The 2011 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup presented by Shimano concluded on Sunday in Val di Sole, Italy, with the crowd favourite Downhill. Myriam Nicole (Riding Addiction Commencal) took her first ever World Cup victory in the women's race, while Aaron Gwin (Trek World Racing) took a record fifth victory in a single season in the men's competition. Gwin had already locked up the men's title in the previous round, and his team mate Tracy Moseley held off a tight challenge from Floriane Pugin (Scott 11) to win the women's.
Moseley was playing it safe, knowing that she only needed a top-seven to win the title, and not wanting to crash, slotted in behind Emmeline Ragot (Team GR). Rachel Atherton (Commencal), went third from last and took the lead below four minutes with a time of 3:54.405, however, Nicole came through right after, 2.2 seconds faster, which proved to be the winning run. Pugin, the fastest qualifier, and second in the World Cup standings, rode last, but finished eight-tenths of a second behind Nicole for second.
"I don't believe it," Nicole said after her run, "maybe I will realize tonight. I didn't have a clean run, but I was all out on this track. I did not want to crash on the top, it was real hard and my hands hurt already. Near the finish I was [saying] "come on", and I did it."
Moseley agreed that she was nervous before her run, "I wanted to race hard for the win, but when I hit the first [technical] section, I realized that I needed to play it safe and not take any chances. This has been an incredible season, a dream season, coming towards the end of my career."
Moseley won the overall title with 1465 points and four individual victories in seven races. Pugin finished with 1390 points, one win and four seconds, followed by Atherton with 115 points, Nicole with 929 points and Jonnier with 889 points.
Greg Minnaar (Santa Cruz Syndicate) set a time of 3:17.329 with 20 riders to go, which remained the leading time until Cameron Cole (Lapierre), 11th from the end, knocked off eight-tenths of a second.
Cole remained in the lead as the top-ten counted down, but Gee Atherton (Commencal), the World Champion on this course in 2008, came in two seconds faster, with three riders remaining. Junior World Cup leader Troy Brosnan (Monster Energy/Specialized/Mad Catz) slotted in just behind Atherton, before Danny Hart (Giant) finished three seconds ahead to take the lead, the first to go faster than Gwin's qualifying time.
Steve Smith (Devinci) was supposed to race next, as the second fastest qualifier, but he had crashed in training earlier in the day, injuring his ankle and knee, and had to watch from the sidelines. It was up to Gwin and, as he has shown all season, he is in a class of his own this year. Fastest through both splits, Gwin came in 1.232 seconds up on Hart to confirm that he is the number one downhiller in the world.
"I am just really happy," stated Gwin. "It was an important race for me. I struggled here last year with a crash and felt good this week, but it was rough, it was definitely a challenge. I don't know, the top part went pretty good, I felt like I was on a good run. So I just tried to be smooth at the bottom. I went a bit slower than I would have liked to at the bottom. I am just so happy. I want to thank all the fans and sponsors and everybody. It has been an awesome year. Could not have done it without you all."
Gwin finishes the season with 1558 points, five wins, a third and a fourth. Minnaar, with two wins this season, hung on for second with 1093 points, ahead of Atherton at 1009. Danny Hart jumped over Steve Smith to take fourth, while Smith hung onto the final podium spot.
2011 UCI WC Finals Val Di Sole Downhill
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