French Riders and 29ers qualify well in Lourdes World Cup downhill
French racers Loris Vergier leads Loic Bruni in the men’s qualifying for the opening round of the 2017 downhill mountain bike World Cup, in Lourdes, France, less than half a second separating the pair. In Southwestern France, Lourdes is the opening round for the third year in a row, and is known for a challenging rocky course and unpredictable weather in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains.
American Luca Shaw is third heading into Sunday’s main event, followed by Briton Danny Hart in fourth. The top four riders are split by less than 0.7 seconds, with Aaron Gwinn and Greg Minnaar in fifth and sixth respectively.
Vergier, Shaw, and Minnaar are all riding the new Santa Cruz V10 29er. With three Syndicate riders in the top six, some wonder if the large wheels will develop into must-have equipment in downhill.
Though down in qualifying, Gwinn has won the opening round of the World Cup for the last three seasons, including twice in Lourdes. While unpredictable weather can play a role in the overall podium, Gwinn has made his mark on this course, and is a marked man for it.
Gee Atherton, who was fastest in Friday’s practice session, is 12th after Qualifying.
Mark Wallace is the top ranked Canadian man, sitting in 19th place over six seconds back from the leader.
In the women’s qualifying session, it was British riders that came out on top, sweeping the top three positions. Tahnee Seagrave was fastest in the final section of the course to overtake Rachel Atherton for first place by a crushing 1.3 seconds. Manon Carpenter was third fastest, a full second back from second place.
In 2016, Seagrave was fastest in qualifying, though Atherton found some extra speed to win on race day.
Kicking off her first season with Specialized Gravity, Canadian Miranda Miller was eighth fastest on the Lourdes course, dropping time in the last two segments of the run. If she can fine tune her speed in the bottom of the course, Miller could pick up a few positions, having been sixth fastest through the first three splits.
Miller’s Specialized teammate, and fellow Canadian, Finnley Iles set fastest and second fastest times in the first three splits before dropping back to third place at the bottom. Matt Walker and Kaos Seagrave took first and second in the men’s Junior qualifying ahead of Iles.
Sunday is race day in Lourdes, though fans in Canada can watch the races live starting at 4am ET on RedBull.tv
