Both Gwin and Atherton throw down a pair of considerable gauntlets
The fourth stop on the UCI world cup calendar, Leogang is one of the more bike park-esque races. Less physically brutal and more pedal intensive than the previous stops, it is all about carrying speed through the big corners and keeping things fast over the jumps and through the motorway sections.
Leogang was chopped and changed for this year with the early woods section of previous years being chainsawed.
In its place was an impressive hall of fame, with all the previous winners names carved into wood. There was an suitably awesome memorial to Stevie Smith, with ‘Long Live Chainsaw’ carved into a tree.
All Photos from Fort William world cup (Credit: Bartek Wolinski/Redbull)
Whilst the weather had been wet and wild for both practice and qualifying the race itself ended being a little drier than it previously had been.
The women’s race was once again won by the totally dominant Rachel Atherton, who finished over five seconds faster than the rest of the field and took herself to a mega 10 wins in a row.
>>> A quick chat with Rachel Atherton
Aaron Gwin totally unstoppable (Credit: Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull)
Special mention goes to fellow Brit Tahnee Seagrave who looked fast and confident on the bike despite still suffering from a ligament injury sustained before the Fort William world cup. She finished 4 seconds faster than Canadian third place rider Mirander Miller.
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It was another exciting race between the men. Things were shaken up with Troy Brosnan setting a lightening paced run, coming down almost 5 seconds faster than the competition.
It looked set to be Brosnan’s day until the young Frenchman Loris Vergier, teammate of Loic Bruni, set a blistering break out run.
>>> Three times Aaron Gwin made our jaws drop at Leogang
However, normality returned when Aaron Gwin put 5 seconds into the competition to cement his position at the top of the overall rankings.
Both Rachel Atherton and Aaron Gwin are starting to run away with the overall points as we head to the next round in Lenzerheide, Switzerland in just under a month.