Downhill World Cup Les Gets: Under the sign of the mud
The partially newly built track in Les Gets took its toll during the training days and qualifying and instilled respect and even fear in the riders. Myriam Nicole was the top favorite after qualifying, no one coped with the track as well as the Frenchwoman. Vali Höll lost over 7 seconds in second place. On Saturday it started to rain during the women's race, which meant that the conditions became increasingly difficult the later you started and the better you were classified in the qualification. In retrospect, this turned out to be a stroke of luck for Briton Tahnee Seagrave, who had lost a whopping 15 seconds to Nicole in qualifying. Despite problems, she took the lead in the final and rider after rider failed to beat her time. When Camille Balanche started, the track was already a lot wetter and when she came into the picture in the broadcast, she was 9 seconds behind the leader. After that, however, the athlete from Neuchâtel set best time after best time on the course and came within 4.9 seconds of Seagrave. Vali Höll, who started after her, showed a strong ride but crashed in the last steep bend, a good 20 meters before the finish and thus dropped out of the decision. Myriam Nicole was the last to take to the track and showed an attacking ride, going down briefly on the first half of the track. She was back on her bike very quickly and rode the rest of the course flawlessly, although not as fast as Balanche, for example. Her gap to the leader steadily dwindled, and in the end she was 25 hundredths of a second off victory. In third place, Camille Balanche proved that she is one of the world's best and defended her lead in the overall World Cup. Emilie Siegenthaler finished eleventh.
Max Hartenstein (GER), who finished 36th in qualifying, took the lead in the men's race. Especially in the upper part of the course, above the forest, it became even more difficult for every other rider to hold a fast line and leave the brakes open. However, Thibaut Dabprela's (FRA) ride did not show that there were any problems with grip anywhere. The 20-year-old Frenchman shot around the track, took two and a half seconds off Hartenstein and was then able to make himself really comfortable on the hot seat. Rider after rider failed to beat his time, not for the first time the track became increasingly difficult and the better someone did in qualifying, the more slippery the roots and off-camber sections became. World champion Reece Wilson survived a spectacular off-camber section at the last minute and was just as hopeless as rain artist Danny Hart. When the fastest qualifier Loic Bruni almost flew through the air just a few seconds after the start, it was clear that Daprela would take his first World Cup victory and the German Hartenstein his country's first podium finish in decades. Third place went to Baptiste Pierron (FRA), the older brother of overall World Cup winner Amaury Pierron. The best Swiss was Yannick Bähler in 44th place.
Results womenNote: This content has been automatically translated from German. Please report any incorrect translations.