Tahnée Seagrave (Orbea / FMD Racing) and Loïc Bruni (Specialized Gravity) defied appalling conditions in the Szczyrk Mountain Resort (Poland) to claim the opening round of the UCI Downhill World Cup in sensational style.
Bruni triumphed by a nail-biting 0.156 seconds over Oisin O’Callaghan (YT MOB), redemption for the Frenchman who lost out by an even tighter margin last year in Bielsko-Biała to another Irishman, Ronan Dunne (Mondraker Factory Racing DH), and won a race to recover from a collarbone injury just to compete in Poland.
The 2024 UCI Downhill World Cup overall winner was the last rider down the starting ramp to round out a fraught day that featured plenty of spills to match the thrilling finish, and he produced an almost perfect run to depose O’Callaghan who looked set for victory.
Seagrave put the women’s elite field on notice, announcing this is the first step in a tilt at the overall title after struggling with her own injury problems in recent years, as only Anna Newkirk (Frameworks Racing / 5DEV) could get anywhere close to her.
SEAGRAVE CONQUERS SNOW AND THE FIELD
It was a sign of the challenging conditions facing riders in Poland that Veronika Widmann (Mondraker Factory Racing DH) was the first woman to make it down the course in one piece as the third starter. Lisa Bouladou (Goodman Santa Cruz) hit trouble just before the flat section, and Phoebe Gale (Orbea / FMD Racing) lost traction after slipping on a boardwalk bridge at the top.
Utah-born Newkirk set the benchmark immediately after Widmann, powering (and at times scooting) into the lead a staggering 17 seconds quicker than the Italian.
Only four other riders finished within ten seconds of Newkirk as a first UCI World Cup win looked more and more likely with Marine Cabirou (Canyon CLLCTV Factory Team), Nina Hoffmann (Santa Cruz Syndicate) and Gloria Scarsi (MS Racing) all came and went in slower times - the latter rocking a belt-driven gearbox chasing the €100,000 prize for winning a round on that equipment.
However, the dream died when Seagrave entered the snowstorm. Riding the route as if it were dry, the Brit was fastest through the opening three time checks and though she lost time on the tail end of her run and nearly went over her handlebars at one stage, it was still enough to set a scorching time of 3:34.340.
Reigning UCI Downhill World Cup champion, Valentina Höll had no answer for YT MOB - lacking the aggression of Seagrave she finished in fifth at seven seconds down on the tenacious 29-year-old Brit.
“Because of the conditions my brakes weren’t working very well so I think that helped,” Seagrave said. “You’ve just got to make the best of it, I kept pumping the brake to make it work. I had a little sketchy moment at the end because I forgot to do that, but glad I managed to put it together.
“I don’t think it’s too early [to think about overall], I feel the healthiest I have been and I’m back from a series of horrible injuries. I’ve had a couple of years to get back into it and I’m ready to give it my all again.”
BRUNI EDGES OUT O’CALLAGHAN BY NARROWEST OF MARGINS
The fight between Bruni and O’Callaghan came right down to the wire with the Frenchman losing a second between the last two intermediate time checks, then clinging onto his tenth of a second advantage to avoid a second agonising defeat in as many years in Poland.
Staying on the bike proved half the battle with a host of riders hitting the deck while they sat in the green on the timing screens, the slightly improved weather conditions for the men’s race cajoling more risks and the corresponding rise in incidents.
Danny Hart (Norco Race Division) rolled back the years to set the first competitive time of the day but it was Amaury Pierron(Commencal/Muc-Off by Riding Addiction) who was the story until the final stages.
The sixth starter of the afternoon blew the rest of the field away with a time of 3:05.675 and would go on to finish third as the only other rider within a second of Bruni. For over an hour, it looked like it’d be even better.
Plenty started stronger than Pierron but whether it was Benoit Coulanges’ dropped chain for Scott Downhill Factory or Ronan Dunne, Andreas Kolb (YT MOB), Thibaut Daprela (Rogue Racing - SR Suntour) and Luca Shaw (Canyon CLLCTV Factory Team) all losing control while ahead, no one could put together the complete run.
Lachlan Stevens-McNab went the same way for Trek Factory Racing DH in arguably the most dramatic fashion of all as he was ejected from his bike midway through the course - the second year in a row he’s bit the dust while on track for the lead.
Richie Rude (Yeti / Fox Factory Race Team) was perhaps the closest to besting Pierron before O’Callaghan’s run, carrying some outrageous speed through the tightest sections of the Polish course on his return to Downhill after winning back-to-back Enduro UCI World Cup titles.
This season the American has switched his focus to the pure gravity discipline, like 2024 women’s overall UCI Enduro World Cup winner Harriet Harnden (AON Racing - Tourne Campervans) who qualified third but bottomed out on her final run and finished half a minute adrift. Rude had no such trouble, igniting the competition with his hair-raising run that finished just seven tenths behind Pierron.
The Frenchman was finally overthrown by ‘Double O’ though, O’Callaghan producing a magical run and celebrating joyfully as he crossed the line and saw he’d moved into first - a position he kept until the very last run of the day as Bruni proved inevitable.
“Last season was a bit stinky with finishing so close to the win,” Bruni said. “I didn’t think I had it in me with the offseason a bit complicated and the weather being so far from my favourite conditions but I just kept on riding.’’
“To me it was not so perfect, it was really rough, and I was getting caught off guard with the braking. I just had to give everything.”
With this podium Loïc Bruni equals his hero, Nicolas Vouilloz, with 44 career trips to the rostrum though he was quick to play down his own achievements compared to the French legend.
O’Callaghan added on watching Bruni’s run: “It definitely gets the heart racing more than the run. Woah it was tight, I was on the edge of the seat but good start, can’t complain really.”
ALRAN AND JENSEN SET THE PACE IN JUNIORS
Max Alran (Commencal/Muc-Off by Riding) showed he still reigns supreme in Men’s Junior UCI Downhill World Cup, but was pushed all the way by a new crop of challengers led by Tyler Waite (Yeti / Fox Factory Race Team).
Last down the ramp, Alran skated home just eight tenths ahead of Waite while Oli Clarke (MS-Racing) made it a Kiwi double-podium while another compatriot took fourth place - Waite’s teammate Jonty Williamson.
Asa Vermette (Frameworks Racing / 5DEV) had a disappointing first round of the year, trailing home tenth after the UCI World Championship qualified second, but he was still only seven seconds back in a compact field led by Alran.
Alran said: “Really stoked, not the easiest run but made it to the bottom first so really happy. What a way to start the season! The bike worked good, vision was good, so yeah… really happy.”
With defending UCI World Champion and UCI World Cup overall winner Erice van Leuven (Norco Race Division) still recovering from a crashthat returned multiple broken bones, the Women’s Junior category was up for grabs and it was Denmark’s Rosa Maria Jensen who laid down the first marker of the season.
“I just won my first UCI World Cup! I’m starting to believe it now, it’s the best day of my life, I’m so so happy and to be here with the team and family is something I’ll never forget,” Jensen said.
Jensen was the class of the field, beating Lina Frener and Eliana Hulsebosch by five seconds ahead of Van Leuven potentially returning next time out in Loudenvielle-Peyragudes. The French Pyrenees will host another gravity double-header in a fortnight’s time, after three home riders took victory in 2024.
However, before that, the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series heads to an iconic stop in Nové Město Na Moravě. The Czech staple of the European leg will feature the return of the UCI Cross-country Olympic and Short Track World Cup competitions that got started in such dramatic fashion in Araxá, Brazil as Christopher Blevins (Specialized Factory Racing), Samara Maxwell (Decathlon Ford Racing Team) and Evie Richards (Decathlon Ford Racing Team) will look to defend or even extend their overall leads from May 23-25.
