women

With 12 wins in a row and the title sewn up, you could be forgiven for thinking Atherton will take it easy in Vallnord, but that’s not Rachel. She is a true champion who lay down an astonishing run. If putting 11 seconds into the rest of the field doesn’t prove her dominance, then being faster than all but six men through the speed trap surely should.

The women head to Vallnord with a broiling three way battle for second place, Hannah has the momentum but the techy track should suit the Brits better, only time will tell.

Men

If winning your first World Cup is hard, then winning your second is surely harder. In the current field riders such as MacDonald, Thirion and Brosnan are testament to that. With the added pressure of expectation on your shoulders the doubts can slip in and re-finding that form may never happen.

Hart proved Lenzerheide was no fluke as he stormed to a second successive victory. It’s been a long time coming for the Redcar Rocket and he’s probably miffed that the season is ending so soon.

Bruni suffered a puncture in qualifying so went down early and set the benchmark time. Only Minnaar, Brosnan and Shaw came close to his time, it looked like Vergier may challenge it but an early puncture scuppered his run before it had really begun.

Hart was the first to beat Bruni’s time. He unclipped in the gate so missed the vital first few pedal strokes but ended the run a second up on the French World Champion and below that all-important four minute mark.

Gwin was the last man down the hill and swapped sectors with Hart the whole way down. it was in vain though, he ended up 0.7 seconds back in second – one step closer to securing the overall.