Vali Höll (Rockshox Trek Race Team) wants to claim her fourth World Cup victory in a row in Andorra. But she has no answer to the impressive performance of the German from the Santa Cruz Syndicate Team, who finishes almost three seconds behind.

Hoffmann expressed her relief at her first win of the 2023 season after struggling to get back up to speed following a knee injury and the schedule chaos didn't make the task any easier: "I was really motivated to ride this morning. But then I was told that the race had been postponed again due to the weather. At first I had little energy and was pretty nervous, but I was able to take the race section by section and it worked out perfectly."

British rider Tahnee Seagrave (Canyon CLLCTV FMD) also regained her form and finished third on the super-fast course. Camille Balanche (Dorval AM Commencal) is a different story. The Swiss rider went into the weekend as the leader, but a crash in qualifying prevented her from taking part in the race. Höll now leads the overall standings ahead of Balanche. Balanche's compatriot Lisa Baumann put in a strong performance in tenth place.

Results elite women

 

The darn weather

Thibault Daprela rides with his typical panache and takes his second victory in the Elite World Cup in one of the last dry runs of the day. The Frenchman has often failed to get it right, but this time it was a practically perfect run. His run time would have been enough for a top result anyway, but the ten fastest qualifiers were no longer able to compete as the rain set in. This makes the exposed upper part of the course slippery.

Five-time world champion Loic Bruni (Specialized), who was the last to ride down the mountain, did everything he could to master the wet course, but ultimately finished in 22nd place, almost five seconds behind his French compatriot.

Bruni's teammate Finn Iles takes third place, overtaking his Canadian compatriot Jackson Goldstone (Santa Cruz Syndicate) in the overall standings and now heads into the fifth round of the World Cup next weekend as the World Cup leader.

The big surprise comes from the Methuselah of downhill racing, the almost 42-year-old Greg Minnaar. The South African ends this season's ongoing losing streak with second place. Antoine Vidal (FRA) and Brit Bernard Kerr follow in fourth and fifth place respectively.

Results elite men