Rachel Atherton takes her 12th consecutive World Cup win at Mont St Anne

Hot, dry, dusty, fast and very very tough. Over the 26 years that it’s featured on the World Cup circuit, Mont St Anne’s track has weathered so that now it is almost as rocky as the other long serving World Cup track at Fort William.

In the Women’s Elite race Tahnee Seagrave had qualified uncharacteristically far down the order. She took the early lead in 4.50.35  and stayed in the hot seat until the final 4 were on track.

Australian Tracey Hannah bettered Tahnee by almost two seconds to go into the lead – still over 5 seconds out from Rachel’s qualifying time – would it be enough?  Local hero Miranda Miller was 0.4 down on Tahnee with only two women left on track. Brit Manon Carpenter was 0.14 seconds down on her good friend Tahnee Seagrave with only Rachel was left on course. 

In a scorching run the British National champion and winner of her last 11 consecutive World Cups made it 12 in a row – over 11 seconds clear of the field.

Rachel said “ I’m over the moon, don’t believe that it ever gets any easier, Mont St Anne is a TOUGH one!”

In the Men’s race Taylor put in a great run, crossing in 4.10.857 enough for an eventual 29th, his best of the season! 

Taylor said “ I bloody love it here, it’s flat out! Stoked with that!”

French rider Loic Bruni was returning from injury and had also qualified lower down the ranks than expected – he put in a storming run to go into the hot seat 4.00.792 4.779 seconds clear of George Brannigan!

By the time the top seven riders were on track no-one had matched Loic – or Brannigan who still sat in 2^nd. Luca Shaw started steadily ( 12^th at split1) but made up time progressively down the track – crossing into 2^nd in 4.03.421. With 6 riders left on track it looked like things were heating up when Loris Vergier went fastest at split 1! But a serious mistake put him down into 77^th by split 2 and out of the running. 

Now Gee was on track. He couldn’t seem to get into contention, 11^th at split 1 he’d slipped back to 15^th by split 3 but powered  back to 7^th by split 4 to cross into 7^th in 4.07.275 , enough for an eventual 11^th place.

Women’s Elite Results

1 Rachel Atherton – Trek Factory Racing DH 4.37.448

2 Tracey Hannah – Polygon UR 4.48.604 +11.116

3 Tahnee Seagrave  - Transition Factory Racing/FMD 4.50.530 +12.862

4 Manon Carpenter – Madison Saracen Factory Team 4.50.479 +12.991

5 Miranda Miller 4.50.979 +13.491

Elite Men’s Result

1 Danny Hart – MS Mondraker 3.59.754

2 Aaron Gwin – The YT Mob 4.00.423 +0.669

3  Loic Bruni Specialized Gravity powered by SRAM 4.00.792 + 1.038

4 Troy Brosnan – Specialized Racing 4.03.418 3.664

5 Luca Shaw SRAM/TLD Racing 4.03.421 +3.667

11 Gee Atherton – Trek Factory Racing DH 4.07.275 +7 + 7.521

29 Taylor Vernon – Trek Factory Racing DH 4.10.857 +11.103