Nerding Out: Maribor World Cup DH 2021

For the first time in 2021, we watched a World Cup where there could be no excuses. The weather gods left the Slovenian track alone all week and its surface was baked dry by the time Sunday's finals came around.

Precision was key for riders with multiple lines forming and several tricky gaps had to be greased to carry the most speed down the track. The track was also coated in a layer of slippery dust that obscured visibility and meant any riders pushing their luck could very quickly find the limits of control. It was the shortest race of the year so far but also one of the most physical as huge holes appeared in between the brutal root and rock sections leaving no place for riders to recover.

In the end, Loris Vergier and Myriam Nicole came out on top. Both French riders have shown great pace all year but haven't been able to translate that into victories. With the weather out of the equation, they both were able to lay down flawless runs and put on a show for the Maribor crowd.

Let's get into the splits and sectors to see where the race was won.

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Results

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Results:




Sector 1 From the start gate, across the ski piste and into the first woods section.
Men ≈ 40 seconds, Women ≈ 45 seconds

Sector 2 Through the woods then back out into the open, the split ends after the re-entry to the next woods section.
Men ≈ 32 seconds, Women ≈ 35 seconds

Sector 3 Includes the long rock garden, the fire road sprint and the big man-made double in the woods.
Men ≈ 40 seconds, Women ≈ 47 seconds

Sector 4 Another section that takes place completely in the woods, it includes the natural step-down triple and some tricky cambers and turns.
Men ≈ 32 seconds, Women ≈ 38 seconds

Sector 5 The final sector is longer this year and includes the rhythm section in the woods and the new jumps down to the tarmac finish.
Men ≈ 46 seconds, Women ≈ 54 seconds

Total Length: 2.05km / 1.27 miles

Total Drop: 443 metres / 1,453 ft

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Sector by Sector Results

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The Story of the Race

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In Depth

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Anybody who thought Thibaut Daprela only took the win in Les Gets because of the weather can put that to bed after yesterday's race. Daprela showed he can compete with the world's best on any track and in any conditions as he puts a quarter of a second into the rest of the field before the end of the first woods section.

Bruni trailed him in second before Vergier rounded out an all-French top 3 just ahead of Danny Hart. The front four already had a gap back to the rest of the field, which was led out by Greg Minnaar. Laurie Greenland would end the day in third place but had already lost around a second at this point. Thankfully there was a lot of track left for him to make up time.

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In Sector 2 Vergier went fastest but with Daprela less than a tenth behind him. Next is Greenland who started to get up to speed after a middling top section. Special mention should go to Phil Atwill who picked up a puncture between the lift and the start gate and apparently didn't even have a wheel in his bike 10 minutes before the start of his run. He was fifth in this sector and turned a near disaster into a solid top 20 result.

After going fastest in Sector 1, Bruni slipped to 11th in this sector, his worst of the race, and lost half a second.


Daprela held on to his lead over Vergier and the pair already had a half second advantage over Hart in third at the end of the first two sectors. Danny Hart was the only other rider within a second of the lead at this point. The big loser in sector 2 was Greg Minnaar who dropped from fifth to eighth but he was about to make it back up in a big way.

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The rock garden is usually selective in Maribor and 2021's race was no exception. Ben Cathro has already dug deep on the line that turned the race on its head in this section and that's backed up in the numbers too. Only two riders were on that line - Greg Minnaar and Loris Vergier - and clearly Minnaar was able to execute it best, as he put half a second into Vergier with only Bruni able to come within a second of him.

Luca Shaw was fourth in this sector and Atwill was up there again in fifth. The leader before this sector, Thibaut Daprela, lost 1.5 seconds into seventh.


It was all change at the top as Vergier took a lead he would keep hold of until the end. Minnaar made a huge stride forward into second. Daprela didn't fall too far and was third and within a second of Vergier's time, then Bruni and Luca Shaw rounded out the top 5.

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It was clear from the live timing that Coulanges had put down a heater in Sector 4 as rider after rider failed to beat his hot seat time, but he actually wasn't fastest there. Angel Suarez took the fastest time in Sector 4, but Coulanges was only seven hundredths behind him. It's tough to see exactly what the pair did differently on the live feed but we've reached out to them to see if they'll spill any secrets.

Vergier was consistently fast again and in fact, didn't finish outside of the top 3 in any sector of the race. After a scorching sector through the rock garden, Minnaar finished 16th in this sector, his worst of the race, and Thibaut Daprela stalled in the big left hander so lost nearly a second.


With just 45 seconds of racing still to go, Vergier had a substantial lead over the field. The battle for second was heating up with Daprela, Bruni and Minnaar separated by 0.12 seconds. There would also be a battle for the final podium spot between Shaw, Hart and Greenland, who were roughly within a tenth of each other. Coulanges' and Suarez's sector 4s lifted them from 15th to 9th and 12th to 8th, respectively.

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While the rock garden normally grabs all the headlines in Maribor, the new layout of the finale fractured the field the most this year. Vergier won his second sector of the race to secure the victory, then it was Daprela, Greenland and Coulanges who all fell around half a second back. Then there was nearly a second before Luca Shaw, who led out Minnaar and the rest of the field.


In the end, Vergier's victory was by a comfortable margin of 1.755 seconds. It was his first World Cup win for Trek and means he's now unbeaten on this track in the last four races. Daprela extended his lead in the overall standings to 237 points, a formidable margin with just 3 World Cup races to go. Greenland, Minnaar and Bruni rounded out the podium places.

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In both races, the winner in Les Gets also went fastest through Sector 1 - in the women's race that meant it was Tahnee Seagrave who took the early initiative. Myriam Nicole and Vali Holl were in hot pursuit and then Jess Blewitt was fourth with a deficit of around a second. It was a great start for Blewitt who also competed in Formation earlier this year.

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Myriam Nicole took her first and only Sector win of the race and it was by a significant margin of 0.7 seconds back to Camille Balanche. Eleonora Farina was just over a second back in third and then the local, Monika Hrastnik, was fourth. After starting the first Sector so strongly, Tahnee Seagrave finished this one in fifth. She said after the race that she was still recovering from a crash sustained in Friday practice, and this held her back from her full pace when the race came around.


Myriam Nicole already had a lead of a second over the rest of the field in the first two sectors of the track. Holl and Balanche were neck and neck around 1.6 seconds back and then Farina lay in fifth.

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While the big rock garden was decisive in the men's race, it didn't seem to have been so in the women's. Camille Balanche was fastest through it but it's the joint worst of the race for the eventual winner Myriam Nicole. Eleonora Farina started to pick up speed there and she was the fastest woman from Split 3 to the bottom of the track.


Nicole still led but her advantage had been cut down to under a second by a flying Balanche. The Swiss rider seems to be the woman to beat when it gets steep and technical in 2021. At the halfway point in this race, Holl was third, Seagrave fourth and Farina fifth, but Farina was about to make some big strides forward in the lower half of the track.

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Eleonora Farina took the first of two consecutive Sector wins in the lower half of the woods, with only Myriam Nicole able to keep her within her sights. Farina is a local to Val di Sole and if her performance on the fast, rough and dusty Maribor proved anything, it's that she could be a favourite for the World Championships in two weeks' time.

Monika Hrastnik and Mille Johnset put in strong sectors but Camille Balanche slipped back slightly after her flying third sector. Vali Holl was back in seventh in this sector. She said on social media she was focussing on not crashing in her race run and may have played it slightly too safe to challenge for the win.


Myriam Nicole's lead was well-established and she could cruise into the line to secure the victory. Farina took a huge stride forward into second and was carrying a lot of momentum into the track's finale. Balanche, Holl and Hrastnik rounded out the top three after Sector 4.

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In the longest sector of the track, Farina went fastest again with Seagrave making a late surge to finish second. Hrastnik was third and Nicole lost minimal time in fourth to secure the win.


Myriam Nicole took her first World Cup win of the year and catapulted herself into joint first in the overall standings alongside Camille Balanche. Elenora Farina took her best-ever World Cup result in second and set herself up for a great result in her home World Championships in two weeks' time. Balanche was third, Hrastnik squeezed into fourth, just 0.004 seconds ahead of Seagrave in the run to the line.