Down to The Line in Leogang | UCI Downhill MTB World Cup 2019 1
Leogang whips up a race of twists and turns during the UCI DH World Cup finals! With slippery dust from start to finish, a winning run required precision riding, while really pushing the envelope on one of the fastest courses of the season. It was Loic Bruni and Tracey Hannah who perfected that formula on the day! Eliot Jackson takes us through the excitement from Austria.
All eyes were on Tracey Hannah as she took to the course. The last rider down the hill was gunning for it from the start and pushing even harder than in qualifying. The Australian rider was supremely efficient on the flat-out sections of the track and clean in the trees, taking chunks out of Hoffmann's time at every split.Hannah crossed the finish line with a time of 3m 42.107s and celebrated an emotional fourth World Cup win.
Fastest qualifier Greg Minnaar, 21 times a World Cup winner, was the only man left to try and better Bruni's time. From start to finish the result could have gone either way, with Minnnaar just a fraction of a second slower at each split and gaining speed as he progressed through his run. Bruni was literally on the edge of his seat in the finish arena – Minnaar had been strong at the end of the track in qualifying, but the veteran racer couldn't quite claw it back. He crossed the finish line in second place, an infinitesimal 0.3s behind Bruni, who threw his arms aloft in celebration of his second win of the season.
TALK ABOUT DRAMA!
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bizutch
6/13/2019 12:45 PM
damn...Bruni's suspension was just dialed on that finals run. Watching the live feed, his rear wheel tracking just stuck out immediately compared to anyone else. I think in Cathro's video, Fabien Barel tried to chime in that his mental focus was the only thing that changed between qualifying and finals, but to me it had looked like his rebound was slower than everybody else...then sure as shit, Loic says the only thing he did different between qualifying and finals...was slow his rebound down.
Sometimes taking a different path than all the other riders will separate you in a positive way and it's awesome to see that happen. Sometimes, the settings that get you on the top step make a bicycle feel more like a couch than a racer. Great to see that someone's settings were different BEFORE he announced it in an interview.