely looking bike will absolutely shine.
Reece’s comments on IG kind of baffled me, this is the same track he podiumed on last year and its the first year the track has been raced on dry, speeds were indeed bonkers. Whilst I do agree that the tracks should be more technical (hoping La Thuille will be amazing based on the riding I did there a few years ago) I think Reece is perhaps smarting because he spent a lot of the pre-season bigging himself up and is not performing very well so far. I really want to see him get his flow back though as he’s one of the most creative guys on a bike.
The race organiser did make some small tweaks to the course further down but you’re limited at the top of the hill as its pretty flat.
I agree, I suspect that the sheer speed required these days has taken him aback. I hope he gets up to speed as he’s really great to watch. Just hope he call balance the pressures of being the boss with pulling some good results.
Fingers crossed for Charlie Hatton and Laurie Greenland too. Would like to see them back up there. Will be interesting to see where BK comes back, when (if) he comes back.
I wouldn’t worry too much lads, the Brit boys have been more unfortunate than they have been slow. Reece, Charlie are still FASSSSSST, it’s just not quite worked on the runs for them. They’re now like all the others having to push properly FLAT-OUT !!!! All day every day and that flat out it only takes the smallest mistakes to lost time here, time there and next thing, you’re off the pace… Ethan is still right on it… Just on it and on it on the the right run, isn’t quite always the same. Laurie looks fast in practice, but i know less about him.
The Brit girls have been great, with the winner in round 1 and 3 in the top 10 on Sunday.
The only highlights you need from any DH race – Sleeper Shreddit from rd2:
Good point
Still feeling bad for the lads though.