Race downhill and you will discover how much can go wrong in four minutes. I would wager that, until you approach the top 20 percentile of the professional ranks, gravity racing is damage control, pure and simple: don't crash, don't blow a corner, don't run out of gas, and don't break anything. At its highest level, however, downhill racing is about preparation, planning, execution, and risk management - and evidently, that's a formula that Rachel Atherton understands quite well.


Rachel shouldered those burdens, maintained her fitness at the razor's edge, arrived at start gate with the correct bike setup, the track memorized, and armed with the time to beat, laid down a race-run fast enough to win, with just enough restraint to avoid a puncture or a mechanical failure - for an entire season.





In the end, however, there is nothing her support group can help her with. When the start gate sounds, Rachel sprints onto the track alone against the clock, compressing her entire career into a controlled, four-minute explosion. It may be a long time before another pro downhill racer goes green fifteen races in a row. We are fortunate to have watched the performance. Brava!

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