With the second downhill world cup of the season fast approaching it's time to get my blog of the first race done. What with a new race format, team changes, crazy weather, belt drives and tonnes of great performances on the track there is a lot to talk about!
Health and Safety
Last time I blogged about racing I wished for all of the top women to be healthy, and for once I actually got my wish! The first round of the year had the big six of Vali Höll, Tahnée Seagrave, Myriam Nicole, Camille Balanche, Marine Cabirou and Nina Hoffman all present and correct in the top ten. They are not going to have it all their own way this year however. Anna Newkirk lead the charge for the young guns. Making the most of the new qualification system she made it through to finals in twelth place and laid down a scorching run that for a long time looked like it would be enough for the win. It took a wild run from Seagrave to knock her out of the hot seat. I'm generally of the opinion that it is the rider and not the bike that wins races, but the brand new downhill bike from Orbea certainly isn't holding Seagrave back.
Save of the day
I'm awarding save of the day to young French ripper Nathan Pontvianne. As usual, the winning move was an unintentional nose wheelie. This time the award wasn't so much for the length of said incident as for the timing. Something bumped his rear wheel into the air just before the super-steep dive into the catch berm that took out a number of top riders including Andreas Kolb and second-place qualifier Oliver Davis. Luckily for Pontvianne he managed to get the bike back on the floor just in time and ride it out into twenty first place - a joint career best for elite world cups. I predict even better things to come at some point this year.
Last chance saloon
There were some big changes to the format of the racing this year, and I think they have been a great success so far. One of these is the move to a final of fifteen elite women, and when you see riders of the calibre of Monika Hrastnik and Eleonora Farina not make it through to finals, it seems insane that last year was limited to ten women only. The other major change was the removal of the protected rider system and the addition of Q2. The Q2 session itself was really exciting as a mixture of big names who had problems in Q1 and riders on the cusp of qualifying directly battled to get into the limited number of final spots remaining. One nice surprise was the release of an hour-long video with highlights of Q2, although nobody seemed to know that this would be happening. It would be great if they can manage to put this out live at some point in the near future. Exciting as watching the live timing screens is, a live broadcast of Q2 has the potential to be as exciting as the race itself.
What happened to...
There were a few big names that didn't quite live up to the hype from the off season in Poland. Vali Höll has clearly been the best of the women for the last couple of years, and after she qualified in first place it was a bit of a surprise to see her come down into fifth in the finals. There were no obvious problems in her run, she just went a little bit slower than the fastest women. Jenna Hastings hasn't really found her feet yet in the elite ranks. After a string of podium finishes in juniors in 2022 her best result in elites was a sixth place in 2023. A lot of people, myself included, thought this could be the year she finds some pace, thanks to a succession of outstanding results in the off season. It could still happen at some point this year, but the mud and snow of Poland proved to be half a world away from the dust and sun of New Zealand winter races for Hastings. Another rider that I thought would drop straight back into the pointy end of the world cup series is Jackson Goldstone. His awesome 2023 season showed everyone that he has the pace required, and a win at Hardline in New Zealand suggested that he was back up to full speed. Again though, the muddy conditions in Poland probably were a step too far for a first real race back. He struggled into finals with an eighth place finish in Q2 and ended up rounding out the top twenty. I'll be shocked if he doesn't improve on that at round 2.
Transmission failure
There's been a lot of talk about gearboxes over the last few months, largely thanks to the marketing efforts of Gates Industrial Corporation plc. However the only interesting drivetrain incident in Poland was a bog-standard 20th century dropped chain for Benoit Coulanges. Coulanges had already done what was to be the fastest sector two of the race, and somehow despite losing the chain before a crucial pedalling section of the track managed to bring his new bike home in tenth place. Look out for him later in the season if he can manage to keep the Scott in one piece for a whole lap.
Pierron Power
Amaury Pierron probably did not have the weekend he wanted, with a massive crash in Q1 leaving him limping into the finals courtest of a fifth place in Q2. He also didn't have the best start to his race run with several of the top men beating his first sector time by well over a second. However he kept it together in the treacherous conditions, and unleashed a split four time that had the commentators scratching their heads every time yet another promising run turned out to be way off the pace by the end of that sector. Some commentors wondered if changing track conditions gave Pierron some advantage, but what they didn't notice is that he was fastest in sector four in Q1 and Q2 as well as in the final. Call me crazy, but I think he might have just ridden that part of the track better than everyone else.
Going full downhill
Several enduro riders from last season have made the switch to downhill for 2025, and it turns out that if you are good at riding a bike fast downhill, you are also good at riding a bike fast downhill. Richie Rude and Martin Maes both made an impact in the mens category, finishing in fourth and ninth place respectively. For the women, Harriet Harnden had a great qualifying run but was outfoxed in the final by the tricky conditions and an unknown man with an official-looking lanyard running down the track in front of her. As an only-slightly-biased Brit I'm looking forward to seeing what Hattie can do this season, as it certainly looks like she has the pace for some podium finishes or possibly even better. Adding in the fact that one week before she won the first Enduro world cup of the season, on a belt driven bike of all things, shows what a great athlete she is.
Coverage half full
It is of course sad that we can't have free coverage of the finals for everyone on top of a truly worldwide series that pays out F1 prize money to all the athletes. Having said that, I thought that the amount of content appearing on the official UCI Whoop channel was pretty impressive, with course previews, press conferences, Q2, post-race wrap-ups, full junior races, highlights shows and probably more that I didn't notice. Nice work whoever is responsible, and can we have the Q2 broadcast live next time please??
OK, that's more than enough text for now. I'm going to try to write at least something about every race this season, and I might even be able to visit one of the races live if everything works out so there could even be a blog with pictures. Let's see if I can make that happen. Until next time!
