Val d'Isere DH Finals in Photos - UCI World Cup 2012
Jul 29, 2012
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 Tons of fans and an exceptional looking backdrop. It was quite the interesting World Cup week, and the most exciting race of the season so far. |
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| Lots of flats all week meant the mechanics were coming up with all sorts of preventative measures for race day. Here, Jacy Shumilak puts an extra tube in Sam's bike to make sure he keeps the air where it belongs. |
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| Rachel Atherton won by 1.487. We will have to wait until the last round in Norway for the overall winner. |
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| Emmeline Ragot has been second or third at almost every race this year, and even when she won Fort William Rachael beat her in points. But because Rachel missed the first round Emmy's still in the race for the overall, only 80 points back. |
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| Loic Bruni was in 7th place at the 2nd split, and looked like he would be the fastest junior, but he crashed hard near the end of the course, leaving the spot wide open for this guy, Connor Fearon, to take the junior win. |
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| Remi Therion has been on it all week and he was sending it this morning in practice. |
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| Andrew Neethling had an early start today, and quickly went into the hot seat. It didn't last long though... |
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| Sam Hill is smiling and getting sideways again. A crash in finals took him out of the running, but everyone had better keep an eye open at Crankworx and Worlds. Old School Sam is back. |
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| Marc Beaumont was looking pinned all weekend, and while 7th place may not be what he wanted, it's nothing to complain about. |
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| Aaron Gwin had his game face on this morning, but was riding with a bunch of stitches in his hand all day and didn't make the top 3. |
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| While Gwin didn't manage a win here, he still managed to clinch to overall title with one race left, same as last year. |
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| Minnaar was the first who managed to move Gwin from the hot seat today, that's not something we've seen much of the last 2 two seasons. |
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| Steve Smith had a rough day and "just rode too slow" in his words. He'll be back and ready to charge at Worlds in a few weeks. |
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| Sender Steve, sending it! |
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| Mick Hannah was flying on the last part of the course, and even managed to hold the hot seat for a while, although he just missed the podium. |
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| Cam Cole qualified fastest here two days ago, and everyone was waiting to see what he would do today in the fully. Unfortunately it wasn't to be, and Cole ended up in 8th spot. That's still respectable though, and it definitely served as an announcement that he's here and ready for another podium finish, Val di Sole wasn't a fluke. |
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| Mitch Ropelato is finally riding a Carbon Demo, and rode to his best world cup result ever today in 14th place. Who knows how fast he would have been if he hadn't hung up in a corner. Some people drop the ball when given an opportunity, and some rise to the challenge. Mitch is definitely in the latter. |
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| Second podium of the year for Josh Bryceland. |
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| Gee hasn't missed a podium this season, although he hasn't had a win either. For a few minutes it looked like that might change, but then Brook MacDonald changed everything. |
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| Bulldog Brook! First world cup win and Val D'Isere may burn tonight. The Vodka is already on ice at MS Mondraker. |
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| The racing schedule is so tight, that even the top teams sometimes have to improvise. Aaron Gwin. |
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| Bulldog celebrates like a little kid. Way to go Brook, we're all stoked for you. |
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| The man of the day! |
