In the downhill competition of the World Cup finals in Snowshoe, USA, Australian Tracey Hannah secures the overall World Cup with a fifth place. France's Marine Cabirou celebrates her third win in a row, while Emilie Siegenthaler, Camille Balanche and Carina Cappellari finish in seventh, eighth and ninth place respectively. Junior Janosch Klaus finishes fifth.

At the end, things get tight again for Tracey Hannah. Marine Cabirou has set the fastest time and Hannah, as the last starter, needs at least sixth place to secure the overall World Cup.
The gaps are small and it's a nail-biter. Even Emilie Siegenthaler and Camille Balanche, who count Hannah among their friends in mountain biking. When the five lights up for Hannah, the two of them run towards Hannah, cheering and celebrating with her.

Even though this was not enough for Emilie Siegenthaler herself to achieve the top five result she had hoped for, which would have pushed her up to fifth place in the overall standings.
"I didn't have such a good feeling, I didn't have the energy, I feel a bit tired," Siegenthaler admits. She hadn't ridden a good quali and had made "strange mistakes". Lack of concentration, such as not closing her helmet, had crept in.
"I wanted to finish fifth, but if you look at the whole season, after my injury I can be happy that I was able to fight for it at all," she says, putting the overall result into perspective. 8.201 seconds behind Cabirou (3:45.027) in seventh place.

Camille Balanche was only 0.378 seconds slower and finished seventh. "Apart from a few small mistakes, I had a good run. But I always lost in the stone passages and I couldn't change that," says the European champion, summing up her season: "It was a step forward. I'm glad that I got through the season without an accident or crash."

Carina Cappellari finishes well in ninth place (+11.897). Not just for the season, but for her career. "I'm stopping with this race," says Cappellari and grins. "I didn't even know if I should ride full out," she admits, "I just enjoyed it."

Tracey Hannah wins the overall World Cup for the first time. Photo ©Bartek Wolinski / Red Bull Content Pool

Juniors: Klaus slows down

After the second-best qualifying time, junior Janosch Klaus is a podium candidate. However, the Swiss junior champion made a mistake in the top section that he was unable to make up for. "I slammed on the brakes in a left-hand approach and came to a standstill," says Klaus, explaining why he was more than two seconds behind the best time up to that point. In the end, that's all he needed to make it onto the podium.
"Top five is okay, but unfortunately no podium," he comments on the result at the end of the World Cup season. 8.211 seconds behind in fifth place, a good two seconds off second place.
Frenchman Thibaut Daprela wins the final race and takes the overall victory.

Bruni becomes overall World Cup winner after dramatic finale

When world champion Loic Bruni is the penultimate starter on the 2,018-kilometer course, defending champion Amaury Pierron is in the lead. If Pierron wins, Bruni will have to finish at least third to defend his lead.
Bruni's split times put him in fourth place at the top, he makes up ground further down and finally the "3" lights up as he races across the finish line.
But the fastest qualifier Danny Hart is still at the top. He is behind Pierron and even Bruni at the top. But at the intermediate time he is between Pierron and Bruni. That would cost the world champion the white jersey.

But Danny Hart turns up the heat even more. He is ahead at the last split time and in the end the former world champion wins by 0.656 seconds ahead of Pierron. He is briefly disappointed, but then congratulates his buddy Bruni on his first overall victory.
"Amaury won't be my friend tonight," says Hart with a grin, but as soon as he says it, the Frenchman hugs him and congratulates him on his victory.

Basil Weber was the best Swiss rider in 47th place. "In two or three passages", he could have pushed even harder. He was "too cautious" there. "But it was a good end to the World Cup season," says Basil Weber, who is 12.5 seconds slower than Danny Hart (3:03.627).

Towards the middle of the season he slowed down a little and therefore failed to qualify for the top 60 a few times. "But now I was quite happy with how things went again."
Lutz Weber had the better qualification, but in the final he allowed himself a major mistake in the last third, otherwise he would have finished ahead of Basil Weber. As it was, he only finished 51st (+12.976).

World champion Loic Bruni takes his first overall victory in the Downhill World Cup. Photo ©Bartek Wolinski / Red Bull Content Pool

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