Val di Sole World Cup's Downhill Events
This weekend, Val di Sole hosted the first triple-event of the 2010 Mountain Bike World Cup. The Italian region hosted the World Cup Championships in 2008, and this year hosted the fifth of six events in cross-country, downhill, and four-cross. Marc Beaumont and Emmeline Ragot both took second wins in the downhill competitions – Beaumont won the men’s race for the second World Cup victory of his career, and Ragot won the women’s race for the second consecutive time, after a victory in the torrential rains of the downhill competition in Champery last weekend.
In Champery, Gee Atherton won the men’s race and positioned himself as a favourite for Val di Sole, where he became the men’s downhill champion in 2008. He didn’t win the race this time, but he took the overall lead by only seven points ahead of Greg Minnaar, who was 13 points ahead after the fourth event.
"I knew that I had to put a solid run in, in qualifying, and start chasing the points," said Atherton. "It's what saved me and has given me the lead. But, taking third place wasn't exactly my game plan... it's good enough, though. It's definitely been my best season, but it's been frustrating watching Greg, being so consistent. I've been waiting for him to slip up and hammer some points, but it hasn't happened. He's really making me work for it.”
In such close competition for the overall lead, Minnaar and Atherton were riding a different race than Beaumont, the Val di Sole winner.
"Qualifying went pretty well," said Beaumont, "Just steady and I put a nice run together, and I was feeling good again this morning, so I just tried to go about it as if it was practice. I posted a pretty good time, but there's some fast boys, and I was thinking maybe I can scrap a podium. I wasn't expecting to win by any means. I'm pretty shocked, and not really sure what to say."
Atherton and Minnaar stand at 1007 points to 1000 after five rounds.
Emmeline Ragot won the fourth of the women’s downhill races last weekend in Champery, and this weekend she duplicated that victory in Val di Sole. Sabrina Jonnier remains the overall leader, but she has been taken down a notch and her hope for holding on to her lead has been shaken.
"I think my ride was okay," said Ragot. "I didn't make a lot of mistakes, but I thought I had flatted my tyre on the first part, because the ground was so soft. My strategy was to just be smart, don't do crazy stuff. Just try to stay smooth on the bike. Don't go like crazy. And it worked, it went so good, that maybe I will try that for the world championships."
Jonnier finished in 2nd place, behind Ragot, and ahead of Tracy Moseley, the same top-3 as the overall classification but in a different order. Ragot has now moved ahead of Moseley, the former second-place, and stands 175 points behind Jonnier.
"Sabrina has a lot of points, and I missed the first race and crashed in the next two," continued Ragot. "So now I am second, but I don't know how it will go from there. But, I am feeling good and I have a new bike; I've only ridden it twice now [qualifying and final] and it rode well."
After a three weekend break, the sixth cross-country, downhill, and four-cross events be will be held in Windham, New York, and the championships will be held from August 31st to September 5th in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec, Canada.
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