MTB – DHI – World Cup 2024 – 2 – Bielsko-Biała [FULL RACE] (ladies)

May 19, 2024

MTB – DHI – World Cup 2024 WE – 2 – – Bielsko-Biała, Poland 🇵🇱

Downhill pretty much does what it says on the tin: it’s about riding downhill, really fast. It’s raced individually in a time trial format, with riders going against the clock to try to set the fastest time from the top to the bottom of the mountain. It’s arguably the most thrilling and most dangerous mountain bike format, with tightly-taped tracks featuring boulder-strewn rock gardens, huge slippery roots, massive drops and big jumps which all test the riders’ skill, nerve and equipment. Some tracks are longer and slower, and others are short, steep and fast. The shortest tracks last just under three minutes, and the longest are more towards six minutes. The speeds in downhill are really high, with riders often reaching in excess of 70kmph whilst flying down the mountain.

Marine Cabirou had a disappointing Fort William by her own high standards, finishing outside the podium places and leaving herself with a lot to do to challenge Valentina Höll (YT Mob) in the UCI World Cup overall championship. She appeared to have put the Scottish season opener behind her though, arriving in Poland as one of the most consistent riders on the Beskid Mountains’ course.

Third place in Saturday’s Qualifying and Semi-Finals was a sign that Cabirou wasn’t in Poland to make up the numbers and dropping in on her Finals run with just Tahnée Seagrave (Canyon CLLCTV FMD) and Höll to come, she knew she’d have to find more than three seconds on her Semi-Finals time to knock then-race leader Camille Balanche (Dorval AM Commencal) out of the hot seat.

After a steady top section, the 27-year-old grew in confidence throughout her run, laying down the power to set a blistering pace in the lower section that was good enough for top spot. Seagrave looked like she was on a heater, finding almost a second at the first intermediate split, but the resurgent Brit came unclipped from her pedals in the technical wood section, losing momentum and crossing the line fifth.

And then there was Höll. The 2023 UCI Downhill World Champion put a snapped chain in Qualifying behind her to set the fastest time in the Semi-Finals, with Aaron Gwin saying in live commentary that it was “hers to lose”. The 22-year-old set off incredibly powerfully from the start gate, but her run was over as quickly as it had started – a crash in the first sector sending her down hard. Last year’s overall series winner isn’t a quitter and was quickly back on her bike, but it was damage limitation rather than a miraculous recovery – the Austrian coming home in sixth.

Her win in Poland was Cabirou’s eighth UCI Downhill World Cup of her career, and speaking after the race, she said: “I’m super happy to win here on this new track in Poland. It’s crazy because the track has changed a lot all week. It was difficult to manage the race run because we had a lot of rain at the start of the afternoon, so I didn’t know if I could push or not, so I just tried to do my best. At the beginning, I saw that the track was kind of dry so I tried to push. I made a mistake but I think everybody made a mistake, so I just had a good run.”

Results :