The last World Cup DH is here and the season concludes at the classic venue of Mont-Sainte-Anne in Quebec, Canada. A staple of the World Cup race scene, MSA won't be returning in 2026, so we'll soak up the unrelenting rocks and speeds while we can.
DH Track walk Weds, Training Thursday, Quali on Friday with race day on Saturday
Live timing will be here - https://prod.chronorace.be/angular/results.html#/uci/event/20251009_mtb
Vali has Elite Women's overall locked up and is rumored to be racing in shorts due to a lost bet. Loic has a 72-point lead over Jackson with lots of pressure for both since qualifying offers no points this round. @iceman2058 with some more
"There are many scenarios possible. Loic has a 72-point lead, and there are 250 points on the table for the winner (there are no points given for qualifying in the final round of the World Cup, per UCI rules).
The points are awarded as follows, from the winner down through the ranks: 250-210-180-160-140-125-110-95-80-75-and it keeps dropping down to the 30th place. If Jackson wins and Loic is third, Loic still takes the overall by 2 points. If Loic doesn't get ANY points at all, Jackson only needs 10th place or better. Let's say Jackson is third, he then needs Loic to be 8th or worse. Some scenarios..."
and @Red Number 3 with some post-season analysis between Jackson and Loic below
Comparing the 2025 World Cup* seasons of Bruni and Goldstone, through the first 9 races.
[*World Championships not included. Goldstone won that race and Bruni wrecked, finishing 49th. This race is excluded because it didn't affect the WC overall standings. If included, it would have changed the avg. finish to Bruni: 9.3 Goldstone: 7.2.]
Weather looks dry and chilly for the week hopefully creating a fair race for all lining up.
Should be a good one! Share your social media finds below and we'll do the same.
A few notes on MSA.
These are the Elite winners of the last 5 World Cup races at MSA:
2024: Brosnan / Cabirou
2023: Goldstone / Höll
2022: Iles / Höll
2018: Bruni / Atherton
2017: Gwin / Seagrave
In the 2019 World Championships the winners were Bruni / Nicole.
Various riders’ past results at MSA:
Jackson Goldstone: Has won both races he’s entered at MSA, once as Elite and once as a Junior. He also finished first in the Semi-final in 2023.
Loic Bruni: Has only 4 top 3 finishes in 10 WC races there. In 2023 he finished 3rd in the race won by Jackson Goldstone (see scenarios mentioned in @sspomer 's post above!) and 3rd in the Semi-Final.
Finn Iles: Has only 1 podium at MSA in 4 tries as an Elite, but it was pretty special: He won the race in 2022 despite losing his chain during the race, becoming the first Canadian to win a World Cup DH race since Stevie Smith in 2013. Finn also had a win and a 2nd place finish in his 2 years as a Junior.
Sacha Earnest: Finished 2nd in both races at MSA she entered as a Junior. In 2023 her time would have been good enough to place 4th in the Women’s Elite.
Gracey Hemstreet: Made finals in 2 of 3 races at MSA, finishing 2nd as an Elite and 3rd as a Junior.
Max and Till Alran: Finished 1-2 in 2024. Max’s time was almost 1 second faster than the winning Men’s Elite time.
[Asa Vermette: This will be his first time racing at MSA.]
Shout out to Red3 for setting up the points narrative. Considering both riders are not gonna wanna risk it, we could very well see them both go more top 10 or even top 20... Knowing that a solid finish gives them a strong position and a crash or mechanical by bad line practically throws it away.
I can't imagine either guy is thinking 'first or last' even though it's tempting. Considering they finished close to each other, and both riders have been making mistakes, there are some strategies to consider. Whereas if Jackson was just winning every round it would be obvious what Loic has to do. (And vice versa.)
The best part is if riders start inserting themselves between the two of em. Just like 2019, the overall can swing back and forth depending on who slots in between them. The only bummer is we won't have Warner to make those calls mid run.
Oh boy oh boy oh boy!!!
Unless the nerves get to Jackson I think he’s the favorite to win. Winning is also his best shot at getting the overall. Loic has been incredibly consistent this year and msa is generally a good track for him. The further Jackson slides down the order the more positions he needs to beat loic by.
They're both going to giv'er. This isn't F1, the only way to own your destiny is to put down the best run possible, too many other bad things can happen. It's going to be insanely compelling and I can't wait to not look at social media for 2 days so you fucktards don't ruin the anticipation while I'm riding park at Sky Tavern. 🥰
Did we get a solid weather update? Is it looking fairly calm out that way or is the season starting and its a dice roll by now?
Raining tonight then sunny and cool. Hope it stays that way cause I’m not packing a rain jacket.
I’ve found this app to be quite reliable from 5 days out here in our part of the world. Of course, it does get more accurate by 72hrs away from an anticipated date, but the forecast is stable for now:
Can't wait! Will be there to see the action live.
A wee bit sad it's the last race at MSA, for now...
And I'm a wee bit jealous that you get to be there in person. The crowd energy could be epic when Gracey, Finn, and Jackson (and hopefully Bodhi Kuhn) come down the hill.
Have a great time!
This could easily be the scenario that plays out IF both easily make the qualis. High chance for mechanicals on this track and the rest of the field is going to be bringing the intensity for good results at the last round.
Qualis could be the make or break rounds to ~~watch~~ follow for the overall fight if both play softball in finals.
Agreed on it being sad it's the last WC race at MSA, but we get Crankworx next year, so we should get a proper race then as well.
Weather should be pretty good, it's sunny and stable but most importantly not freezing at night yet, so the track should dry up and stay dry. With the rain we got this Tuesday though, curious to see what the leaf situation looks like. Most of them are probably on the track now, so leaf blowers are going to be working overtime.
https://www.rootsandrain.com/venue50/mont-sainte-anne-qc/events/filters/seriesgroups244/
More rando stats:
FOUR elite males have claimed their 1st UCI DH win at MSA:
Finn Iles
Chris Kovarik
Fabien Barel
Franck Roman
Roman & Iles are the only MSA winners with only 1 World Cup win dating back to 1994.
Every other winner of MSA is a multi-time WC winner
Odds are strongly AGAINST a repeat winner.
Odds are against a 2nd MSA win for Jackson.
2012 was the last time a rider won it back to back - AG7 (took 5 yrs to get a 3rd MSA)
That was 7 years AFTER Peaty won it 3 years in a row.
Steve Peat - 4 MSA wins
AG7 & Sam Hill- 3 MSA wins
Chris Kovarik, Fabien Barel - 2 MSA wins
Multiple riders have MSA as their 2nd WC win, but not in back to back races.
If it's Bruni or Jackson vs the field...take the field.
PIT BITS from Lawlor at MSA
I fail to see what a bunch of stuff that happened 8-25 years ago has to do with anything.
Admitting you fail is half the battle. Proud of you Blake. 👍
Goldstone is the favorite. I said it was a coin flip every race: him vs the field.
And he’s won half of them so I’m right.
more has to go right for him than the other guy
Full disclosure: I’m a BruniGoon til the day I die.
I predict neither of them will make finals. Bruni gets to be champ and I get to keep avoiding admitting that WBD turbocharged this sport for the better.
23 Bruni had the speed up at the end of the season. Then at MSA Ethan Craik had an insane run and was 2.4 sec faster, just to see himself obliterated by Jackson who whopped both their asses by 4,2 and 6.7 sec. It was a fairly dry MSA that year. I think we're in for something of a deja vu.
If I'm doing the math correctly and understanding the UCI Rules, if Jackson finishes 5th (worth 140 points) and Loic finishes 12th (68 points), they will end up tied in points for the Overall. [*See Note below.]
If that was to happen, I believe Jackson wins the Overall based on having the most 1st place finishes this season. At least, UCI Rule 4.11.018 seems to indicate that that's the result. It says:
"Riders tying on points are ranked by the greatest number of 1st places, 2nd places, etc. (total points in the standings of the concerned round) taking account only of places for which points are awarded for the UCI World Cup. If they are still tied, the points scored in the most recent UCI World Cup event are used to separate them."
* Note: Same result if Jackson finishes 7th (110 points) and Loic finishes 26th (38 points), a 72-point difference in points.
TWO chances of that happening? And they aren't out of this world numbers for either to go... Hm, wow
start lists came in - haven't double checked, but i think this is the smallest turnout of the year.
18 Junior Women
26 Elite Women
45 Junior Men
84 Elite Men
I think it's almost identical to Lake Placid, but now I can't recall with certainty if it was the entries list or the start list for each I checked last week. I'm pretty sure it was the start list for qualifying.
The numbers I had last week were 84/27/42/17 for Elite Men/Women and Juniors Men/Women. I calculated that the percentage of starters who'd make the final were 59% / 56% for the women and 36% / 48% for the men (Elite / Juniors).
Troy's track walk.
I'll just add this:
Roots and Rain says Troy has raced at MSA 12 times. He won the World Cup race there last year.
Besides that, he won a World Championship as a Junior there and took 2nd as an Elite in 2019. He has finished lower than 10th only 1 time in 12 races, with 6 podiums. Remember when he was available for $100 for Fantasy a few weeks ago? That would be a steal this weekend. I expect good things from him.
Mille following Lou for our first look at the track here at MSA:
Alway fun watching (and listening to) those two. 🙂
lou sending the gap is so sick! sheesh, that track is all-out warfare on bike and body.
If UCI puts a pole narc at this pole, I'm never watching this clown sport again.
Looks a bit past peak foliage season and well into "stick season" for most of the track. The lighting and shadows must be brutal at speed. If I was racing I'd be hoping for some clouds to tone it down a bit.
Just remembered Dak's run from last year and shed a single tear
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