Pal Arinsal was dry, dusty and slowly falling apart by the time the fastest riders dropped in. The rock sections kept getting rougher as more riders smashed their way through it.\u00a0 Like every donwhill race these days, it was so close that one small mistake could end everything.<\/p>\n
Jordan Williams seemingly didn\u2019t make many. The Specialized Gravity rider put together a heater of a run to win his second World Cup in a row, backing up his victory in La Thuile with another seriously impressive performance in Andorra. That win put him in the overall lead. Finn Iles is now in second overall.<\/p>\n
On the women\u2019s side, Canada\u2019s Gracey Hemstreet came within half a second of the win, finishing second behind Valentina H\u00f6ll. Sacha Earnest completed the podium in third.<\/p>\n
Williams finds another gear<\/p>\n
Asa Vermette set an early benchmark with a strong run. Jackson Goldstone came next but couldn\u2019t top him, slipping into second at the time.<\/p>\n
Then Reece Wilson put together one of those runs that was unexpected. The former world champion was up by a second at the first split. Still up at the second. Three-quarters of a second ahead at the third. Half a second up at the final split.<\/p>\n
For a brief moment, it looked like Wilson might finally claim the \u20ac100,000 Gates Belt Drive prize. He crossed the line fastest and could barely believe it. More than 10 riders still had to come down, but Wilson\u2019s time held through Loris Vergier and then Ryan Pinkerton, who finished less than a second behind him.<\/p>\n
Then Williams dropped in.<\/p>\n
He was fast through the upper section, but the bottom of the track was where he did something different. Somehow, Williams found more speed through the deteriorating track and crossed the line 2.331 seconds ahead of Wilson. That was it.<\/p>\n
Iles goes all in<\/p>\n
Finn Iles started fast. He qualified third and looked good on track. The Canadian was up at the first split. Up again at the second. Then he slipped behind at the third.<\/p>\n
From there it was balls to the wall, but Williams had simply done too much damage near the bottom. Iles finished fifth, 3.036 seconds back. Goldstone ended up sixth, one spot behind Iles.<\/p>\n
Amaury Pierron\u2019s day ended with a hard crash. His airbag deployed and thankfully he was able to get up afterward.<\/p>\n
Bode Burke also went down heavily while fastest qualifier Lachlan Stevens-McNab crashed in the first left-hand corner, ending the final chance to knock Williams off the hot seat. Williams had done it again.<\/p>\n
Hemstreet gets even closer<\/p>\n
H\u00f6ll took the women\u2019s win in 3:06.717, but Hemstreet was right there. The Canadian finished only 0.485 seconds back, delivering another podium and one of her best rides of the season.<\/p>\n
Hemstreet admitted the bottom section had been on her mind all week after crashing there last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was honestly struggling in that section all week, to be honest,\u201d she says. \u201cI have a little PTSD maybe but, yeah, I think I over braked a little bit there, but it\u2019s OK. I made it to the bottom this year, so it\u2019s a win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sacha Earnest finished third, 2.869 seconds behind H\u00f6ll, while Anna Newkirk and Jenna Hastings rounded out the top five.<\/p>\n
Elite men\u2019s top 10<\/p>\n
1. Jordan Williams \u2014 Specialized Gravity \u2014 2:41.666
2. Reece Wilson \u2014 AON Racing \u2014 2:43.997 (+2.331)
3. Ryan Pinkerton \u2014 Mondraker Factory Racing DH \u2014 2:44.166 (+2.500)
4. Asa Vermette \u2014 Frameworks Racing \/ TRP \u2014 2:44.207 (+2.541)
5. Finn Iles \u2014 Specialized Gravity \u2014 2:44.702 (+3.036)
6. Jackson Goldstone \u2014 Santa Cruz Syndicate \u2014 2:44.807 (+3.141)
7. Troy Brosnan \u2014 Canyon DH Racing \u2014 2:45.321 (+3.655)
8. Luca Shaw \u2014 Canyon DH Racing \u2014 2:46.188 (+4.522)
9. Angel Suarez Alonso \u2014 2:46.249 (+4.583)
10. Tyler Waite \u2014 Yeti \/ Fox Factory Race Team \u2014 2:46.282 (+4.616)<\/p>\n
Elite women\u2019s top 10<\/p>\n
1. Valentina H\u00f6ll \u2014 Commencal Schwalbe by Les Orres \u2014 3:06.717
2. Gracey Hemstreet \u2014 Norco x Adidas Race Division \u2014 3:07.202 (+0.485)
3. Sacha Earnest \u2014 Trek-Unbroken DH \u2014 3:09.586 (+2.869)
4. Anna Newkirk \u2014 Frameworks Racing \/ TRP \u2014 3:10.185 (+3.468)
5. Jenna Hastings \u2014 Pivot Factory Racing \u2014 3:10.243 (+3.526)
6. Valentina Roa Sanchez \u2014 MS-Racing \u2014 3:10.560 (+3.843)
7. Jess Blewitt \u2014 Scott Downhill Factory \u2014 3:11.892 (+5.175)
8. Kate Hastings \u2014 3:11.992 (+5.275)
9. Harriet Harnden \u2014 AON Racing \u2014 3:12.917 (+6.200)
10. Gloria Scarsi \u2014 MS-Racing \u2014 3:13.233 (+6.516)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pal Arinsal was dry, dusty and slowly falling apart by the time the fastest riders dropped in. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795430,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,1700,82],"class_list":["post-795429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-mtb-features","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}