DH World Cup Photo Spread - Gwin and Moseley Win

It was close. Really close. Bit of a nail biter, to be honest. Yes, it was a only twenty ladies vying for the podium here in South Africa, but with the exception of Rachel Atherton, all the heavy hitters were here. And seemingly out of nowhere came Fionn Grifiths to take the hot seat mid-way through the race. And she’d hold that seat for nearly 20 minutes before Tracy Moseley unceremoniously gave her the boot: .288 of a second, though, is definitely a tight squeeze...

And it was just as tight of a squeeze in the elite men’s race, as well. The Old Guard—Steve Peat—came crashing down in a banger time of 4:15.443. With 22 racers remaining, that was the time to beat. But it wasn’t until Aaron Gwin came home sixteen riders later with a 4:08.634 to smash Peaty’s time to bits that things got interesting.

Gwinnie’s time was solid. Super solid. But there were six heavy hitters remaining, including the two fastest qualifiers: Greg Minnaar and Mick Hannah. You don’t come into Minnaar’s house and expect to steal a win, nor do you expect to beat an on form Hannah. But that’s exactly what happened. Minnaar came across the line .241 seconds off, and when Hannah slid out in a turn and crashed hard enough to shear his stem face plate bolts off, it was California Sunshine on top of the box, and sealing a double win for Trek.

In an interesting note, four of the five podium finishers in the men’s race were on dropper seat posts. More than a few racers considered that borderline sacrilege (and it might just be a bit of sour grapes from the have-nots), but unless the UCI rules otherwise, droppers are legit. They’d be a select course thing, for sure, but still…

Great job riding on Fionn’s part, too; it’s been a long dry DH podium spell for Griffiths.