Pinkbike Primer: World Cup DH Round 3 in Maribor, Slovenia

After a bit of a hiatus left by the cancelation of Fort William, World Cup DH racing is returning. Riders are headed to Maribor as they approach the midpoint of the World Cup season. With Leogang and Les Gets in the books, riders should be hitting their stride right about now and will be in top form this week. After this, they'll head over to Val di Sole for World Champs, then straight into Lenzerheide before crossing the pond to the season finale double-header at Snowshoe, in the USA.

Riders will no doubt be hoping for some consistent weather this week after the changing conditions in Les Gets made things extra tricky for the last riders down the hill at the last round. In the end, Thibaut Daprela came out on top in the men's field despite having smashed his face just one week before, followed by Max Hartenstern in second and Baptiste Pierron rounding out third place, all three riders having their career-best World Cup results. In the women's race, Tahnee Seagrave put down the cleanest run and took the win, followed by Myriam Nicole, who lost a bit of time in a crash but still managed to pull together a strong race run, and Camille Balanche, who continues to show what she can do in all conditions.

We can expect to see all the riders bring their A-game this weekend for the last World Cup before the rainbow stripes are decided.

The Track

The 2.1km track will likely be similar to the iXS Downhill Cup track last week as seen above in the course preview from Greg Minnaar and Luca Shaw, with the main difference being the finish area. There's a new finish area this time at the World Cup, so riders will ride past the old finish to a new drop, which leads down to the new finish zone, where there's plenty of space for spectators and fanfare.

With a good mix of tech and speed, the track runs fairly quickly when dry, but can be downright nasty in the wet. Inclement weather at the iXS Cup last week slowed the top riders down by roughly 20 seconds. With the ground saturated, but sun in the forecast all week, it'll be interesting to see how the woods look by the time practice rolls around.

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iXS Downhill Cup Results

The iXS Downhill Cup can be a great opportunity for riders to gauge their speed before the World Cup. This year, while many big names were noticeably missing at the midweek event, some of the top riders came out to test themselves and sneak in some extra time on the track. Greg Minnaar came down fastest in both his qualifier and final runs, taking the win by nearly three seconds over Henry Kerr. On the women's side, Vali Höll qualified fastest by more than 15 seconds over Mille Johnset, with the rest of the top five qualifying women within three seconds of Mille Johnset. In finals, a poorly-timed flat tire meant that Vali missed her start and it was Mille who opened a gap over the rest of the field, clocking in nearly 20 seconds ahead of Abigail Hogie.

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Previous Winners

Maribor has been host to eleven previous rounds going all the way back to 1999. With a new guard of strong riders coming up alongside the veterans, this weekend could be anyone's race.

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Weather Forecast

Unlike the 2019 and 2020 Maribor races, this might be a dry one. The week ahead looks sunny and warm, with slight chances of precipitation but nothing forecasted is quite like the downpours we've seen in years past at this venue. However, riders will be battling the heat this year. With temperatures forecasted to climb above 30°C each day, riders will have to prioritize taking care of their bodies to manage exhaustion, especially those from cooler climates.

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Schedule

Thursday, August 12
• 08:30-11:00 // Downhill Course Inspection by UCI
• 13:00-14:00 // On Foot Downhill Course Inspection - Elite Teams
• 14:00-16:00 // On Foot Downhill Course Inspection - All Riders

Friday, August 13
• 08:45-11:15 // Official Downhill Training - Group B
• 11:30-12:45 // Official Downhill Training - Groups A & B mixed
• 12:45-15:15 // Official Downhill Training - Group A
• 15:30-17:00 // Downhill Timed Training Session (World Cup Top 60 Men Elite, Top 15 Women Elite, Top 10 Men Juniors, and Top 3 Women Juniors)
• 17:00-17:45 // On Foot Downhill Course Inspection - Riders and Teams

Saturday, August 14
• 08:45-10:015 // Official Downhill Training - Group B
• 10:15-11:45 // Official Downhill Training - Group A
• 12:15 // Seeding Run - Junior Women
• 12:30 // Qualifying Round - Junior Men
• 13:30 // Qualifying Round - Elite Women
• 14:00 // Qualifying Round - Elite Men

Sunday, August 15 - Note: The junior race times have been changed as of August 13. The schedule below reflects the changes.
• 08:15-09:15 // Official Downhill Training - Junior Women, Junior Men, Elite Women
• 09:35 // Final - Junior Men
• 10:20 // Final - Junior Women
• 10:50-11:05 // Official Downhill Training - Elite Women
• 11:05-12:05 // Official Downhill Training - Elite Men
• 12:30 // Final - Elite Women
• 13:30 // Final - Elite Men
• Awards to follow

Note: All times are local and subject to change by the UCI or the event organizer.

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How to Watch

Pinkbike will be providing you with the best daily coverage from our team of photographers in Slovenia this week. Tune in to Pinkbike to catch photo epics and results from the track walk Thursday, timed training Friday, qualifying Saturday, and finals Sunday.

For the Elite Women and Elite Men finals, tune into Red Bull TV on Sunday, August 15 from 12:30 CEST.

Here’s a breakdown of what that means in these locations:

• 03:30 Sunday // Vancouver, Canada (PDT)
• 06:30 Sunday // Washington DC, USA (EDT)
• 11:30 Sunday // London, UK (BST)
• 12:30 Sunday // Berlin, Germany (CEST)
• 20:30 Sunday // Sydney, Australia (AEST)
• 22:30 Sunday // Auckland, New Zealand (NZST)

Note: These times are subject to change. Please check with your local provider.

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Fantasy League

Don't forget to complete your DH Fantasy team before Friday! Participating is way more fun than watching from the sidelines.