France lands triple victory in downhill - Höll is world champion
It is Stacey Fisher, a rider with a background in motocross racing, who sets the first serious mark with a time of 4:04.623 minutes. The Brit held out on the hotseat for quite a while until her time was beaten by Monika Hrastnik by five seconds. But the Slovenian doesn't hold the lead for long. Nina Hoffmann puts in a very good run, which just doesn't get the "perfect" rating because the German falls off the pedal and can't click back in for a short time. She kept her nerve and took the lead with a time of 3:54.763 minutes.
Now Myriam Nicole plunges down the mountain in front of her home crowd, and the pressure on her shoulders seems to give her the momentum she needs to beat Hoffmann's best time. Faster at the top, Nicole visibly slows down in the lower section and ends up around 2.5 seconds behind the German, who is now always sure of a medal. But the title? Valentina Höll is not focused on that, as she says after the race. Satisfied with a medal, the young Austrian is in the lead at every split time and almost has the title in the bag.However, she waits to celebrate because world number one Camille Balanche starts last. Having undergone surgery on her broken collarbone almost three weeks ago, she got the okay from her doctor to ride in Les Gets. She realized that she was still fast, so she set her sights high, aiming for a medal. In the race, she didn't hold back, flew too far on the first jump and was pushed hard against the handlebars. Even though her body language reveals that she is not at her best, she rides confidently and cleanly and is even on course for a medal. In the end, it wasn't quite enough - it was the leather medal. "I'm disappointed right now. I wanted to win the bronze medal and now I'm not even a second off. I almost lost the handlebars two or three times and had to be careful that didn't happen."
This is Höll's first elite title after her two junior world titles in 2018 and 2019.
Top performances from the injured
Oliver Zwar provided a surprise in the men's race. The Swede has already attracted attention this season with some impressive results. Now, however, he occupies the hot seat and makes his often faster colleagues look old. Only the Australian Troy Brosnan, who only entered the World Cup after the halfway point of the season due to injury, forced Zwar from his throne. The standings remained unchanged for the next five riders, including defending champion Greg Minnaar, who finished eleventh.
In May he broke his collarbone, in Mont Saint Anne he dislocated his shoulder and yet Loic Bruni, the fans' favorite, is at the start. He almost takes himself out of the race in the first corner, but then quickly recovers and chases down the track like there's no tomorrow - with success. Bruni is almost four seconds faster than Troy Brosnan, who has to fear for his medal place.
In fact, Brosnan is in even more trouble, because Loris Vergier - who also injured his shoulder in Mont Saint Anne - is the next Frenchman to beat his time, but not Bruni's 3:20.478 minutes. Only World Cup leader Amaury Pierron can beat this time. Although he is ahead of Vergier, he is behind Bruni at every intermediate time, who goes on to win his fifth world championship title. Brosnan is thus ousted from the podium and the fans in Les Gets celebrate the total French triumph in the downhill with Bruni, Pierron and Vergier.
The three Swiss at the start had little to celebrate. Noel Niederberger rides too inhibited and finishes 54th, while Lutz Weber risks too much and crashes in 80th place. Only Lino Lehmann was reasonably satisfied with his ride, which earned him 51st place.
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Note: This content has been automatically translated from German. Please report any incorrect translations.