Rachel Atherton wins Elite downhill title in Vallnord; Canada cracks top five in Junior women’s race

After a competition to determine the world’s top Elite downhill specialists in Vallnord, Andorra, Rachel Atherton of Great Britain edged past compatriot Manon Carpenter — the defending downhill champion — to take the third downhill title of her career. Before this year’s win, the British mountain biker took two other downhill world titles, one in 2008 and another in 2013.

With 2008’s competition in the mix, it was her second time tackling Vallnord’s breakneck descents. The experience, no doubt, certainly didn’t hurt as she lined up this year.

“I can’t believe it, really,” Atherton said after the race at the UCI mountain bike world championships. “I’m pretty happy. I knew it was going to be hard today and the track is just crazy — so dry now compared to in the week. It’s fast; you have to hang on.” After several days of ugly, messy conditions on the Vallnord course, the weather broke enough in the last day to take care of what had become muddy, near-impassable terrain. For Saturday’s downhill specialists, that freshly-dried ground raised the stakes in unique ways when compared with cross-country competition. Traction reduced, the descents of Andorra became much more fast-paced, making them a matter of white knuckle intensity — and therein lay the challenge.

Britain’s Atherton used that challenge to her advantage, keeping it together on the course through a technical, tightly-controlled ride to cross the line in 5:08.488, a tight-but-decisive lead on Manon Carpenter that was enough to take the win.

For Canada’s representation, the day’s Elite women’s race wasn’t enough to claim podium standings, but two riders earned placement in the top 10. Casey Brown and Miranda Miller were seventh and eighth, respectively, with Brown 34.774 seconds behind Atherton and Miller 37.641 seconds back. In 14th place, Claire Buchar was gapped by Atherton by a little over a minute, clocking 1.101.247, while Canada’s Vaea Verbeeck was in 25th. With a time of 6:29.827, she was a little under a minute and a half behind the leader.

The Junior women’s downhill race saw France’s Marine Cabirou cross the line first, with a time of 6:21.379 giving her a seven-second gap on Viktoria Gimenez, also with France. In third was Hungary’s Lilla Megyaszai, well behind the lead duo of Cabrou and Gimenez with a 26.828 second gap. For Canada, meanwhile, the Junior women’s competition was an even stronger finish, with Georgia Castle placing fourth with a time of 6:55.573, a 34.194 gap behind Cabirou.

And in the Junior men’s race, finally, Great Britain also boasted top standings with eighteen-year-old Laurie Greenland’s finish, a 4:32.839 ride that gave him a three second edge on second place finisher Martin Maes, riding for Belgium. Australia’s Jackson Frew took bronze with a time of 4:44.424, eleven seconds behind Greenland.

Canada, though, was further behind on the Vallnord dirt in Junior men’s downhill than in other competitions, with Jack Almond clocking Team Canada’s best time in the race with 5:03.997 in 19th place. Coming in 22nd was Henry Fitzgerald, 32.311 behind the leader, while Canada’s Magnus Manson finished 31st, 40 seconds behind Greenland with a time of 5:13.395 .