It's been a long time since the women's Downhill World Cup has seen so many knife-edge races. The course is not easy to assess after the rain and the riders in the paddock have to think about the right choice of tires. Eleonora Farina sets the first strong time, then it's Emilie Siegenthaler who shatters Farina's podium dream - and by a considerable margin. She beat the Italian's time by a good twelve seconds. "The conditions were difficult today. I opted for wet tires, which was a good decision for my head," explains Siegenthaler.

Tahnee Seagrave then plunges down the technically demanding downhill course. She takes some risks for a top place and her ride looks pretty wild in between. The risk paid off, as the young Brit is a whole twelve seconds faster than Siegenthaler.

Camber rescue in its purest form

Rachel Atherton doesn't quite catch up with her compatriot at first, attacks and gets more than just a scare in the rock garden after the infamous "Steve Smith Drop". She gets out of control and skids back and forth, so that a nasty fall would be the logical consequence. Somehow the world champion manages to stay on her bike and get out of trouble without crashing - what a "safe"! However, this unintentional show-stopper is not exactly conducive to a top time. She increasingly loses ground on the last section and ends up even beating Siegenthaler's time.

Tracey Hannah (AUS) and World Cup leader Myriam Nicole also fail to beat Seagrave's time - Hannah, among other things, because she suffers a puncture in the final third and can only just squeeze into third place ahead of Emilie Siegenthaler. Despite narrowly missing out on third place, Siegenthaler is delighted with her podium finish: "Top five at the classic in Mont Saint Anne, that's always good. I didn't want to have a crash before the festival in Whistler, so I can take this with me as a reward for my hard work"

For the fourth time in the sixth World Cup race in 2017, Emilie Siegenthaler is in the top five. "It's already the best season of my career. I can finally play with the experience I've gained. My head is right and I'm generally happy too." With this result, she has moved up from sixth to fifth place and could also achieve her first top five overall result at the end of the season in Val di Sole.

Best performance for Batolla

Young rider Eva Batolla finished twelfth, 1:16 minutes behind in her Mont Sainte-Anne debut. "I was very often carried out in the corners and was glad that I made it down here in one piece. Overall it was okay," says Batolla, for whom twelfth place is her best World Cup result to date.

Junior Loris Michellod is the only male competitor from Switzerland. He just missed out on qualifying for the final in 22nd place. He is traveling with the handicap of a sprained ligament from a fall and therefore cannot get the best out of himself. "It's a shame, but that's our sport. It was still fun on the course," summarizes Michellod.