OG track in Leogang

The third round of the downhill world cup in Leogang is over and, astonishingly, finished with another Canadian double win for Jackson Goldstone and Gracey Hemstreet. Here are a few things I noticed over the weekend, as well as some deep puzzling over exactly how Goldstone went that much faster than everyone else.

Experience shows for the men

On thie face of it it hasn't been the best start to the season for the usual French riders, but somehow Bruni, Pierron and Vergier still occupy 3 of the top 4 places in the overall rankings. Goldstone is in second place and interestingly has scored more points for his final runs than Loic Bruni, but is still soe way behind thanks to Bruni's greater consistency in qualifying rounds. There's still a long way to go in this ten-race season, but it already looks like Bruni, Pierron and Goldstone will be fighting for the top spot as the season progresses.

Hemstreet rules the steeps

Hemstreet was once again streets ahead of the rest of the field in the steeper second half of the track, overcoming a small deficit after the motorway section to end up on top of the podium again with a decent gap over Anna Newkirk. Vali Höll rounded out the podium in third, a result which leaves her a scant 21 point behind Hemstreet and 6 points behing Seagrave in the overall. 

Bruni is a machine 

As well as showing great consistency through the season so far to stay on top of the overall ranking, Bruni showed great consistency throughout his race run at Leogang and was the only rider to have all five split times in the top ten during the final.

What on earth did Goldstone do in sector 2?

Dry weather, a straightforward track (at least for world cup level) and incredible depth of talent in both men's and women's fields meant that times were tight across the whole race. In the men's side, split two showed the least variation in speed of all five split times. The first half of the sector looks relatively straightforward , with the new "section" (2 seconds on the grass instead of on the bike park track) followed by three bikepark berms leading into the second tunnel of the couse. This section took pretty much 15 seconds to ride, almost regardless of who you were, unless your name was Goldstone. The Canadian wonderkid made up nearly a second on Bruni, and much more on most of the field, in this tiny section of track alone. I spent a long time trying to work out exactly how he did this, checking for sneaky lines, wind direction and so on, and the only think I have come up with is that he can ride bermed corners significantly faster than the rest of the riders. Any teams that want to pay me for further technical analysis please get in touch.

Blewitt is back

I was really happy to see Jess Blewitt back at the pointy end of things at Leogang. It seemed like here world cup career was just about to take off in 2023, with a great third place at the Val di Sole race, but a foot injury sustained at Hardline that year left her off the bike for a while and results since then have, understandably, not been at quite the same level. Here's hoping that 5th place is just the start and that we see her on the podium at some point this year.

Speaking of Val di Sole, that's the next race in a couple of weeks time and is always an interesting one with no complaints about lack of corners or high speed motorway sections. Can the Canadians continue their dominance? Will Vali get her first win of the season? Can Seagrave repeat her stunning triumph from last year? I'm looking forward to finding out! 

Loud in Loudenvielle

Round 3 of the World Cup is already underway, so it's about time I got this round 2 blog post done. Here's a few things I noticed over the course of the Loudenvielle weekend.

Always the weather

Everyone loves to talk about the weather. At round one, rain and mud were the order of the day for finals. In Loudenvielle it was quite the opposite. A sunbaked track turned to dust and deteriorated rapidly while strong gusty winds caused problems for the riders on the open ridgeline that makes up the first half of the track. Speeds at the top of the track were extremely high and there were several high speed crashes. As far as I know there were no serious injuries but I heard several people voicing concerns that the high speeds at modern tracks are making racing more dangerous than it needs to be. 

Bruni is human

I expected Bruni to do well again at this round. I don't really see him as a wet weather specialist and with a long flat top section playing to his strengths he qualified well in second place. Finals was another story. He expressed frustration after the race at the windy conditions and a near disaster at the infamous stall wall near the top left him nursing his shredded nerves down into 15th place. Having said that, he's still sitting in second place in the overall rankings and I expect him to do well at round 3 (seeing a pattern here?). He's got a great record at Leogang with two wins and a second place in the last five years and he'll be keen to get himself back into the series leader's jersey.

What happened to...

the French? The top three male elite qualifiers and the fastest female qualifier were all French, so the spectators were probably hoping for at least one home winner. It wasn't to be on race day, with Myriam Nicole making good use of one of the many padded trees and Jackson Goldstone ripping the bottom half of the course to shreds to deny a hard-charging Amaury Pierron the win.

Save of the day

I'm not sure if it qualifies as a save but Charlie Hatton did really well to get away without a much worse crash after getting ejected over the back of a berm. He freerided straight down the hill and perfectly greased a rock drop before slamming into the next berm and taking out a Shimano advertising board with his belt-driven Atherton bike. A point for belts in the battle for drivetrain supremacy.

Told you so!

Last time round I said that I would be shocked if Jackson Goldstone didn't improve on his 20th place from round one. That turned out to be one of the understatements of the year. Despite lying in 17th place after the first split, Goldstone turned on the speed and style and absolutely obliterated the rest of the field in the steeper second half of the track. He pulled back over three seconds on Amaury Pierron over the last three splits and set the fastest time of the finals in all three to boot. The only elite performance of the weeknd to outshine that was Goldstone's compatriot Gracey Hemstreet, who made good on her World Cup-winning potential and put in a run that was remarkable from start to finish. Dead last at the first split, she attacked the rest of the course with style and aggression, jumping gaps that nobody else was doing and braking later and less than the rest of the field to make up an astonishing 6 seconds on Vali Höll over the next four splits. The worrying thing for the rest of the field is that there is clearly still potential for her to improve significantly on flatter faster pieces of track. If she can remain healthy I expect her to be one of the top riders for years to come.

The kids are alright

I think this is going to be the year where the next generation of riders seriously challenge for the overall series lead. On the womens side, Gracey Hemstreet and Anna Newkirk are lying in 3rd and 4th place in the table after two races, and in the mens it's Goldstone and Oisin O'Callaghan. It remains to be seen if they can remain consistent enough to challenge the veterans over the course of a whole season, but it's going to be entertaining finding out! See you after the next round in Leogang.