In the men's race, it once again looks like the familiar Downhill World Cup game: France versus the rest of the world. French rider Loris Vergier is in the lead ahead of Benoit Coulanges. And Mr. World Championship Loic Bruni is the last one standing. 

The five-time world champion rides the dusty, slippery course as if on rails, leading by almost two seconds in a hundredth of a second. Then fate strikes and throws the mental giant off track. Loris Vergier's eyes filled with tears on the spot. His compatriot's misfortune means Vergier's first elite rainbow jersey.

But that's not the only drama of the men's final. The US American Dakotah Norton rode the world championship run of his life, finishing ahead of the eventual world champion Loris Vergier at every intermediate time. "I can't believe my eyes," says SRF expert Emilie Siegenthaler. And then Norton loses the rear wheel in the second-to-last corner. The 32-year-old has never been closer to a world championship medal.

In third place is Finn Iles (CAN) ahead of Danny Hart (GBR) and the next Frenchman. There are five in the top ten with the blue shirt of the Grande Nation de Descente.

And finally, one of the greatest World Championship careers ever will come to an end this Saturday: Greg Minaar will ride his last World Championship final at the age of 42. The very last risk is no longer there and therefore there are no more medals to add to his four gold, four silver and three bronze medals at his 28th World Championships.

Complete ranking

1. VERGIER Loris FRA 2:38.661
2. COULANGES Benoit FRA +0.148
3. ILES Finn CAN +0.169
4. HART Danny GBR +0.283
5. PIERRON Amaury FRA +0.457
6. DUNNE Ronan IRL +1.009
7. SUAREZ ALONSO Angel ESP +1.367
8. DAVIS Oliver AUS +1.811
9. DAPRELA Thibaut FRA +1.970
10. THIRION Rémi FRA +2.235

Extremely close women's race

On the dust-dry course of Pal Arinsal in Andorra, the women put on one of the closest World Championship races in history. Due to her low world ranking position after injury, Myriam Nicole starts early and then sits in the hot seat for a long time. Rider after rider fails to beat her time.

SRF expert Emilie Siegenthaler is not the only one eagerly awaiting the run of her friend Camille Balanche. The Swiss athlete crashed heavily on the same course a year ago, suffered a minor traumatic brain injury and is fighting her way back this season. With a clean and safe run, she rode to a more than respectable 8th place. "You have to push yourself to the limit here to win and I wasn't ready for that," she says, satisfied with her run.

But Switzerland has a new medal hopeful this year: Lisa Baumann from Neuchâtel, who surprisingly became European champion in Valais a few weeks ago. She shows that she can also handle the rather flat and sandy course in the Pyrenees and rides an attacking yet safe run. She was in third place until shortly before the end, eventually finishing a good 2 seconds behind in fifth place. In the end, she was just over a second off bronze. "I'm happy with the way I rode, but also disappointed to see how close I was to the podium," she said at the finish.

Whoever hits the limit most accurately wins

British skier Tahnee Seagrave skied close to the optimum between running and avoiding braking slides and was in the lead for the first half of the course. At the finish she is 7 tenths of a second behind Nicole. Nina Hoffman (GER) rides wildly as usual, which leads to several tricky situations that don't make her any faster in this race. In the end, the German finished tenth. Marine Cabirou, second last on the course, shows that nothing can be won in Andorra with a run that is too safe - 7th place.

Vali Höll (AUT) is still missing. She has already won a World Cup race on this course and demonstrated how fast and on the limit she can go: she flies where others roll. And of course it could have gone wrong at one point or another. But that's the way it is in a tight downhill race. The winner is the one who stays on the bike and on the track at the limit. At the last intermediate time, Höll was 16 thousandths of a second behind Nicole, but by the finish she had opened up a half-second lead. "It's incredible to beat two legends like Myriam and Tahnee," she says at the finish, "I don't always feel like I'm riding at their level." This can be interpreted to mean that she still wants to improve, which is an interesting prospect for a 22-year-old who is now a three-time world champion.

1. HÖLL Valentina AUT 3:00.212
2. NICOLE Myriam FRA +0.520
3. SEAGRAVE Tahnee GBR +1.212
4. HEMSTREET Gracey CAN +1.601
5. BAUMANN Lisa SUI +2.262
6. NEWKIRK Anna USA +3.718
7. CABIROU Marine FRA +3.761
8. BALANCHE Camille SUI +3.931
9. EMPEY Elise AUS +4.009
10. HOFFMANN Nina GER +4.579

Complete ranking