"After a break of almost a month, the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup presented by Shimano begins again this weekend with round six of the Downhill in La Bresse, France. The World Cup returns to La Bresse after an absence of one year.
It was raining earlier in the week, and is scheduled to rain again for race day on Sunday, making the many grassy sections slick and slippery. This is a fairly short course, so any time lost will be extremely damaging.
Despite a relatively small women's field of 37 riders, all of the top competitors are here, led by World Champion and World Cup leader Tracy Moseley (Trek World Racing). Moseley's lead is a fairly slim 100 points over Floriane Pugin (Scott 11), with round five winner Rachel Atherton (Commencal) considerably further back at 260 points in arrears. Moseley, unless she has a disastrous ride, should come out of the race still in the lead. However Pugin, racing before a home crowd, may be inspired here in La Bresse to close the gap even further for the final round. In addition to these women, Sabrina Jonnier (Maxxis-Rocky Mountain) continues to return to form after an early season injury, and would certainly like to repeat her win of 2009 here.
The men's series is all but wrapped up by Aaron Gwin, Moseley's team mate on the Trek World Racing squad. The American, after four wins in five races, holds a commanding 342 point lead over second place Greg Minnaar (Santa Cruz Syndicate). Gee Atherton (Commencal) is the only other rider with a mathematical chance of catching Gwin, and that is very remote, since he is 461 points back. As well as the aforementioned riders, look to the 2009 winner, Steve Peat (Santa Cruz Syndicate), and France's Fabien Barel (Mondraker) for a possible upset."
2011 UCI WC 6 La Bresse
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