Abella and Bouladou clinch junior World Cup Downhill wins while World Champion Höll and Palazzari qualify fastest for Saturday’s elite race
The French pair tamed the super-fast track in Leogang, Austria at the second round of the UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Cup.
The women’s junior final took place in sunshine and warm temperatures but the junior men had to cope with a race suspension due to some heavy showers and high winds.
France's Lisa Bouladou put down a hugely-impressive run to win the women’s junior race by more than five seconds and was the only rider to best the fastest qualifying time. The Commencal rider was inch perfect as she came down to take the lead from Britain’s Aimi Kenyon (Pinkbike Racing). USA’s Riley Miller was third another 2.5s back. Fastest qualifier and round one winner New Zealand’s Erice Van Leuven (Commencal Les Orres) crashed dramatically near the top of the track and didn’t finish.
The rain-affected men’s junior race saw a win for Van Leuven’s team mate Leo Abella. The French rider came down in the wet just before the race suspension and held on in the hotseat after the restart despite some courageous wet runs by the faster qualifiers.
One of those riders, Trek Factory Racing Gravity’s Bodhi Kuhn ended up second and Spain’s Daniel Castellanos Liberal was third.
In the women’s elite qualifying held after the junior finals, World Champion Valentina Höll went fastest in the wet in front of her home crowd. Switzerland’s Camille Balanche (Dorval AM Commencal) qualified in second some 2s behind 21-year-old Höll. Santa Cruz Syndicate’s Nina Hoffman came down in third. Round-one winner Britain’s Rachel Atherton (Continental Atherton) was 7.5s off Höll’s pace in sixth.
The men’s elite qualifying was interrupted for some 40 minutes by more heavy rain after just 13 riders of a field of 180 riders had started. The downpour left the track considerably more tricky with later riders struggling to match the earlier times.
Canada’s Finn Iles was the best of the later starters managing to get within 5s of the fastest early qualifier.
In the end, almost the whole top 10 came from those who started ahead of the rain with Italy’s Davide Palazzari of the Rogue Racing After Skull Team qualifying fastest, quarter of a second ahead of Britain’s Matt Walker of the Madison Saracen Factory Team.
France’s Ian Guionnet was third. Britain’s Charlie Hatton (Continental Atherton Racing) is protected so will qualify despite missing out on the top 60 as will Santa Cruz Syndicate’s Greg Minaar.
The elites will be back in action on Saturday for semi-final and final races.
Full results and the schedule for the weekend are available here
