Val d'Isere World Cup Downhill Results 13

The weather cooperated in Val d'Isere but the webcast didn't as Aaron Gwin's win streak comes to an end and Brook MacDonald wins his first UCI World Cup Downhill at Val d'Isere. Racing was incredibly tight as the top 4 finished within the same second!

Men's DH Results from Val d'Isere

Gee Atherton takes the challenge from his competitors head-on and puts down a flawless run, only to be edged out by the young rider from New Zealand, Brook McDonald. Brook, down on the first split, made up time on the bottom half of the rugged, exposed downhill course with a smooth, precise run. The young Syndicate rider, Josh Bryceland, kept his composure and put up a podium finish. Brook and Josh were on flat pedals. Greg Minnaar, behind at the first 2 splits, impressively clawed his way out of  the deficit on the bottom portion of the course to get ahead of Gwin as a handful of riders remained. Gwin had a scary moment as he nearly went down, knifing his front wheel in the finish area after a solid run. He raced with an injured hand after 2 crashes in qualifying. Mick Hannah posted up in a big way, narrowly missing the podium. A strong effort from the Australian considering his sister, Tracey, was injured in practice earlier in the week and suffered a broken femur and collarbone.

Bummer to see Sam Hill slide out. Loic Bruni was on a smoker and slid out in the same area that Gwin crashed in qualifying. Spagnolo had a rough over-the-bars with a decent top section. Nick Beer got catapulted over the bars in a horrible-looking crash over the top scrub jump. Fortunately, it looked a lot worse than it was and he finished his run.

Women's DH Results from Val d'ISere

Rachel Atherton wins again with national local, Emmeline Ragot in 2nd place. The rest of the women's field was quite far off compared to the top 2 finishers. Note the difference in the speeds between Rachel and Emmeline! According to Warner, Rachel had a big crash in practice this morning, but that didn't seem to slow her down!