Leogang World Cup Downhill Highlights

World Cup racing in Leogang, Austria is always entertaining. Sunday’s Downhill was no different.

The course in Leogang was a wild combination of fast bike park sections and steep woods sections. Overnight rain made the woods incredibly muddy and slick, and many riders struggled to navigate the slick off-camber woods section.

Elite Women

Vali Höll continued her dominant streak on Sunday, winning her second race of the year by 7 seconds. Höll, the reigning world champion, and World Cup overall winner, has been unbeatable when she stays upright.

Some of the other favorites had bad luck, leaving the rest of the women’s race wide open. Camille Balanche sat out from the finals after hard falls in both qualifying and semi-finals, while Tanhée Seagrave and Nina Hoffmann went down in their runs.

American Anna Newkirk stepped up, with a blazing run on her unique steel Contra frame. Myriam Nicole, who missed all of 2023 with a concussion, returned to the pointy end with an impressive third-place performance.

Elite Men

On the men’s side, Loic Bruni put down another dominating performance, winning by over two seconds over teammate Finn Iles, who put down a very fast run despite being hindered by a thumb injury and not riding in qualifiers or semi-finals on Saturday due to a thumb injury.

Young Kiwi Lachlan Stevens-McNab was third. In the last round, Lachlan was leading but had a freak crash on an unassuming section of the track. Thankfully, Stevens-Mcnab was able to rebound and get on his first elite podium.

The World Cup will return this weekend in Val Di Sole Italy.