Curtain Call: Finals Photo Epic - Val Di Sole DH World Cup 2017
One more song! One more song! Unfortunately, that's right about the end of it folks; the 2017 World Cup season has met its end and Aaron Gwin and Myriam Nicole just dropped their mics and smashed their guitars to pieces. It was physical, it was freakishly fast, and if the Val di Sole track wasn't so goddam gnarly you could call it beautiful. If you're still thirsty for more, don't worry, there will be an encore on the other side of the world in two weeks; the final hurrah will come in the form of the 'all or nothing' World Champs race and what a spectacle it shall be. Set your alarms and be ready.
While Nicole might have claimed the series overall, defeating number one qualifier, Tracey Hannah, and last year's champ, Rachel Atherton, on the day it was Tahnee Seagrave who took a convincing win in the dust, making it 2 times in a row on the top step. In the junior races, Melanie Chappaz silenced the threat from Paula Zibasa, while Finn Iles schooled his rival kids one last time before he steps up to the big leagues. The men's race well and truly lived up to the significant hype as Aaron Gwin, Greg Minnaar and Troy Brosnan all went in for the kill and plenty of others got absolutely silly with it. How did it all go down in the end...? You don't know? Wow, guess you don't have Instagram. Let's dive right into the fun and get you up to speed...
Warning, contains spoilers... The way the day and the season ended; stars and stripes on top for the 5th time in 10 years.
Always the scene of the most epic DH battles: Val di Sole, Trentino, Italy, produced the goods and the level just went up another notch.
The calm before...
... the stump. (no riders were seriously harmed in the making of this photo)
Tracey seemed relaxed as she headed up for morning practice, smashing out three runs.
If Myriam had pre-race nerves this morning you wouldn't have known it, laughing with the team and even signing autographs as she rolled out the pits.
Matt Walker couldn't win the war this season, but this one battle was still up for grabs...
Two seconds back from the win for Walker but with a time that would see him comfortably inside the top 20 in elites...
Melanie Chappaz signing off her title-winning season in style with another win.
Sylvain Cougoureux took 3rd on the day, but the result was still good enough to end the year in 2nd.
Lativian shredder, Paula Zibasa, has rained on the junior women's parade before, but today she had to settle for second best.
Finn Iles proved he is ready to make the jump to the elite division next season, putting down a blistering run that would have been good enough for 10th in the men's race.
Melanie Chappaz and Paulo Zibasa atop the junior women's podium. Unfortunately, 3rd place rider Megan James was unable to attend due to injury.
Finn Iles takes home the junior men's title for the second straight year, followed by Sylvain Cougoureux and Matt Walker.
Tracey Hannah struggled with confidence today after a big crash, but would finish 3rd in both the race and the overall.
Initially Tracey thought her collarbone was broken, however a little tape and a whole lot of determination later, she would battle on for her spot on the podium.
Le congratulazioni a Eleonora Farina - top performing Italian of the weekend and a podium to boot.
Farina, the people's champ.
Emile Siegenthaler had a bit of an off-day, but still left Val di Sole with the 5th place trophy in the championship.
Rachel Atherton rolls out of the start gate for the final WC race of the season.
Atherton must surely be glad to have this season over with. Just World Champs to go and she can begin to focus on getting healthy again.
Pom Pon's goal before this season was simply to finish the year, she's done that and then some!
Nicole may have felt the nerves a bit today, but she did what needed to be done and is the 2017 World Cup Champion.
Up at all the splits, Tahnee Seagrave looked visibly faster and smoother than the competition.
Tahnee makes it two in a row.
Tahnee wins the race and congratulates Pom Pon on her victory in the World Cup overall.
Women's podium.
Myriam couldn't afford to relax today with Hannah laying down the gauntlet in qualifying, but it would be Seagrave who'd finish as her nearest challenger in the end.
 | It's crazy, it still hasn't sunk in at all.... Unreal. As I said before, the goal was only to finish the season after three years of having my World Cup seasons cut short by injury. Now I've come back and won so I'm really stoked! I think you have to be clever; sometimes I wanted to push myself too hard, and some sections or jumps I didn't feel right doing them and I think that was the right choice. I still have some weakness to work on and I'm stoked I have another winter to work on that. After my crash yesterday I had some pressure as I know you can come off the bike here so easily. It wasn't a run for the win for sure, but I made it, and all the way down I was like 'calm down, be careful, watch out'... And at the end it isn't the perfect run, but just what I needed to do! |
Tahnee celebrates two in a row.
The top 5 women of the 2017 World Cup series.
It's a family affair at FMD racing, and Tony Seagrave has a lot to be proud of to say the least...
Deep, dry loam... axle-deep in places.
The 2016 World Champs bronze medalist set one hell of pace on track this afternoon and finished 15th, still on the way back to full strength after his shoulder injury.
Not Brendan's weekend, he struggled to dial into the Val di Sole track and found himself back in the pack.
Charlie Harrison shortly before dropping into the finale of his second elite season and another top 20.
Dakotah Norton back up his stellar qualifying with a great ride to 14th.
Greg Williamson has had an up and down season but finished strongly with his best result of the year in 12th.
10th is never a bad score, but Moir would lose out big time, slipping of the box for the overall. 7th in the series is still a hell of a year for the tallest Aussie in the game.
What could have been for Dean Lucas, still he'll be buoyed by his riding of late as he heads home for World Champs.
When the Black Snake attacks it isn't pretty.
One of the surprises of the season has been the UK's Charlie Hatton who ended up in 11th today, surely he'll be on a few team's shopping lists now.
Hatton putting the icing on a brilliant inaugural year in elites.
Adam Brayton limbering up for what would prove to be an incredible return to form at the end of the season.
Brayton certainly won the long jump on his way down to the hotseat.
Old Adam Brayton is the new Adam Brayton. Gas to Flat, back in the top 10.
Luca Shaw quietly getting down to business in the dust and hitting 8th.
Want to work in the mountain bike media? Sure, but are you mature enough? MTB News set the bar...
Thankfully, the rain held off until podiums meaning a fair and square race for all.
Foot out flat out and on a loose and aggressive run, Amaury Pierron had the ride of his life.
What a day for Amaury Pierron, storming to a surprise second place.
Mark Wallace pleasing the crowds on the way to 7th, securing 8th in the overall.
Laurie Greenland has always done well here in Val di Sole and would finish 4 seconds back and just one spot off the podium.
Greenland laid down another storming run in Val di Sole, but it wasn't enough for a podium this time out.
Pierron starts to get nervous with Minnaar and Gwin still to come.
Danny Hart was going for it today, but a crash in the woods put an end to his hopes of victory.
2017 Val Di Sole was nothing like 2016 Val Di Sole. Just ask Danny Hart.
With five riders to go the thunderstorms started to move in and everyone got very very nervous.
Loris Vergier finally kept it together in a final run and landed on the podium in 5th. With that result he also managed to sneak into the top 5 in overall season standings.
2nd at split one, Brosnan slowed down to 5th by the finish, but it was enough to get him one up on Minnaar to take 2nd overall.
Bruni certainly hasn't had luck on his side this year, but after missing the race in Leogang he'll be happy to salvage a top 5 overall.
Greg Minnaar was looking like the man to beat in practice, but Val di Sole can be a cruel cruel place.
That's one bad day at the office for the number 1.
Hard to believe it's the lesser of the two mechanical issues experienced by the GOAT this week.
Minnaar checks over his shoulder for the last man on the hill.
A bitter pill to swalllow, Minnaar was riding with determination and passion all weekend.
It was always going to be win or bust today. Just how close would Minnaar and Gwin have been?
Yes indeed, Aaron Gwin once again left his mark on Val di Sole.
There was a fine line to tread when pushing here but Gwin as usual calculated it to perfection.
Aaron Gwin dropping in and shutting down the 2017 season in one fell swoop.
A season's worth of work culminating in one final charge down the hill for glory.
Fierce competitors, and true gentlemen. Greg Minnaar congratulates Aaron Gwin at the finish line.
Owning it; Aaron Gwin.
Gwin is your 2017 UCI World Cup Champion.
Pierron struggling to catch up with his accomplishments, returning to the podium for only the second time in his career.
What an intense season of racing with both overalls coming down to the very last runs.
Ready, aim, fire...
With three Frenchmen on the podium today, the champagne toast got a bit out of hand.
It was a hard fought season and Gwin, who'd have bet on this after Lenzerheide?
| It was all big highs and big lows this year; it was a wild season that was nothing like I'd ever raced before. But I'm happy to be here now, I just wanted to get into this race with a shot of winning and after Mont Sainte Anne that worked out. I knew either one of us could win and I felt like I had the speed to do it, but it's tough to make it happen on the day, especially on a track this challenging. I really fought my set-up and riding all weekend and finally this morning I started to feel pretty good. I had an okay race run, but it wasn't great, I was a little bit nervous coming into the finish to be honest. I didn't know if it would be enough, I made a few pretty big mistakes in the middle.... I don't know, I was just trying to push, I got to the bottom and looked at the time. A crazy feeling. I didn't really know how to celebrate; it's been such a build up the last few weeks that I just wanted to take in the moment and enjoy it with my team and the fans." |
An incredible afternoon for these three flying Frenchmen to be alongside each other on the podium.
Good game, good game. No hard feelings. Until World Champs.
An American, an Australian, a South African, and a pair of Frenchmen. A truly international podium for the fastest men on the World Cup circuit.
What a season, and what a day for Aaron Gwin as he took the win and his fifth overall World Cup DH title.
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90 Comments
I remember seeing Gwin in Whsitler and an 8ish year old kid asking him to sign his shirt. Gwin looked at the parents like "should I sign his tee-shirt ?looks brand new" the kid was so stocked that the parents were like "no worries, that's fine." Gwin eventually took his goggles off, signed them and gave them to this kid. The kid is probably still standing at the bottom of the bike park filled with surprise, joy and thankfulness.
Amazing
So stoked to see Gwin battle back from the poor start of the season. True professional.
Bummed for Minnaar to go out on a mechanical, would have been fun to see him make a full run.
Love to watch two of the classiest guys battle each other.
Can someone breakdown what was hanging out of Minnaar's tire? Rubber insert plus a foam insert? Is this the new system from Enve?
now I cant wait for WORLDS !!,
every one riding 27 and ratboy win with 26
now every one riding 29 and gwin took it with 27