Mont Sainte-Anne DH World Cup results and comment

Hello! And welcome to Mont-Sainte Anne watching. Elite Women's racing starts shortly. In the meantime, some updates from the Juniors that took place before the Red Bull TV coverage...

Junior Women

1. Phoebe Gale: 5:09.223
2. Izabela Yankova: 5:16.084
3. Gracey Hemstreet: 5:16.805

Junior Men

1. Jackson Goldstone: 4:13.766
2. Jordan Williams: 4:17.566
3. Bodhi Kuhn: 4:20.302

So, Jackson has won the overall. Congrats JG!

Junior Women's title fight goes on to the next round in Val di Sole.

Oh yeah. Qualifying news.

Elite Women

1. Vali Höll: 5:04.032 - WOWSERS. 13 SECS.
2. Monika Hrastnik: 5:17.998
3. Nina Hoffmann: 5:19.624
4. Myriam Nicole: 5:22.463

Elite Men

1. Finn Iles: 4:17.842 - GO ON LAD!
2. Greg Minnaar: 4:21.082
3. Amaury Pierron: 4:22.571
4. Troy Brosnan: 4:22.910
5. Bernard Kerr: 4:24.102 - YES BK!

Which course is the longest in this years circuit?

Conditions looking really bright and glarey. In and out of the trees will be hard on the eyes of the racers. What goggles lens for MSA?

And is that dust we can see? That'll all reduce the slipperyness but ups the potential snagginess on rocks. Anyhoo. Good that the weather won't be an undesirable 'lottery' factor.

Elie Women's top 10 now. Parton goes into the hotseat with a nice feet-up run.

Norway's Millie Johnset on track now. Up a LOT at first split.

@ Mark Allker - I *think* MSA. Ft Bill is almost as long, mind.

Elite Women's racers going to form; no one in the Hot Seat for very long! TV coverage understandably not able to show the whole track but racers looking impressively in control of things for the lower half of the track. Things hsould get really interesting once we hit the top 5 Elite Women's qualii names.

Important Q: are you getting used to the look of muillet DH bikes yet? They're not very nice aesthetically are they?

Farina smashes it, despite the unclip stall. Now we're into the racers who are just that cut above the pack.

Blewitt (NZ) on track now. Looking a bit stally maybe...

Here we go. Nicole on track...

Nicole up at split 2 by 5 secs. Looking very composed and on it.

And... she punctures. Dang. There goes her day.. possibly her chance of the Overall.

All eyes now back on Vali H. Can Holl keep it rubber side down..?

Anyway. Some racers still to go. Not least Hoffman.

Missed the start of the broadcast, what’s up with Cami?

Edit: She’s injured, RW just answered my question.

Here goes my tip for win today. Hoffman...

Have I cursed it?

Vali, I would say.

57km per hr is not-slow.

Hoffman has the legs and the shoulders to PWN the MSA track.

Hoffman takes the lead. 1.3secs is not much though. Vali should really p*ss it but... DH racing init.

Hrastnik (sp?) on track now. Some big(ger) team should sign her up for 2023. Oodles of potential.

Can you imagine being Vali H now? Does she know how Nicole's run went? Will it affect how she rides anyway? (she rarely seems to 'take it easy'!)

The Q: can Vali H get down without 'incident'? If so, the title is arguably hers for the taking once more (in Val di Sole).

Looking rad on track at the moment. She takes the lead...

And Vali Holl takes the win!

I think that is a very significant result for Vali, in terms of this season and for her future in general.

Impressive. And professional.

And Vali's post-race interview shades are cool.

And she DID know about Nicole's puncture run.

119 pts between Holl and Balanche going in to the final round.

Elite Women's podium:

1. Vali Höll: 4:56.012
2. Nina Hoffmann: 4:59.159
3. Eleonora Farina: 5:00.522
4. Jess Blewitt: 5:11.908
5. Monika Hrastnik: 5:12.210

Now that we've seen the track conditions, does it change anything with what we expect to see happen in the Elite Men's racing? Surely it plays into Amaury P's hands even more? Is that Kerr's hopes out of the window? And am I using questions too much in this commentary?

The answer is yes. To one or more of those questions.

(I'm just doing my best to pretend I'm not just overly excited about Finn Iles. Soz.)

What happens at the World Champs in Les Gets (which happens BEFORE the final World Cup round at Val di Sole) shouldn't be forgotten about. The physical and mental 'results' from Les Gets will be a factor in the World Cup overall. They always are.

The late, great Stevie Smith still winning the most important competition: Best Moustache In DH.

Any excuse...

Injury update:
Loris Vergier and Loic Bruni not racing.
Sadface 🙁

Particularly gutted for Bruni as it will probably mean no (4th?!) World Champs chance.

Vergier continues to be the Poulidor* of World Cup DH.

*ask yer roadie Dad

Hot favourite to take today (and the overall) Amaury Pierron AKA cover star of the new issue of Singletrack...

https://singletrackmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/whats-inside-singletrack-issue-144-out-today/

Cult favourite Andreas Kolb loving life at the top of the mountain. Good to see.

Also, good 'tache.

Much as I enjoyed CLaudio's course previews from days of yore (before his alarming 'incident'), it's good to have Eliot Jackson in the commentary booth for the actual racing.

Amaury's 'tache? Not so good.

Ireland's Ronan Dunne in the Hot Seat before the big(ger) players hit the track.

And Cathro on the televised feed! 20th for the Lanky Ben.

One to rewatch, Palazarri's near-OTB. Yikes! Good save.

Sweden's Oliver Zwar having something of a breakout year. Keep an eye on him in the off-season team news. What can he do here?

Just one of the reasons why Gwin deserves max respek...

Mind-boggling x 1,000,000

Anyway. Back to 2022. It's hard to predict whether the racing will get more or less sketchy as the numbers tick by. Safe to say, it's looking loosey goosey from the riders outside of the top 20 at the mo!

GBR's Ethan Craik looking tuff AF. And fast. Up by 2 secs at the mo..

(watching Craik, my mind drifts towards next month's Red Bull Hardline)

Anyhoo. Craik takes the Hot Seat with an impressive run. Would be even faster without the noughties baggy jersey maybe..

Suarez always worth watching. Still quite far behind Craik's time though.

Ok. What can Greenland do?

Vintage Greenlanding there!

Must be a podium surely.

Go Fishponds!

Whoah Greenland 😳

I feel compelled to comment after watching that Greenland run - wowee wee wah!!! Im lovin it 🙂

Oof. That was a nasty crash for Hugo Frixtalon. He's back on though! Nails. Might ache tomorrow, just a bit.

Be nice to see Greenland's time stuck, he's had some bad luck this season

I think we all have to agree that MSA is the greatest track in DH - perhaps run close by Val di sole

Won't lie. Waiting for Blenki now.

Trummer punctures. Was his case the result or the cause? Dunno. Don't *think* he was going to worry the podium though. Still looked great on a bike.

Dry and fast.

I'm gonna say it...

Gwin for podium.

YES BLENKI!

Still looks 'mazin'.

Another excellent New Zealander now. Young Mr Pene. Great story. YouTube him.

Here you go. Watch later.

Thibault Daprela on shortly. Time to put down your mug of tea in preparation.

daprela, first big test for Greenland's time. Im sure (and hoping) that Greenland's time is podium worthy at least

Daprela not looking like the racer of previous seasons. Must be hard to lay it on the line when the Overall is not in your sights.

Gwin then... I have no doubt cursed him.

Love to see a Greenland win, British riders do well at MSA

Will Amaury have a steady one and go for a top 20 to secure the overall?

Don't know much about Revelli. Always good to see newish names up in the sharp end though.

I don't think Amaury is capable of 'steady'. He'd want to win (the Overall) with a win IMO. We shall see..

so many fast guys to come but Greenland's run was the very definition of 'pin'

very exciting

Kolb possibly feeling fatigued after his amazing season.

And... he's flatted as well. Dang.

Oui Coulanges! Another fan fave.

One to re-watch: Coulanges trying to ride on without being (able to ) clip in. Rolling atyre. Going through the tapes. No strops. Just loving racing.

Sports fans! Kerr o'clock...

And Kerr goes 3rd.

So cool to see BK up there!

Brosnan on course!

Not sure if I like Canyon's purple and yellow kit.

(can Greenland win this?)

I think Kerr will start troubling the podium more regularly after last week broke the seal, he might have to rein in his vlogging though as it gives away all his race lines

His YT channel doesn't do much for my sense of wellbeing - he's either surfing in US, racing enduro in tweed valley, holidaying in morzine, or buying and having his mates mod a school bus

Amaury time.

Surely it must be the Overall for him today...

OMG. Pierron crash. He's back on though.

Freak a deak. 25th for Amaury but... there's 2 more racers to go. And one of them is Minnaar.

Minnaar doesn't like teammates beating him then. Still on course..

Minnaar stacks it into a tree. And back on his bike. Will he finish behind Amaury??

No. Finishes 29th!

Iles' turn.

#pressure

Not typing. Watching.

YES.

Was his chain off for the last sections?

Whatever.

That was a totally brilliant race run.

Gutted for Greenland but that was a guts or glory run from Finn Iles, holy cow.

I bet Pierron is regretting not taking it easy now...

"This is the greatest day of my life." - Finn Iles

Fair.