Miranda Miller is the women’s downhill World Champion in her first year as a pro after a dramatic race in the jungle of Cairns.

Miller set down the first top time of the day as she drew on her enduro experience and pedalled hard to unseat Danielle Beecroft from the hotseat by nearly ten seconds.

Miller held off Emilie SIegenthaler, Marine Cabirou and Eleonora Farina. With Rachel Atherton out with a broken collarbone, we entered the top three and the race stepped up another gear.

Tahnee Seagrave was the in-from woman of the field having won the last two World Cups of the year. She’d put five seconds into Miller by the first split but crashed and ended up well down. Gutted.

All eyes turned to the loacl, and race favourite, Tracey Hannah. Hanah was on a buck wild run, taking some incredible lines through the rock garden, but a spill cost her the chance at Worlds glory. She still took provisinal second place though after a phenomenal recovery – what a legend.

That left the door wide open for Myriam Nicole. She clearly wasn’t as comfortable as the other top women on the Cairns track and could well have had some problems.

UPDATE: We’re hearing there may have been some timing issues and Nicole actually finished second by less than a tenth! We’ll update you when we can.

Miller rose from the hotseat as the 2017 women’s World Champion.

Women’s downhill World Championships results 2017

(Full results to follow)

1. Miranda Miller – 4:10.245
2. Myriam Nicole – 4:10.342
3. Tracey Hannah – 4:12.230
4. Eleonora Farina – 4:15.168
5. Danielle Beecroft – 4:19.361
6. Marine Cabirou – 4:20.071