Finn Iles (Specialized Gravity) and Valentina Höll (Commencal Schwalbe by Les Orres) conquered an unpredictable track at Saalfelden Leogang – Salzburgerland to take hard-fought victories in vastly different circumstances in the UCI Downhill World Cup.
After Friday’s UCI Cross-country Short Track (XCC) World Cup round took place in apocalyptic conditions, the sun was out in Austria for the downhill action but that produced its own challenges with the track still drying out run-to-run following such heavy rain.
Höll and Iles’ eyes and brains were rewarded as much as their legs at the legendary WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series venue, with the Canadian edging out Amaury Pierron (COMMENCAL / MUC OFF by Riding Addiction) by a fraction of a second while the women’s UCI World Champion delivered a peerless performance to win by a street.
Höll becomes just the third woman to start the UCI Downhill World Cup with three consecutive victories, while a tearful Iles celebrated perseverance paying off as he claimed his second ever win in the series from 68 starts.
Meanwhile Lina Frener (Norco x adidas Race Division) and Jonty Williamson (Yeti/Fox Factory Race Team) won the women’s and men’s Junior races to continue their strong starts to the season.
HISTORIC HÖLL A CLASS ABOVE
It was a historic day for the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series as for the first time, the women’s race was the grand finale of the UCI Downhill World Cup round as the last action of the day - providing both a unique opportunity and challenge with such a long gap between the final and their last practice run.
The women’s leaderboard was much more dynamic than the men’s, with Gracey Hemstreet (Norco x adidas Race Division) setting the early benchmark as the fifth rider out of the gate. Her hair-raising run put her firmly in contention, looking set for an extended stay in the hot seat. But Lisa Bouladou (Santa Cruz Burgtec by Goodman) deposed her immediately with an incredibly fast finish through the wooded section, as the course effectively evolved into a run of two halves with the exposed start drying out much more quickly than the bottom of the hill.
Frida Helena Rønning (Crestline Speed Shop) and Valentina Roa Sánchez (MS-Racing) each spent time in the green then faded in the trees with the Colombian ejected from her saddle by a root, but her teammate Gloria Scarsi did take the lead from Bouladou with a hectic ride.
Myriam Nicole (COMMENCAL / MUC OFF by Riding Addiction) was three seconds ahead at the second split, but struggled through the technical wooded section, terrain that would typically play to her strengths. Yet the moment Höll dropped out of the gate, there was little doubt as to who would claim victory in Saalfelden Leogang – Salzburgerland.
Höll produced one of the most dominant performances in recent WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series history, going quickest in every single section and beating Scarsi’s time by a monstrous nine seconds.
Neither Anna Newkirk (Frameworks Racing / TRP) nor Marine Cabirou (Canyon DH Racing) did anything visibly wrong on their runs and the Frenchwoman even went faster than Höll in one time split, but they never ever looked likely to upset the home favourite who launched herself straight into the crowd after Cabirou crossed the line.
“It was so nice, so quiet on track. I was really enjoying it, no one was disturbing me, so we can repeat that for sure. Pretty epic. I know how hard you need to push to be able to win World Cups nowadays. It took me so much energy to do this.
“I just wanted to give back and seeing all my family, all my friends, all the little shredders from Austria, it’s the most important thing I can give back.
“A lot of haters said they [the crowd] will all leave when we’re racing but look, the crowd is still there, it’s pretty epic, women’s sport is amazing.”
Höll looks unstoppable in the overall race, sitting almost 300 points ahead of Nicole.
ILES CELEBRATES EMOTIONAL RETURN TO THE TOP
In stark contrast to Höll’s supremacy in the women’s final, the elite men’s UCI Downhill World Cup round was decided by less than two tenths of a second between Iles and Pierron.
Both riders needed two rounds of qualifying to make the final, but with the weather much improved on Saturday they flipped the script, locking out the top two positions early and holding that advantage all the way to the end.
Pierron produced a strong finish to enter the hotseat as just the seventh rider down the ramp, but he was quickly pushed into second place by Iles just a few minutes later. Iles was only quickest through the final time split but was the most consistent rider on the difficult course and that’s what took him to the top of the timesheets and ultimately victory.
Iles’ run wasn’t the most memorable moment of the day though - that honour went to Asa Vermette (Frameworks Racing / TRP) who flew off a jump and was thrown from his bike on landing, with the American somehow escaping the high-speed crash relatively unscathed.
Englishman Ethan Craik (Scott Downhill Factory) went closest to deposing Iles, as he lit up the timesheets for three-quarters of the course but slipped in the trees and trailed home in sixth, three seconds behind Iles.
Fellow youngster Henri Kiefer (Canyon DH Racing) - the ambassador for the Epic Bikepark Leogang - wasn’t as spectacular and produced a dreadful start yet rebounded to claim the final podium place as the only other rider within a second of Iles, while his teammate Troy Brosnan finished fourth.
“That feels really good. Last year was such a struggle with injuries and I just didn’t feel like myself,” Iles said. “This offseason I put in so much work to find my groove back and to get a win in the third race of the season is incredible.
“I just can’t say thank you enough to my team, all the people at Specialized for how much work they put into the demo and everybody around me for supporting me through last year because it was such a tough one for me. Now I feel like I’m back to being myself and it means so much.”
For Pierron, there’s the consolation that he now leads the Elite Men UCI Downhill World Cup as he jumped from third to first and now leads second-placed Iles by 29 points. Pierron also pushed his COMMENCAL / MUC OFF by Riding Addiction team to the top of the team standings as both they and Canyon DH Racing leapfrogged Commencal Schwalbe by Les Orres.
WILLIAMSON AND FRENER PEERLESS IN JUNIORS
Williamson and Frener were a class above in the men’s and women’s junior races in Austria, battling the toughest conditions of the day as the curtain-raisers. The Kiwi eclipsed even Höll’s margin of victory with a massive 7.5-second win from Malik Boatwright (Continental Atherton), continuing his 100% start to the season.
After finishing sixth and second to start the season, Frener finally reaches the top step of the podium with a dominant ride. She beat Aletha Odegaard (Canyon DH Racing) by 3.4 seconds, while the American rose to the top of the standings with Rosa Zierl (Cube Factory Racing) absent this weekend.
The action is far from over in Saalfelden Leogang – Salzburgerland, as after a dramatic set of XCC races on Friday, those stars return for the Cross-country Olympic showdowns on Sunday.
The UCI Enduro World Cup also returns this weekend, taking place in Austria’s largest bike region, Saalbach Hinterglemm Leogang Fieberbrunn. You can find the full schedule and where to watch here.
