At the Rim Massacre on the Croatian island of Losinj, the US American Aaron Gwin already indicated in qualifying with third place that he is ready for top results again in the new season. In the race, his young compatriot Dakota Norton then occupied the hot seat for a long time in the intermediate lead. He was then caught by the faster qualifier Luca Shaw (USA), Dean Lucas (AUS) and the resurgent Sam Blenkinsop (NZLab). Nevertheless, Norton celebrates his best World Cup result by far with fifth place. Aaron Gwin then comes up trumps, however, finishing just under a second ahead of Shaw and thus in first place.

Qualifying winner Brook MacDonald would probably have liked his race run to be different. The New Zealander got off to a good start, rode in a controlled manner, but then crashed heavily without any obvious warning, meaning that he was unable to continue the race - albeit uninjured. Noel Niederberger was not satisfied with his run on Saturday after qualifying and finished 39th. His improvement in the race was not immense and Niederberger finished 37th. Lutz Weber rides to 59th place.

Luck plus misfortune equals seventh place

Emily Siegenthaler finished seventh in qualifying and was very happy with her result. In this tight race, she was obviously going fast on Sunday - until a standing start. Siegenthaler quickly resumed the race and, although she lost quite a bit of time, finished seventh again! Not what she wanted, but a good result considering the circumstances.

Carina Cappellari rides to twelfth place and Eva Battola finishes 15th in her first elite year.

The surprise of the day was French rider Cecile Ravanel. The two-time Enduro World Series winner rode to fifth place in qualifying and immediately confirmed this result in the race on Sunday - in her second ever World Cup downhill race.

Victory goes to Myriam Nicole, who came third in the qualifying on Saturday. On the course where the time gaps are usually very small, she clearly beat Rachel Atherton by over three seconds. Third place went to Tahnee Seagrave (GBR), who improved significantly compared to Saturday.

Fast youngsters

Thibaut Dabrela is the fastest junior racer. But there is also a ray of hope in the Swiss junior ranks: Janosch Klaus, who is competing in his first Junior World Cup, takes a good eighth place. Valentina Höll almost crumbles her rivals in the juniors. The Austrian takes over twelve seconds off second-placed Nastasia Gimenez (FRA). A piece of Switzerland is also at the front of the junior women's race. Anna Newkirk from the USA, who lives in Switzerland, rides to second place in qualifying and finishes the race on Sunday in a good fifth place.

Results