Nerding Out: Vallnord World Cup DH 2019

A fully blown out Vallnord track proved to be a real puzzler for the riders in Andorra. Surviving was as much of a challenge as going fast and an inch off-line either way could mean disaster. The toughest steel is forged in the hottest fires though, and those that prospered delivered some truly stunning runs in a race that will go down in World Cup folklore.

Splits, stats and socks, we've got it all here in the latest edition of Nerding Out. Let's get stuck in:

The Track

Vallnord was slightly changed from last year, most significantly with a couple of bus stops in the bike park sections up top. Times were about 10 seconds slower than last year but this is probably half accounted for by the slippery conditions as much as the changes in the layout. The dust lay deep in woods which affected vision as well as grip and meant riders couldn't attack as much as they would like or they would risk losing traction and end their race in an instant.


The splits are fairly uneven in Andorra ranging from 20 to 90 seconds in length. Most of them are concentrated in the woods, which gives us a really good picture of how the hardest part of the course breaks down, but some more information about the bike park sections where both Rachel and Loic seem to have won the race would have been interesting too.

Sector 1 From the start gate, through most of the bike park section to just above the big jumps in the open.
Men ≈ 90 seconds, Women ≈ 105 seconds

Sector 2 The open section including the photographers' corners to just before the woods.
Men ≈ 40 seconds, Women ≈ 50 seconds

Sector 3 The top half of the woods down to the Red Bull Funny Bridge/Estaque Sender.
Men ≈ 55 seconds, Women ≈ 68 seconds

Sector 4 A short blast in the heart of the woods.
Men ≈ 23 seconds, Women ≈ 30 seconds

Sector 5 Finally emerging from the woods, down the grassy turns and into the finish area.
Men ≈ 47 seconds, Women ≈ 60 seconds

Men


Sector 1
From the start gate, through most of the bike park section to just above the big jumps in the open.


Look at the lead Bruni finds in Sector 1! He ends the first 80 seconds of the track with a lead of more than 2 seconds, making him 2.75% faster than anyone else here. Of the final podium riders, Pierron gets off to the worst start in eighth. Dean Lucas and Greg Minnaar both make great starts and score their best splits of the race in sixth and seventh.

Speed Trap

The Speed Trap was also taken in the top section and not shown on the live feed. Here are the results from that:


Sector 2
The open section including the photographers' corners to just before the woods.


Vergier takes the first of his three sector wins of the day with Loic keeping him in check not too far behind. After a weak first split where he ended up 51st, Finn Iles is greatly improved here and the only other rider within a second of Vergier. Unfortunately, Iles suffered a mechanical further down meaning both his qualifying and race run were blighted with problems and we never got to see the true pace he was undeniably carrying all weekend. Further down, Brosnan, Hart and Pierron are all within touching distance with Laurie Greenland in the mix too.


Bruni still holds a significant lead as we pass the halfway point in the race with Vergier the only rider able to pull back any time on him. The top three are all already in their final position with Pierron the only podium rider who isn't in the top five at this point.

Sector 3
The top half of the woods down to the Red Bull Funny Bridge/Estaque Sender.



Vergier goes fastest again and this time puts more than a second into Bruni, making his run look beatable for the first time. Pierron and Brosnan also make up time on Bruni and will begin to move up the standings. This is also a great split for Bernard Kerr who was looking rapid in the woods all weekend and could well have been on for a great result but a mistake in the next split will see him fall back.

Further down the standings, Mike Jones, Greg Williamson and Johannes Von Kelelbsberg are starting to pick up pace as the track steepens.


Bruni's lead has now been reduced to less than a second and a half and Vergier is gaining fast. The top three looks pretty settled now with a decent gap back to Hart in fourth and Pierron in fifth. Kerr reaches his highest place of the race but a mistake in the next sector will scupper his chances of a great result.

Sector 4
A short blast in the heart of the woods section.


The shortest split of the race produces some huge time gaps as Vergier puts the field to the sword. Brosnan just about sticks with the Frenchman but everybody else loses at least half a second. Bruni has his worst split of the race in eighth and it costs him more than a second of his hard-earned lead. Conversely, there are great splits for Trummer, Thirion and Dickson who make up heaps of time on their rivals in the techy steeps.


Bruni's lead is cut again and he now has just a quarter of a second to play within the final sector. Brosnan also gains while Pierron jumps ahead of Hart to take fourth. The big losers are Bernard Kerr and Thomas Estaque who fall from 7th and 8th to 24th and 12th respectively. Trummer's great split moves him up from 11th to 7th.

Sector 5
Finally emerging from the woods, down the grassy turns and into the finish area.


Pierron takes the final split by nearly a second from Troy Brosnan. Bruni is in third but crucially beats Vergier and secures the win. Adam Rojcek comes from nowhere to have a great final split, putting himself right up in the mixer. Thirion and Trummer have great splits again while Bernard Kerr recovers from his mistake in split four.

Red Bull's Key Section - The Wall

N.B graphic not shown for Vergier, Pierron, Brosnan or Bruni

1. Kerr - 20.836
2. Dickson +0.008
3. Trummer +0.082
4. Wallace +0.289
5. Thirion +0.313


... And across the line! Bruni takes the win by 0.4 from Vergier with Brosnan around a second back. Pierron is all on his own and Hart rounds out the podium, just holding off MacDonald. Thirion makes a last-second gasp for eighth, just edging out Greenland.

The story of the race
By position

By time

By Split


Women


Sector 1
From the start gate, through most of the bike park section to just above the big jumps in the open.


Rachel gets off to a great start but she has Tracey Hannah hot on her heels. Nina Hoffmann and Marine Cabirou are scrapping for third. Mariana Salazar has her strongest split of the race in seventh with Emilie Siegenthaler, who will end up on the podium by the bottom of the track, sitting in eighth.

Speed trap

The Speed Trap was also taken in the top section and not shown on the live feed. Here are the results from that:


Sector 2
The open section including the photographers' corners to just before the woods.


This is the tightest sector of either race with the top five riders within 0.7. Marine Cabirou takes this one but Hoffmann, Widmann and Hannah are right on her coattails. Although she's only in fifth, this is Atherton's worst split of the race, which just goes to show how consistent she was on Saturday.


Rachel holds on to her lead but she only has 0.4 seconds of breathing space back to Tracey Hannah now. Hoffmann and Cabirou stay third and fourth while Veronika Widmann is on a great run in fifth.

Sector 3
The top half of the woods down to the Red Bull Funny Bridge/Estaque Sender.


Cabirou takes this one as well, this time by a huge margin of nearly 2 seconds. The rest of the top five are tightly packed with just 0.4 separating Rachel in second and Tracey Hannah in fifth.


Marine Cabirou starts to move up the rankings, overtaking Hoffmann to take provisional third. Hannah and Atherton are still super tightly bunched, although Rachel has secured herself a bit more breathing room up front.

Sector 4
A short blast in the heart of the woods section.


Deep in the woods, Hoffmann is the first of the front runners to suffer misfortune. Her run had been fairly scrappy and it ended in a cloud of dust in the woods. She valiantly carries on though with just a sock on one foot as she was blown out of her shoe. Cabirou takes her third split of the race but she's only a whisker ahead of Widmann, who looked to be heading for her best-ever World Cup result.

Rachel, as always, is not too far behind the leading pair while Hannah and Farina end up a dead heat through this split in joint fourth.


Atherton's lead gets cut again as Cabirou overtakes Hannah and gets to within 0.4 of the World Champion. Hannah hasn't lost much ground though and sits just over a second back. Widmann moves up to fourth as Hoffmann's crash drops her three places to seventh.

Sector 5
Finally emerging from the woods, down the grassy turns and into the finish area.


Rachel Atherton re-asserts herself at the bottom of the track and takes the final split with a commanding margin of over a second. There's trouble for Hannah and Widmann though who both crash in sight of the line, Widmann was especially unlucky as she had to wait for a photographer to untangle his camera from her bike before continuing.

Emilie Siegenthaler and Eleonora Farina both have a great splits and secure their podium spots. Special mention should go to Nina Hoffmann who finishes ninth in this split and only loses 5 seconds despite riding in socks.

Red Bull's Key Section - The Wall

N.B graphic not shown for Cabirou or Hoffmann

1. Widmann - 24.929
2. Atherton +1.458
3. Hannah +1.501
4. Farina +1.747
5. Siegenthaler +1.778


Rachel takes the win by nearly 2.5 seconds as Cabirou fades at the bottom of the rack. Tracey Hannah's crash doesn't end up costing her a spot as she finishes third. Emilie Siegenthaler and Eleonora Farina both pick up their first podiums of the year. Veronika Widmann's crash puts her back to seventh and Nina Hoffmann rescues some valuable points in ninth.

The story of the race
By position

By time

By Split

Posted In:
Racing and Events World Cup DH Nerding Out Loic Bruni Loris Vergier Marine Cabirou Rachel Atherton Tracey Hannah Troy Brosnan Vallnord World Cup Dh 2019