FINAL RESULTS: Mont-Sainte-Anne World Cup DH

After an eventful week, race day dawned at the Mont-Sainte-Anne World Cup and with it, sunny skies and a track that was getting rougher and faster by the minute. In the junior women's category, Vali Holl took 20 seconds off her own fastest seeding run to set the tone for the day with the win and a time that would have placed her 6th in the elite women's race. It was pretty obvious that we would be in for a spectacular day of racing.

In the junior men's, as he has done a few times before this season, Thibaut Daprela stepped things up for the final and brought his Commencal home to a 1-second win over Trek's Kade Edwards, with a time that was a full 14 seconds faster than in qualifying. Congratulations to Thibaut, the junior men's World Cup overall winner!

Time then for the women, and all eyes were locked on the titanic battle for the overall title that opposes Rachel Atherton and Tahnee Seagrave. Rachel was a couple of seconds behind Tahnee in qualifying, but she would go on to throw down a near perfect run with unmatched aggression and precision to take a very convincing win and give herself some much needed space in the standings with just one round to go. It took all her skill and commitment to put a stop to Tahnee's 3-race win streak, and she was visibly stoked with how she put it all together when it mattered.

On to the men's, and Angel Suarez took the early hot seat with a 4:19, beating Danny Hart's fastest qualifier in the process (he would eventually finish 9th, an awesome result for the Spaniard who has been slowly rebuilding himself after sitting out most of 2017 with an injury). With that performance, Angel would remain in the hot seat for quite a few riders until Charlie Harrison took 1.6 seconds off his time and with it put in a serious bid for a solid top 10 placing. Gee threw down an impressive, attacking run looking every bit his aggressive old self, hanging on to a slim advantage until the very last sections, ultimately dropping a second to Harrison. And that story would repeat itself as rider after rider went by, some getting it into green for the first half of the track only to fade away towards the bottom.

Into the top ten, and Minnaar lit up the top part only to hit a tree in one of the woods sections, ultimately costing him a couple of seconds and possibly the lead at that point. All told an amazing ride from the man just back from a serious injury. Finn Iles was next to hit the track, 2.2 seconds up on the early splits only to come unstuck in the same very same spot where Minnaar slid out just before him.

Vergier on track and it's green all the way to the line! 4:16 and the hot seat, with just 6 riders left to go. But next to drop was Troy Brosnan, and he threw down a faultless run, attacking and sticking every line to take ANOTHER 3 seconds off Vergier's time. Would it stand for the win? Brook MacDonald came out swinging but crashed into a padded tree, flatted near the bottom, and we were down to the last 4. Luca Shaw looked smooth but perhaps not aggressive enough, landing 4.4 seconds back which was still good enough for 3rd place at the line (he would finish the race in 6th place).

Amaury Pierron had a nasty crash in morning practice, would he be restricted? With a sizable advantage in the overall, he needed only to finish ahead of Loris Vergier here to secure the title with one race left to go - and HE DIT IT! Amaury somehow held on to his bike to finish 2nd at the line (ultimately 4th), to take the overall title with one race still to go! Allez Amaury!

And then it was time for SUPER BRUNI!!!! Loose but solid, an impressive run saw him finish 0.3 seconds up on Troy at the line, an incredible performance from the reigning World Champion! What would Danny Hart have left in the tank to counter the French onslaught? A fine effort by the Brit saw him in touch at the early splits, but he faded slightly towards the end of his run to cross the line in third, 1.3 seconds back.