Qualifying Analysis from the Loudenvielle DH World Cup 2023

With qualifying all wrapped up riders now await a packed day of semi-finals and finals in France on Sunday. The fresh course in Loudenvielle is already offering some great racing as the flat-out and open top section lead into some of the steepest sections of track ever seen at a World Cup.

As riders prepare for a big day of racing on Sunday, let's get into the results and stats from Qualifying.

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Qualifying Results

Overall:


Full results, here.

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Sector by Sector Results

Overall Split Positions

Split Rankings

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Sector Breakdown

Sector 1

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The first split created some big gaps at the front with Vali Höll and Loic Bruni finding plenty of extra time out of the start hut. In the Women's qualifying session, Vali Höll found around 0.7 seconds to pull ahead of Mille Johnset with Marine Cabirou just short of another 0.4 seconds back. Loic Bruni found some extra speed in his first sector as he led the race by just over 0.6 seconds. Matt Walker set the second-fastest time here with Thomas Estaque third.

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Sector 2

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The second sector saw Nina Hoffmann gap Vali Höll as she managed to go one and a half seconds up on Vali. Mille Johnset set the third-fastest time but this would amount to a deficit of over two seconds on Nina's top split time. The racing was closer for the Elite Men as Benoit Coulanges was just 0.08 ahead of Jackson Goldstone. Loic Bruni sits another 0.24 seconds behind.

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Sector 3

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Vali Höll and Nina Hoffmann were in a league of their own for the third sector with a huge gap of around 3.5 seconds back to third-placed Marine Cabirou. Vali Höll was the fastest here as she was 0.79 up on Nina Hoffmann. Benoit Coulanges also took a big win here although in the tighter men's racing he led by 0.28 seconds.

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Sector 4

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Nina Hoffmann secured a second split victory here as it was once again a fight between her and Vali Höll at the front of the race. In this sector, Nina was able to find a 0.32-second gap back to Vali. Last weekend's winner Thibaut Daprela took the win in sector four as he found 0.31 seconds against Andreas Kolb. Dylan Maples had a great split with a 3rd place result.

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Sector 5

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The Women's final sector times saw fresh faces at the top of the timesheet as Mille Johnset just pulled ahead of Lisa Baumann and Marine Cabirou. We have heard that Nina Hoffmann had some issues on the final corner so she may have more to give on Sunday as she was 11th here. The Men's sector times were very tight as Andreas Kolb was only 0.05 seconds up on Thibaut Daprela. A crash may have stopped Jackson Goldstone from securing a good result but he was still very fast a the bottom of the track with a third-place sector result.

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Story of the Session

Elite Women

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Elite Men

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Stats Breakdown

The top 15 qualifying margins were plotted before including results at positions 20, 25 and 30.

The top 15 qualifying margins were plotted before including results at positions 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110, 120, 130 and 137.

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Racing and Events DH Racing Nerding Out World Cup DH Race Analysis Loudenvielle World Cup Dh 2023