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Seagrave and Bruni take season’s first wins in Slovenia

Mark Wallace top elite Canadian at Maribor at a World Cup Downhill dominated by mixed wheel size bikes

Maribor World Cup Tahnee Seagrave

A fresh venue in Maribor, Slovenia delivered an exciting start to the World Cup race season over the weekend, with close times and exciting racing.

Tahnée Seagrave unseated Rachel Atherton to take the first win in the elite women’s race. Loic Bruni started 2019 as he ended 2018, taking a razor thin victory over Danny Hart. It was the first time the Slovenian venue hosted a World Cup since the series last topped at Maribor nine years ago.

Maribor World Cup
Tanhée Seagrave skims over the roots in Maribor at the first World Cup round of 2019. Image: Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool
Elite Women Final: World Cup #1 – Maribor, Slovenia

Tahnée Seagrave (Transition – Muc-Off) stormed to the first win of the 2019 World Cup season. The young Brit edged out Rachel Atherton (Atherton Bikes) by 0.855 seconds, after going back and forth with the dominant women’s downhill racer the whole way down the track.

Seagrave, 23, said: “It is an amazing feeling. Watching Rachel come down, it was so tight. You can’t go flat out into sections. It was really hard for me to remind myself to go smooth in and fast out.”

Despite leading at the first and third split times, Atherton couldn’t quite hold on to take the win for her new team and bike brand, Atherton Bikes. The most winning woman in World Cup racing launched the eponymous bike brand with her brothers, Gee and Dan Atherton in the off-season.

Tracey Hannah (Polygon UR) finished third, with Marine Cabirou (Scott Downhill Racing) fourth. Monika Hrastnik (Dorval AM) backed up her surprise results from 2018 with a fifth place, racing at home in Slovenia.

Maribor World Cup
Marine Cabirou (4th), Rachel Atherton (2nd), Tahnee Seagrave (1st), Tracey Hannah (3rd) and Monika Hrastnik (5th): the elite women’s podium from World Cup DH #1 in Maribor, Slovenia. Image: Bartek Wolinski / Red Bull Content Pool.

RELATED: Maribor WC junior racing: Ethan Shandro second in his first World Cup

Maribor World Cup
Loic Bruni takes the win in Slovenia wearing the rainbow stripes of the world champion. Image: Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool
Elite Men Final: World Cup #1 – Maribor, Slovenia

After winning his third world championship downhill title in Lenzerheide, Switzerland to close out a rocky 2018 season, where he broke his elbow at the first round of racing, Loic Bruni (Specialized Gravity Racing) has started 2019 on a much more positive note. The French rider edged out Danny Hart (Madison Saracen) by just 0.404 second to take the first win of 2019.

“From last year in Croatia when I got injured to this one, it is redemption big time,” Bruni said after the race. “I am super happy.”

It wasn’t just the riders making waves at Maribor, either. With both Bruni and Hart racing on mixed, 29″ front / 27.5″ rear bikes, it appears that the wheel size wars could be flaring up once again. While it’s less likely the mixed-wheel bikes will make much of an impact on the consumer market, race teams will be scrambling to try out the mis-matched set-up, if they haven’t already. The World Cup win stokes the mixed-wheel fever after Martin Maes (GT Factory Racing) won both of the first two Enduro World Series rounds on with the “mullet bikes.”

Troy Brosnan (Canyon Factory Racing) and Charlie Harrison (Trek Factory Racing DH) in third and fourth also finished on the same second as Bruni in Maribor.  Making for an an incredibly close World Cup finish. Hart’s Madison Saracen teammate Matt Walker rounded out the podium in fifth.

After both qualifying in the top three on Saturday, Mark Wallace (Canyon Factory Racing) and Finn Iles (Specialized Gravity Racing) couldn’t quite keep the same pace in finals. Wallace was the top Canadian elite men’s finisher, taking eighth 2.304 seconds behind Bruni.

Maribor World Cup
Finn Iles through the rocks at Maribor World Cup downhill. Image: Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool

After blazing through the first split time in fifth, Iles couldn’t quite hold the pace of his Specialized teammate, Bruni. Iles crashed in his finals run, finishing the course in 52nd.

Forrest Riesco (Commencal Canada) had a better finals run. The B.C. rider had consistent splits to finish 44th in the opening World Cup round. For an indication of just how tight racing was in Slovenia, Riesco’s time was just 8.716 seconds off the winning time after 3 minutes 7 seconds of racing. Ben Wallace was the fourth Canadian qualified for Sunday’s final. The first year elite racer finished 55th in Maribor.

Maribor World Cup
Charlie Harrison (4th), Danny Hart (2nd), Loic Bruni (1st) Troy Brosnan (3rd) and Matt Walker (5th) make up the elite men’s World Cup podium in Maribor, Slovenia. Image: Bartek Wolinski / Red Bull Content Pool.
Maribor World Cup
Rachel Atherton aboard the new Atherton Bike’s downhill rig at the Maribor, Slovenia World Cup Dh. Image Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool
Elite Women Final: World Cup #1 – Maribor, Slovenia

Elite Women Final: World Cup #1 – Maribor, Slovenia by Matthew Pioro on Scribd

Elite Men Final: World Cup #1 – Maribor, Slovenia
Maribor World Cup
Aaron Gwin found himself close to the winning pace, but six spots down the standings. Image: Bartek Wolinski / Red Bull Content Pool

Elite Men Final: World Cup #1 – Maribor, Slovenia by Matthew Pioro on Scribd