While we still have a few months until the World Cup season kicks off the opening round of the Portugal Cup DH series saw a stacked list of riders competing in Tarouca.
In the Elite Women's race, Vali Höll looks to be starting the season with the same form she closed 2022 as she finds around eight seconds on Veronika Widmann in second place. Mikayla Parton completes the top three, over 11 seconds off the top time. For the Elite Men, Jordan Williams took the top honors as pulled ahead of Rémi Thirion by around a second. It's looking like we will have quite a season ahead of us as both Jordan and Jackson Goldstone are coming into their first Elite season on great form.
Check out the results below.
Results:
Elite Men:
1st. Jordan Williams: 2:37.720
2nd. Rémi Thirion: 2:38.729
3rd. Ronan Dunne: 2:39.156
4th. Antoinne Rogge: 2:39.611
5th. Kade Edwards: 2:40.600
Elite Women:
1st. Vali Höll: 2:56.910
2nd. Veronika Widmann: 3:05.034
3rd. Mikayla Parton: 3:08.423
4th. Anna Craig: 3:25.519
5th. Nara Faria Da Silva: 3:35.910
Junior Men:
1st. Oscar Griffiths: 2:42.005
2nd. Dom Platt: 2:42.454
3rd. Tegan Cruz: 2:44.667
4th. Owen Rick: 2:47.624
5th. Daniel Castellanos: 2:48.015
Full Results:Top 40 Elite MenElite WomenJunior Men
More results can be found
here.
I would still describe her performance since returning from injury as "dominant"
Related, in 2021 at Snowshoe, after Pompon crashed out in her race run, we saw her on the lift going up as we were going down. My wife, who is a big fan, shouted, "Go Myriam!" Only when she turned toward us did we see the look of pain, disappointment, and defeat on her face. She gave us a half-hearted wave and smile. We felt so bad. She had just lost the race, the overall, and probably was in physical pain from her crash. No one would judge her for her reaction in that moment.
And yeah, that WC DH Overall too, being held together by screws for the last couple races...
Höll is dominating if Balanche is also dominating. And Pompon is dominating.
Whatever.
Love it, fantastic stories always!