{"id":1932,"date":"2024-09-01T08:55:55","date_gmt":"2024-09-01T03:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/blog\/"},"modified":"2024-09-01T14:32:23","modified_gmt":"2024-09-01T08:47:23","slug":"no-holding-back-austrias-holl-in-women-elite-downhill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/sports\/no-holding-back-austrias-holl-in-women-elite-downhill\/","title":{"rendered":"No holding back Austria\u2019s H\u00f6ll in UCI Women Elite Downhill Worlds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PAL ARINSAL, Andorra:<\/strong> Austria\u2019s Valentina H\u00f6ll has headlined the 2024 UCI World Mountain Bike Championships as she stormed to her third straight Women Elite Downhill title. Frenchman Loris Vergier has claimed his first Elite title, ten years after winning the Junior championship in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the fast, dusty track at Pal Arinsal on Saturday, hot favourite H\u00f6ll was scheduled to set off last in the Pal Arinsal final, following Nina Hoffmann of Germany and Marine Cabirou of France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

H\u00f6ll faced a tough battle against France\u2019s Myriam Nicole with the two riders trading splits across the course before H\u00f6ll secured victory with a dramatic final run. Nicole settled for second and Britain’s Tahn\u00e9e Seagrave third. Full results<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Women Elite Downhill winner Austria\u2019s Valentina H\u00f6ll, centre, is with runner-up Myriam Nicole of France, left, Britain’s Tahn\u00e9e Seagrave. Photo: UCI<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With almost half of the 40 starters remaining, Nicole went more than 3 seconds quicker than her own fastest qualifying time. Only two riders could compete with the 2019 and 2021 UCI World Champion\u2019s pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tahn\u00e9e Seagrave, who finished runner-up overall in the 2024 UCI World Cup, came within 0.7 sec off the French star\u2019s time to move into provisional silver medal position with three riders to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Hoffman and Cabirou failed to find the pace, it left defending champion H\u00f6ll to chase the first hat-trick for more than 20 years. France\u2019s Anne-Caroline Chaussonis, who won nine titles between 1996 and  2005, is the only female rider with more downhill world championships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Riding aggressively, with a high pace but on the edge of traction, the Austrian had a 0.01-sec advantage at the final split. H\u00f6ll then found more time at the bottom that guaranteed her success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had such a hard time after the long break to get back up to speed, I doubted myself. I was scared I didn\u2019t know how to race a bike anymore. But to do it three times in a row it\u2019s insane!\u201d H\u00f6ll said on the UCI broadcast after the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMyriam [Nicole] is one of the best in the world, I don\u2019t feel like I am up at their level, but somehow I am\u2026 women\u2019s racing at the moment is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victory for Vergier after Bruni crashes<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Frenchman Loris Vergier claims his first Elite title, ten years after winning the Junior championship in 2014. Photo: UCI<\/emb><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In a thrilling finish to the week’s downhill race in Andorra, Vergier edged out compatriot Benoit Coulanges by just 0.148 seconds, with his victory hanging in the balance until the final rider. Loic Bruni, who led through the upper splits, crashed in the lower half of the course, ending his chances of another title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Men Elite final intensified, Britain\u2019s Danny Hart, a two-time winner, took the hot seat with a time of 2:38.944, with France\u2019s Amaury Pierron close behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forty-three-year-old Greg Minnaar, a four-time champion, received a standing ovation after finishing 23rd in his 28th UCI World Championship. Full results<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When another Briton Charlie Hatton, the 2023 champion, finished in provisional 14th, the crowd knew the rainbow jersey would be passed on. With only ten riders left, including Dakotah Norton from the US, Andreas Kolb from Austria, and five-time UCI World Champion Lo\u00efc Bruni from France, the tension mounted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the final trio, another Frenchman Beno\u00eet Coulanges went fastest by 0.135 seconds. Finn Iles of Canada took provisional second with two-hundredths of a second off the pace. Then, Andorra resident Loris Vergier of France crossed the line 0.148 sec quicker than his countryman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norton was half a second up when he crashed; Kolb was off the pace, leaving just \u2018Super\u2019 Bruni to go for a 6th Elite UCI World title and a French podium sweep. But Bruni was 1.8-sec up when he crashed, leaving his close friend Vergier to take the rainbow bands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like I\u2019ve been unlucky in the past years and I got lucky this time. It was unreal. It was a bad season and I\u2019ve turned it around today,\u201d said Vergier. \u201cThanks to Lo\u00efc [Bruni] for crashing, otherwise it would have been so hard. But I\u2019m UCI World Champion and waaa! It\u2019s insane.\u201d (With inputs from UCI)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Related Images:<\/h3>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

French riders dominate the Andorra course as Loris Vergier wins the men’s downhill crown in a thrilling finish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1937,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[73,74,20,83,3,56,58],"class_list":["post-1932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-palarinsal","tag-andorra","tag-cycling","tag-downhill","tag-mountain-biking","tag-mtb","tag-uci"],"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"8850 Media","author_link":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/author\/usr_8850\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Valentina-Holl-UCI-Elite-Women-Downhill-300x200.jpeg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["News<\/a>"],"unlinked":["News<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["#PALARINSAL<\/a>","ANDORRA<\/a>","Cycling<\/a>","Downhill<\/a>","MountainBiking<\/a>","MTB<\/a>","UCI<\/a>"],"unlinked":["#PALARINSAL<\/span>","ANDORRA<\/span>","Cycling<\/span>","Downhill<\/span>","MountainBiking<\/span>","MTB<\/span>","UCI<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 \u0935\u0930\u094d\u0937 ago","modified":"Updated 2 \u0935\u0930\u094d\u0937 ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 1 \u0938\u0947\u092a\u094d\u091f\u0947\u092e\u094d\u092c\u0930 2024","modified":"Updated on 1 \u0938\u0947\u092a\u094d\u091f\u0947\u092e\u094d\u092c\u0930 2024"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 1 \u0938\u0947\u092a\u094d\u091f\u0947\u092e\u094d\u092c\u0930 2024 08:55","modified":"Updated on 1 \u0938\u0947\u092a\u094d\u091f\u0947\u092e\u094d\u092c\u0930 2024 14:32"},"featured_img_caption":"[:en]Valentina H\u00f6ll of Austria reacts after completing a hat-trick in the UCI Elite Women Downhill Championship. Photo: UCI<\/em>[:]","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1932"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1947,"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1932\/revisions\/1947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8850media.com\/np\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}