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Jonnier, Hill claim downhill victories at Mont-Saint-Anne
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Former teammates Sabrina Jonnier (Maxxis/Rocky Mountain) and Sam Hill (Monster/Specialized) slashed seconds off runner-up finishes by Emmeline Ragot (Suspension Center) and Steve Peat (Santa Cruz Syndicate) to seize wins in downhill in the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup races at Mont-Saint-Anne on Saturday.
Fickle weather changed the downhill course conditions multiple times throughout the day with rain, then wind, and then rain again mixed with unrelenting grousing about what Mother Nature had in store. Racers carved a track into the course in drier sections and mostly hoped to stay upright through the slippery bits. Jonnier, who thrives on riding the most demanding technical races, gave the course a "10" in terms of her favorite kind of downhill course.
"I'm bigger than most girls and stronger, so the top part of the course where it's technical was very good for me compared to the bottom, where it's very 'pedal-y,'" Jonnier said. "It wasn't my best run – the last one I did in practice was the best but the course has changed since this morning."
The first break in the women's race came when Tracy Moseley (Trek) sliced 15 seconds off of Melissa Buhl's (KHS) finishing time of 5:46.78. After that, racers reached for every available tool to whittle down times. Time gaps narrowed to one or two seconds until Jonnier lopped off nearly four seconds to score a winning time of 5:26.5
Ragot finished an impressive second with a broken ankle, which she snapped audibly last weekend at the French national mountain bike championships. Clipping out of the pedals would cause her the most pain so Ragot was on task to ride a race without dabbing for fear of further injury.
Hill, who has made Quebec his temporary home, showed his approval of the course's layout by putting 3.04 seconds into Peat in the final run.
"It felt slow in qualifiers," Hill said. "But this morning it was slick in some spots but I felt confident about the run event though I didn't go as fast as I think I could have."
Hill's win knocks Greg Minaar (Santa Cruz Syndicate) out of the series' lead but perhaps only temporarily; they meet up again next week in Bromont. Minaar suffered a crash during the finals, which left him battered and bruised but still standing long enough to see Hill kick him out of first place.
Minaar chose to dial in a soft suspension to gain as much grip as possible on fast, flat sections and, after flatting in the semi-finals, he decided on high tire pressure. An unlucky skid in a g-out took him down and dashed his chances of a podium finish.
Top Five Women
1. Sabrina Jonnier (Maxxis/Rocky Mountain)
2. Emmeline Ragot (Suspension Center)
3. Tracy Moseley (Trek World Racing)
4. Celine Gros (Morzine-Avoriaz)
5. Floriane Pugin (Iron Horse/Kenda/Playbiker)
Top Five Men
1. Sam Hill (Monster/Specialized)
2. Steve Peat (Santa Cruz Syndicate)
3. Aaron Gwin (Yeti)
4. Gee Atherton (Animal/Commencal)
5. Fabien Barel (Subaru)
Kintner crashes in four-cross final
A crash by Jill Kintner (Red Bull/Intense) in the final run of the women's four-cross took her out of second place and allowed Anneke Beerten (Suspension Center) to break away for the win. Beerten, who scored the tenth four cross victory of her career, almost saw her chances literally vanish into thin air before the start of the finals.
"I was nervous because I had a flat before the finals," Beerten said. "They were still working on it seconds before the gate dropped.
From the start, racers dove down to a log obstacle that lined up six timbers, which racers had to jump to clear. Banked turns, gap jumps, and one rocky section earned nods from purists, who deemed it a course for mountain biking rather than BMX racing. That made up most of the course's technical sections until the bottom, where it merged with the downhill course.
"The competition is so strong that you have to know what you're doing," Beerten explained. "Thankfully, it worked out."
Yeti's Jared Graves put in four solid runs with one bobble that almost left him gasping to advance to the next round.
"I had four out of four good runs but I got a flat in the second round in the rock garden," Graves said. "So I thought I was done after that."
Graves poured all his power into reaching the finish line, which could have cost him successive rounds. But Graves rode two more near-flawless rounds to send him over the line and to the top of the podium next to current world four cross champion, Rafael Alvarez de Lara Lucas (Specialized).
Top Four Women
1. Anneke Beerten (Suspension Center)
2. Fionn Griffiths (Norco World Team)
3. Joanna Petterson (unattached)
4. Jill Kintner (Red Bull/Intense)
Top Four Men
1. Jared Graves (Yeti)
2. Rafael Alvarez de Lara Lucas (Specialized)
3. Tomas Slavik (RSP)
4. Roger Rinderknecht (GT)
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