The race remained exciting until the very end since the ladies kept switching position on the hot seat. Particularly the last three starters each took the coveted seat and had to turn it over again after the next run. The winner of the last World Cup stop in Ft. William, Tracy Moseley, surely wasn’t happy to hand over the hot seat to Rachel Atherton, who then had to vacate the first for the last starter. Austrian World Cup hope Petra Bernhard came in on sixth place and climbed up to number nine in the overall ranking.      

1st    PUGIN Floriane         FRA   4:29.427      2nd   ATHERTON Rachel     GBR   4:32.010      3rd   MOSELEY Tracy         GBR   4:32.119      4th   NICOLE Myriam         FRA   4:39.233      5th   JONNIER Sabrina       FRA   4:40.162      6th   BERNHARD Petra       AUT   4:43.384      7th   SIEGENTHALER Emilie SUI   4:48.904      8th   GATTO Micayla           CAN   4:50.707      9th   GROS Céline             FRA   4:52.681      10th   CHARRE Morgane    FRA   4:55.535    

Right after the women’s race, the men’s DH finals made the spectators hold their breath in excitement at a truly thrilling race. The Austrian spectators were more than riveted to see Austrian Markus Pekoll take the lead early in the race. He was able to hold this position for several runs until he had to give up the hot seat for Brook MacDonald (NZL/3:54.796). Pekoll came in on the 16th position. Then it looked as though Steve Peat would take the lead but he lost his line and had to be satisfied with the 12th position (3:58.984). At the first split, multiple DH World Champion Sam Hill (AUS/3:53.406) was already two seconds faster than MacDonald and forced him to vacate the seat. In the meantime, Cedric Gracia (FRA) just missed the hot seat with a very fast time and was sitting in second position next to Sam Hill for a while.

In the end, Gracia placed 6th – his best World Cup result in the past few years. However, Hill’s lead was not solid enough for him to relax on the hot seat. After the run of last year’s winner in Leogang Greg Minnaar (RSA/3:49.902), the time had come for Hill to move since an impressive lead of almost four seconds meant Minnaar moved to the top. Fabien Barel (FRA) lost valuable time when he crashed, proving once again that the course is no eas task even for the absolute superstars of the scene. After Minnaar had taken the lead with such a comfortable margin, many already saw him on top of the podium but Gee Atherton was able to beat the incredible time by another 3 seconds. The fastest in qualifying Aaron Gwin (USA/3:44.181) was good for another surprise at the very end of the contest and came in at an unbelievable two seconds faster than Atherton in a race that could not have been more exciting.      

1st   GWIN Aaron                  USA   3:44.181      2nd   ATHERTON Gee            GBR   3:46.294      3rd   MINNAAR Greg             RSA   3:49.902      4th   SMITH Steve                CAN   3:52.123      5th   HILL Samuel                AUS   3:53.406      6th   HART Danny                GBR   3:53.434      7th   GRACIA Cédric             FRA   3:53.538      8th   LEOV Justin                 NZL   3:54.165      9th   BLENKINSOP Samuel    NZL   3:54.344      10th   MACDONALD Brook    NZL   3:54.796 

4X

The pros who had traveled from all over the world only had two official days of training to get used to the changes on the course. The track that had been constructed by Guido Tschugg (SUI) for the World Cup last year was improved and redesigned for this year’s race. The final runs on Saturday night showed some multifaceted and exciting battles. The course was filled with many tricky features, such as a steep start, doubles, triples, a step up – step down combination made of wood and a rock garden. The track stayed very rideable during the pouring rain so that there were barely any crashes.  

Already during the qualifying Australian Jared Graves (AUS) was the fastest rider and in the finals nobody could touch him. Michal Prokop (CZE) also clearly dominated each of his runs. The final run was, as is to be expected in 4X, exciting until the end. Graves and Prokop were the first to leave the gate. Graves was able to take the better line, since he had the inside starting position. In the first corner, Prokop was pushed to the outside which allowed David Graf (SUI) to move from the fourth position to the inside line into the second spot. Graf was the only one who chose the pro section and was able to defend second place all the way across the finish line. Prokop still tried to attack Graf but lost his rhythm and was passed by Tomas Slavik (CZE). The Ft William winner Roger Rinderknecht (SUI) won the small final ahead of Romain Saladini (FRA).       1st   Jared Graves   AUS      2nd   David Graf   SUI      3rd   Tomas Slavic   CZE      4th   Michal Prokop   CZE      5th   Roger Rinderknecht   SUI      6th   Romain Saladini   FRA      7th   Lukas Mechura   CZE      8th   William Evans   GBR    

During the ladies’ qualifying as well as final runs, Romana Labounkova clearly dominated every race. It wasn’t until the final that she met Anneke Beerten (NED) who had also won every one of her runs. Labounkova was able to use her strong BMX background to secure a start-finish victory in the final. Melissa Buhl (USA) celebrated her comeback after a longer break with a solid second place. Beerten had to settle for third place ahead of Swiss Lucia Oetjen. The best Austrian woman was Helene Frühwirth in sixth place.    

1st   Romana Labounkova   CZE      2nd   Melissa Buhl   USA      3rd   Anneke Beerten   NED      4th   Lucia Oetjen   SUI      5th   Céline Gros   FRA      6th   Valerie Frühwirth   AUT      7th   Fionn Griffiths   GBR      8th   Steffi Marth   GER