Finn Iles has won his sixth WOrld CUp of the season in Val di SOle.
On the track he won his World Championships last year, he doubled up and proved to everyone his princely form on this techy monster – not bad for a boy from Whistler bikepark!
Patrick Butler was in the hotseat as the top ten qualifiers started off down the hill. Kade Edwards was green at every split but a slip up in he final sector saw him 5 seconds back. Loris Micehlod also went down and put himself out of contention.
Austria’s Moritz Ribarich was the first to put down a real marker as he flew through the finish gate in 3:52.051 – although this was still five seconds off Finn Iles’ blistering qualifying pace from yesterday.
Kaos Seagrave and Max Hartenstern both followed Kade Edwards’ suit and went down in the final section after being up at the splits. We dived into the top five and Antoine Pierron – this was his highest ever qualifier and he was clearly keen to make it count. Unfortunately, he couldn’t quite pull together the run he wanted and, despite some good splits, slotted in behind Ribarich.
Nik Nesteroff fell short and then Sylvain Cougoureux finally toppled Ribarich from the hotseat. He put down a 3:48.789,nearly four seconds up on the Austrian. As he sat in the hotseat he knew he’d done enough to secure second overall and give himself a chance at a big ride for next year.
The all eyes turned to the top for the battle that had been raging all season Iles vs Walker. Could Walker finally break Iles’ stranglehold on the season? He definitely made a decent fist of it. His 3:42.740 was five seconds up on Iles’ qualifying time and would have scored him top ten in elites yesterday but Iles is just on another level.
Last down the hill, it was business as usual for Iles. He smoked the rest of the junior field for a sixth victory of they year. Watch out Elites, he’s coming for you…
Val di Sole junior World Cup results 2017
(full results to follow)
- Finn Iles – 3:40.536
- Matt Walker – 3:42.740
- Sylvain Cougoureux – 3:48.789
- Moritz Ribarich – 3:52.051
- Antoine Pierron – 3:53.790
