Trek Factory Racing Downhill: Val di Sole The 2017 World Cup Series is in the books

Race Report : World Cup 2017 Round 7- Val di Sole The 2017 World Cup Series is in the books. 

Val di Sole is steep and it's rough, it's super tough on bikes and riders with roots, rocks, bomb holes and loose slippery corners all taking their toll. 

There was the constant threat of storms but this weekend at least the weather was king - all racers had good conditions with the deluge holding off until 30 minutes after the men's race.

In the qualifications run our junior rider Kade Edwards fell foul of one of the Black Snake's slippery corners when he washed out in a turn between the first and seconds splits and went down hard. Unhurt, he went into the finals run fully prepped and confident of a result. 

In his own words, Kade "came out of the start gate a mess". Off the pace from the start, he made up some ground in the mid sections but then a crash put paid to his hopes for a great result. 

Kade finished 10th and sits in 5th place in the overall standings - the highest ranked first year rider and a solid first season on the Factory team.

In the Women's race, Rachel was still riding at less than 100%, unable to fully trust her shoulder on this extraordinarily technical track. Rachel was enjoying her racing as she'd promised, finding lots of chances to chat to fans and hang out with her fellow racers but she couldn't match the top girls for pace with Tahnee Seagrave taking her third World Cup of the season while Rachel was pleased to come down in tact. Finishing in 4th place and sitting 4th place overall in the standings - not bad going with Fort William and Leogang missing from her score sheet. 

In the Men's race Muddy had qualified 48th and was looking forward to improving on that by some margin in the Finals race. He was riding strongly all weekend and hoped to continue his form from Mont St Anne but in another hideous piece of luck he contracted a stomach bug. The team worried he hadn't been able to keep any food down and wouldn't have the reserves required for such a brutal race run but at first it appeared things were going our boy's way, until he got hooked up in a turn after the 3rd split and went over the bars. 


67th today and 59th overall, not where he wanted to be after his first season as a pro rider. Muddy said: the stomach bug struck me hard. I struggled to eat anything today leaving me with no energy. I can't believe the season is over - I'm already thinking about how to prepare for 2018, I know I'll keep striving for the results I know are there for me". 

Next, Gee was on course. It's been a tough season for him following his hip dislocation at Fort William, realistically he's still not at full fitness and was unlikely to feature highly over the weekend. Having won two World Cups previously here, he was determined to push on and enjoy the return of some of his Val di Sole pace. 

Gee finished 24th and 43rd in the overall rankings having missed 3 rounds this season. Gee said "it's not the greatest World Cup Series but  I'm getting stronger every race and there's still everything to play for the at World Champs". 

Race Report: UCI World Cup 2017 Round 6: Mont St Anne, Canada

Rachel and Kade podium with 5th places and Gee and Muddy ride awesome runs in wet conditions for 17th and 40th place.

Mont St Anne is a World Cup Classic, it's long, brutal and this year it's more rocky than it has ever been before. Rain in the last few days had left the course pretty slippery but all eyes were to the skies as thunderstorms rolled into Mont St Anne today with 100% likelihood of rain forecast - when would the storm him and who would suffer the consequences?

First up as ever were the juniors - and it stayed dry for them! Finn Iles had qualified down in ninth so perhaps unsurprisingly he was in the hot seat with Joe Breeden in 2nd and Nikolas Nesteroff in third when fourth qualifier Kade came on track. What could our rising star bring to today's race?

Kade didn't have a confident start, 4 seconds back by the first split but that was to be the least of it, a mistake in the woods saw him with his hands off the bars losing more valuable time and near the bottom he smashed hard into a rock partially detaching a pedal and rendering it useless for the rest of the run. 

Kade's good friend Kaos Seagrave had qualified in third but was way back in 15th today, Sylvian Cougoureux slotted into 2nd pushing Kade back into 5th and then only first place qualifier Matt Walker was left on track. Trouble in the bottom section (rumours of a puncture) ended Walker's weekend and Kade's 5th stood. 

In the women's race 6th qualifier Emilie Siegenthaler roared into the hot seat by 12 seconds just before the top 5 came on course, then the action got pretty wild! Marine Cabirou had trouble and was way off the pace then 4th qualifier Tahnee Seagrave was on track. Tahnee attacked all the way holding nothing back and it paid huge dividends, into the hotseat 12.75 seconds clear of Siegenthaler. Could Rachel match her?

Rachel started more steadily than usual and was slightly down by split 1, 2.5 down by split 2 and then disaster struck. She got completely sideways in the rocks and it was nothing short of a miracle that she managed to hold on and stay within the tapes as she veered to the side of the course. 6.1 seconds back by split 3, she had a few more sketchy moments and was 9.5 down on Seagrave by split 4, crossing the line in 3rd place. 

Tracey Hannah had a good fast run, but a flat right at the end of the course probably stole her 2nd place from her. Myriam Pompon didn't have a great start, losing her pedals out of the start hut but she composed herself and put together a good run - enough for 2nd place. 

Rachel said: "Congratulations to Tahnee and to Pompon, Tracey and Emilie. It's been a wild weekend. Only physio Fi Lundie's sterling work enabled me to hold on out there today!"

In the Men's race, Gee had qualified 31st, still nursing his hip he put together another solid run despite slippery conditions to finish 4.24.77 - just 8 seconds off his dry qualifying run and eventually good enough for 17th place. 

Muddy had qualified in 13th and was super-excited that at last he felt he was finding his flow, but shortly before his Finals run the storm arrived in earnest and looked likely to put paid to the entire top 20's chances. Muddy was one of the first to ride the storm and the driving rain put paid to his quest for a top ten result. He rode with the confidence of a successful week's riding behind him but he crossed in 4.29.83 (18 seconds back on his qualifying time), enough for 40th. Muddy said: "That was the wildest run of my life! I'm extremely happy with how I approached this weekend. I was calm, relaxed and shredding! Pity Mother Nature had other ideas for me! Crazy that this is my best result of the season though!"