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.
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