The third World Cup DH of the year took place in Austria. Here are the results, race report and highlights vids from Loegang.
RACE HIGHLIGHTS, Elite Women, Leogang Round 3:
RACE HIGHLIGHTS, Elite Men, Leogang Round 3:
DH World Series Rd3 Leogang: Women’s Elite results
| # | Rider | Time | Gap | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gracey HEMSTREET NORCO RACE DIVISION | 03:21.962 | – | 250 |
| 2 | Anna NEWKIRK FRAMEWORKS RACING / 5DEV | 03:22.827 | +00:00.865 | 210 |
| 3 | Valentina HÖLL YT MOB | 03:24.389 | +00:02.427 | 180 |
| 4 | Marine CABIROU CANYON CLLCTV FACTORY TEAM | 03:25.117 | +00:03.155 | 150 |
| 5 | Jess BLEWITT CUBE FACTORY RACING | 03:25.932 | +00:03.970 | 120 |
| 6 | Tahnee SEAGRAVEORBEA / FMD RACING | 03:26.259 | +00:04.297 | 90 |
| 7 | Camille BALANCHE YETI / FOX FACTORY RACE TEAM | 03:28.596 | +00:06.634 | 80 |
| 8 | Harriet HARNDEN AON RACING – TOURNE CAMPERVANS | 03:29.571 | +00:07.609 | 70 |
| 9 | Gloria SCARSI MS-RACING | 03:30.026 | +00:08.064 | 60 |
| 10 | Louise-Anna FERGUSON AXESS INTENSE FACTORY RACING | 03:30.501 | +00:08.539 | 50 |
DH World Series Rd3 Leogang: Men’s Elite results
| # | Rider | Time | Gap | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jackson GOLDSTONE SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE | 02:57.229 | – | 250 |
| 2 | Loic BRUNI SPECIALIZED GRAVITY | 02:57.288 | +00:00.059 | 210 |
| 3 | Henri KIEFER CANYON CLLCTV FACTORY TEAM | 02:57.764 | +00:00.535 | 180 |
| 4 | Lachlan STEVENS-MCNAB TREK FACTORY RACING DH | 02:58.437 | +00:01.208 | 160 |
| 5 | Laurie GREENLAND SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE | 02:58.638 | +00:01.409 | 140 |
| 6 | Ronan DUNNE MONDRAKER FACTORY RACING DH | 02:58.799 | +00:01.570 | 125 |
| 7 | Troy BROSNAN CANYON CLLCTV FACTORY TEAM | 02:58.906 | +00:01.677 | 110 |
| 8 | Andreas KOLB YT MOB | 02:58.910 | +00:01.681 | 95 |
| 9 | Thibaut DAPRELA ROGUE RACING – SR SUNTOUR | 02:58.921 | +00:01.692 | 80 |
| 10 | Max HARTENSTERN CUBE FACTORY RACING | 02:59.093 | +00:01.864 | 75 |
Race reports and photos courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery Sports:
UCI DH World Cup is Canadian Once Again as Hemstreet and Goldstone Triumph in Leogang
For the second weekend running, Gracey Hemstreet (Norco Race Division) and Jackson Goldstone (Santa Cruz Syndicate) ruled the UCI Downhill World Cup for Canada in a scintillating Saalfelden Leogang – Salzburgerland (Austria) round that saw the overall lead of both competitions also change hands.
Both Elite races rewarded absolute commitment from lighter riders on a fan-favourite stop of the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series, featuring the famous motorway section that would prove decisive for Goldstone.
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Goldstone clinched his win by less than a tenth of a second from Loïc Bruni (Specialized Gravity) while Hemstreet enjoyed a wider margin of victory but was made to wait on the edge of her seat until the very end with Valentina Höll (YT MOB) last off the ramp and looking set to snatch the win until the final metres of her run.
Meanwhile Rosa Zierl (Cube Factory Racing) gave the packed Austrian grandstands something to cheer about by winning the women’s Junior Finals and Oli Clark (MS-Racing) made inroads on the overall Men Junior title with his triumph.
A STAR IS BORN AS HEMSTREET BACKS UP MAIDEN WIN
A slow-burn women’s Elite competition exploded into life in the final few runs as Nina Hoffmann (Santa Cruz Syndicate) was absent following a crash in morning practice on the wall run.
Marine Cabirou (Canyon CLLCTV Factory Team) required Q2 to reach the final but showed she was keen to make up for lost time at The Epic Bikepark.
Nailing the exit from a tricky root section into the iconic flat-out motorway section is the key to The Speedster trail and Cabirou flew through the first two time checks, smashing Harriet Harnden’s previous best run for AON Racing – Tourne Campervans by four cavernous seconds.
As rider after rider crossed the line without even getting in touching distance of Cabirou, a first Saalfelden Leogang – Salzburgerland victory and ninth career UCI World Cup seemed more and more likely… until Hemstreet went down the ramp.
Immediately ahead, Hemstreet lost some time in time check three but piled it all back on and more at the next one as she hammered the steep forested section that was the last opportunity to make up serious time.
She crossed the line three seconds ahead of Cabirou and the podium soon became Canada followed by America as Anna Newkirk (Frameworks Racing / 5DEV) missed out on a first UCI World Cup win since 2019 by less than a second.
That meant it was all down to star-crossed fastest qualifier, home favourite and reigning UCI World Champion and World Cup overall winner Höll, who looked destined to complete a rampant hat-trick on local trails when she went a second up at the penultimate time check for YT MOB.
But the Hollywood script was rejected as Höll likewise fell victim to Hemstreet’s scintillating finish and slipped to third to audible groans from the crowd, handing Hemstreet a dream second win in the space of two weekends. She becomes the sixth rider to back up a maiden win with another consecutive win following in the footsteps of a certain Höll and Cabirou in 2021 and 2019.
“I definitely didn’t [expect that], I hadn’t really been feeling too confident this week and it just clicked. There actually felt a lot more pressure than I expected, I struggling at the motorway all week but I just pedalled as hard as I could. I felt it at the bottom so I was happy,” Hemstreet said.
And Hemstreet’s supremacy means she’s also the new overall UCI World Cup leader after Tahnée Seagrave (Orbea / FMD Racing) started strongly but appeared bothered by an old injury in the more technical second half as she hemorrhaged time and wound up sixth while winless Höll is still waiting for her title defence to truly ignite.
GOLDSTONE FLOATS TO MAPLE DOUBLE
The jumbled men’s Elite qualifying meant stars were littered across the startlist and there was action throughout, beginning with the second run of the finals as Ronan Dunne (Mondraker Factory Racing DH) unclipped but still became the first rider of the weekend to break the three-minute barrier after disappointment in Loudenvielle-Peragudes (France) – he’d finish fifth overall.
‘Double O’ Oisin O’Callaghan (YT MOB) was in touch with his compatriot until he was spat off a tough triple-apex corner and hit the deck hard, before his teammate and home hero Andreas Kolb almost sent the crowd into rapture as he exited the woods in the green but his slender 0.066s advantage was dashed on the run to the line.
However, Dunne’s reign ended four minutes later when Lachlan Stevens-McNab (Trek Factory Racing DH) put together the scorching run he’s been threatening all season – he was ahead at the opening round in Bielsko-Biała (Poland) when he crashed but nothing could stop the Kiwi this time as he went into the hot seat.
Despite winning the opening round, Bruni needed a big run to re-establish himself in the overall fight after a poor showing last time out and he produced it, resetting the otherwise tight men’s field by putting 1.4 seconds into Stevens-McNab.
It didn’t last long though as Jackson Goldstone played to his strengths – floating like a butterfly over the stump section and motorway before launching an unbelievable pull into the wall run showing commitment which paid off when he crossed the line ahead of Bruni by the blink of an eye – 0.059s.
With plenty of household names still to go including fastest qualifier Loris Vergier in the rainbow bands and UCI World Cup leader Amaury Pierron (both Commencal Muc-Off by Riding Addiction), Goldstone was far from home and hosed and he was visibly shaking as he watched the remaining riders. However, the strongest challenge came from unheralded Canyon CLLCTV Factory Team rider Henri Kiefer.
The German was the only rider apart from Bruni and Goldstone to lead a sector as Pierron always looked unsettled and nearly came a cropper on several occasions with the green jersey appearing heavy on the Frenchman’s back on the way to 17th place, and Vergier couldn’t replicate his rapid Friday pace as his 1,000-day wait for another UCI World Cup win continues.
Goldstone’s win was even more emotional in the wake of fellow Santa Cruz Syndicate rider Hoffman’s crash earlier, while teammate Laurie Greenland finished fifth and was the first to congratulate the Canadian after Vergier crossed the line.
“That last split and the stump section going into the motorway, those were the two crucial sections for me that I needed to work on and I definitely felt like I couldn’t have got those better in my run,” Goldstone said.
“It’s just crazy, you go through all the emotions of the riders getting close to beating your time and it’s so many ups and downs, you feel for the guys that went down or had mistakes in the run, it’s just a rush of emotions.”
Pierron’s slump means Bruni takes over the UCI World Cup lead with an advantage of 45 points over Goldstone, who said in his winner’s interview that Bruni had joked he won’t speak to the Canadian for a week after such a close-fought race.
HOME FANS REVEL IN JUNIOR TRIUMPH
Rosa Zierl kicked off Downhill finals day in the best way possible for the partisan home crowd, the Austrian national champion was the final rider off the ramp and duly saved the best until last to oust Aletha Ostgaard (Canyon CLLCTV Factory Team).
Ostgaard had been the class of the field, over four seconds quicker than the next best rider, but Zierl traded fastest sector times with the American early on. She never decisively pulled away on the course but overturned a deficit of a second at the penultimate intermediate time check to lead ahead of the final section and went clear in the final few hundred metres.
“It’s incredible, I’m super happy, tight battle with the girls. I knew this track so I was just keen to ride it and have fun,” Zierl said afterwards.
Oli Clark denied overall leader Max Alran (Commencal Muc-Off by Riding Addiction) a second successive Leogang triumph in the men’s junior final, by less than a second.
Asa Vermette (Frameworks Racing / 5DEV) had set the time to beat before the two fastest qualifiers were unleashed onto the mountain, but they showed it was a two-horse race as Alran led through the first two sections before letting victory slip through his fingers.
“It’s pretty surreal, I’ve been working hard to get here so I’m just happy to be here, I’m glad it’s paying off,” Clark said. “I don’t feel pressure, the only pressure I put on is myself.”
Oh, and this happened:
DH World Series Overall Standings: Women’s Elite
DH World Series Overall Standings: Men’s Elite
What’s next?
Next up, the Whoop UCI Mountain Bike World Series heads to Val di Sole in Italy from 20-22 June.
Another great race that the free highlights don’t do justice to
I think that’s the point – they’re sucking you in.
Unfortunately it’s more of a case of “Another great race that the free highlights coverage doesn’t do justice to"
The coverage is honestly pretty good. Some runs/classes they’re a bit short, but showing full runs of every ride would be LONG, dull and drag on for days…. So they condense it slightly and that does mean some riders kinda miss out on coverage.
Ric gets a lot of stick, but i’m honestly OK with him, i don’t pay that much attention to the commentary anyway on DH or XC.
It was a bit weird in some ways that none of the later riders in mens elite set the world alight, it was the earlier riders
Seeing their skills/speed though is just amazing.
I know bashing the commentary is getting a bit old, but I watched the race last night and I noticed there was rarely more than a second where one of the three commentators wasn’t speaking.
They were often just repeating each other, Ric was talking over everyone else and there was very little actual insight into the riding. And when there was, Ric talked over it.
Rob Warner has spoken several times about how he was told to STFU a lot of the time, and it made his commentary better.
Ric obviously didn’t listen to those podcasts 😀
Sorry, I disagree weeksy – the low field numbers in the finals SHOULD mean that there’s scope for virtually unbroken coverage between top & bottom, instead of which they (at Legoland) skipped a big section at the top seemingly just to allow time for us to see those shit promo trailers of the pouting rider & their bike. Kack.
Also Ric (and in fairness, nobody else “corrected" him) was beside himself every time the 3rd sector times came out and riders had made up around 8 tenths, without it clicking that this was Goldstone predictably dropping time on the motorway
There’s no way I’d pay for this as things stand
“none of the later riders in mens elite set the world alight, it was the earlier riders"
I think the wind changed
As much as i loved Warners passion, did he really bring more than just shouting, screaming and hollering at times ? Ric is building up his knowledge but it would arguably be useful to wander round the pits more and chat to teams, mechanics and staff to get a bit ‘more’…. but Warner made all the same mistakes of
“oh this looks like a great run"….. “he’s 2s back"… Well yeah, it can happen… seems to happen a lot lol. But i don’t know what people actually want in a commentator that Ric isn’t giving them. “he’s flapping round like a dinosaur in a tub of jelly" or whatever may well be amusing, but it’s not really in depth commentary.
Sitting watching Discovery at the moment with Carlton and the others, whilst they want to make Mrs Weeksy SCREAM with their pronunciation of names, they have immense knowledge of riders, racers, history etc… but they’ve been there and done it for years and years.
30 riders with 5 mins on a run each, 150 mins….
15 riders with 5 mins each 75 mins….
Then throw in the juniors both male and female (150-200mins) and the fact you need some intro, some build up, you’re then into 4-5 hours of coverage. Plus obviously after rider 1 if you want the last sets of riders to be ‘live’ then you have to cut down the other riders, otherwise if you’re showing full runs, the event has been over for 2.5 hours by the time you get to the last rider in the show compared to what’s actually happening in real-time.
I thought Rob had got a bit mechanical in the couple of years before WB took over, but yes he showed a deep knowledge of the sport and a racer’s understanding of what was happening on screen.
He and Claudio/Eliot/whoever were still prone to misinterpreting the splits sometimes (like when the current leader had had a bad first sector and they’d get excited that following riders were way up) but listening to Rob commentating the Crankworx races or Hardline on RBTV – he’s light years ahead of Ric & co.
Mens race was under/around 3 minutes per run and, regardless, if the coverage is live then it’s going to have to be as long as it takes – just stop with the filler and show the runs. Highlights, yeah, they can chop as they see fit (but still would be better if they had coverage of the entire run to work from – Goldstone largely won it at 1&2, it seems, but we barely saw anyone riding all that bit other than Bruni & Goldstone (as I remember it). That shows that full coverage WAS possible and so the cutting was an editorial choice
Great racing – I’d have preferred for it to have been wet, as that would have made the lower section much more unpredictable, but it was still good to watch. I’m ambivalent about the commentary – mostly it’s ok, but I found it pretty annoying for the first time this weekend. Endlessly repeating “if there’s one rider who knows how to deal (whatever technical feature they’re showing) with it’s this guy/girl" – I think Josh must have used that phrase about 6 times. And who in their right mind in WBD thought bringing a supercross guy into the commentary booth, and then basically interviewing him whilst we’re watching multiple elite riders on their race runs was a good idea? That was really, really odd.
Oh, and then Ric telling us, helpfully, that “so and so is on a run here".
Yes, we know. We’re watching them right now. On a race run.
I much prefer the smaller field & not having all of every run broadcast, it gets a bit samey. I also like that they tend to cut out a lot of the run when someone has crashed – So long as they show the jumps the riders inevitably style up when they are already out the running for big points.
Ref the 3rd sector split – I think he well knows how it works, but is trying to build excitement around runs that regular viewers already know are off the pace and very unlikely to make the top 3.
I like the smaller field. You feel that any one of those 30 men and 15 women could plausibly win. Thats why I’m sitting and watching the whole thing.
Back in the 60 and 80 rider days, I definitely fast forwarded the earlier ones.
The “downside" of this, is that some people miss the cut off. And I’m all for that TBH. Being able to say that the finals is so elite that former world champion X or previous winner Y didn’t even make it in, is what makes it elite.
However I would like to see he same coverage of every rider. Scaredypants says we only saw Loic and Jackson in the top section – why couldn’t we see everyone? If there was no camera on something that turned out to be a key section then thats a bit crap but understandable. But there clearly was a camera there, so who gets to decide who we see do it and who we skip? Watching Jackson float over a tech section looks cool but is made far more impressive in seeing it was faster than the 10 previous attempts.
If there is only time to show 2 minutes of every run I want to see the same 2 minutes from everyone.
Right now if you are a “lesser" rider and qualify just ahead or behind Loic, Jackson, Amaury, Vali Gracie or Tahnee; you are getting seriously screwed out of your screen time by the editors.
The commentary team seemed completely oblivious to the fact that something caused the last few riders down the hill to go 3 seconds slower than earlier riders. Apparently it’s entirely normal for Pierron and Vergier to be outside the top 15.
The racing at the moment is incredible. The coverage is terrible. If I was paying I’d be royally pissed off. As it is I’m only mildly pissed off.
As an aside, with Q1 and Q2 qualifying, it would make more sense if the start order was World Championship style, ie the start order is determined by your position in the overall. That way you don’t end up with Bruni and Goldstone racing a completely different race to Pierron and Vergier.
That’s the best thing about DH for me, the unknown, the conditions changing, sometimes it work in your favour as it rains before/during/after your run. When you’re at the bottom and your rider is safely down with a good time, the the heavens open, awesome. But the same in reverse a lot recently when the boy is off late as he’s ranked high, then he’s the one who’s getting the rain, it gets wetter, wetter. It doesn’t always work in your favour, but it’s part of the game.
I bottled it and paid the subscription, yes I hate myself but I couldn’t resist and hopelessly tried to justify paying an enormous corporate entity that is WB because we’ll probably watch a couple of other sports including winter sports that used to be on Eurosport for free in winter.
I am one of those who definitely mourn the lack of Redbull influence and hate the corporate schmaltz and dumbing down of the broadcast, but the racing is at least exciting; for the time being at least. Until I get sick of missing seeing my favourite riders on the shrunken podium, because they ran over a pebble that the others didn’t.
Not really sure why we had some Moto guy doing commentary, although turns out Mullaly organised it. I don’t know why it annoys me so much, maybe the obviousness of it, the desperation to be connected with Moto.
Looking forward to Val di Sole though, maybe we’ll get another surprise commentator, perhaps from F1.
One thing that does strike me is that we’re going to see a lot more injuries. With riders having to often go flat out for 3 laps rather than just the one, there’s a lot more chance to bin it and with everyone having ot go so damn fast on the faster tracks it’s going to get messy.
Not sure I follow, the wind might have dropped a bit but both were still faster in the motorway section than Jackson. Certainly not ‘a completely different race’.
Loris came 15th and was 3sec off the winning time. In both the previous rounds he was further behind than that even though he ended up 7th both times. This season everyone of the overall top 5 has had at least 1 result outside the top 10. It happens, and when times are this tight it happens more frequently.
WynTV suggested the earlier riders (inc. Jackson & Loic) had a tailwind at the top.
I suspect Jackson would have won anyway, but I was hoping to see Amaury make a decent challenge for the overall this year – and this scuppers that a bit. I know, I know, that’s racing though.
All the chat about changing the start order to points ranking is silly and knee-jerk IMO.
That’s a bit strange. You explain the reason why starting based on overall position is a good idea and then say to do so would be silly and knee-jerk.
It’s impossible to know if Vergier and Pierron were actually just going slow or if they were the victim of changing conditions.
There are two considerations in a WC race. There’s the event winner which is mostly decided based on who is fastest but can be decided based on changing conditions. Then there’s the overall winner of the season. For that you want the people fighting for places to have the most similar conditions to their nearest rivals.
Q1 and Q2 qualifying has jumbled up the start order anyway. It’s no longer the fastest time goes last. Fast riders are now getting early start times due to an issue in Q1.
Q1 and Q2 and the vastly reduced field means that start order is far less of a consideration than it was. In which case it makes more sense for me for the folk currently in contention for the overall to be racing against each other in the closest track conditions possible.
I don’t think it’s a knee jerk reaction. The rules for racing have changed massively and after an overhaul it’s often worth looking at things with a fresh eye to see if things can be improved.