Sectors 1 & 2

While Hart came from behind in the previous round, this time he took the race by the scruff of the neck right from the start. He was fastest at split 1 but it was very tight at the top of the race. Loris Vergier was only 0.2 seconds back and in front of his senior team mate Loic Bruni – a real shame to see a puncture ruin his run after the first split. Importantly for Hart, Aaron Gwin was back in fifth place at the first split, over 0.8 seconds back with George Brannigan rounding out the top five.

Into sector 2 and Gwin wasn’t going down without a fight. He clawed back 0.3 seconds on Hart, going fastest but only just. It was in this longer sector where the gaps really started to appear in the field. Namely Bruni, Hart and Gwin were all within 0.3 seconds of each other but over 1.7 seconds faster than anyone else in the field. To put this in perspective – from Greg Minnaar in fourth place, the rest of the top 20 were only covered by another 1.3 seconds. These three were clearly in a league of their own through sector 2 although notable others included Dirt Propain Zelvy’s own Phil Atwill in fifth place for the sector.

This followed through into the overall standings at split 2 – Hart was still leading with the triumvirate of Hart, Gwin and Bruni around two seconds in front of the rest of the pack while only just over two seconds separated the rest of the top 20.

The big picture

Hart’s win had a very different look to it than his debut win in Lenzerheide. While in Switzerland he had to come from behind, this time he led from the front with the fastest sector 1 and 3 and second fastest in sector 2. By the final two sectors he had enough of a buffer to hold off the challenge of Gwin and Bruni.

The difference between these top three and the rest is really noticeable in the heatmap. They were the only three riders who placed consistently in the top 10 at every sector. Others had one bad sector like Luca Shaw in sector 1 and Brook Macdonald and George Brannigan in sector 2.

Sector position heatmap

The dominance of the top 3 shows through in the overall position tracker as well. They had it totally sewn up apart from a little wobble for Gwin in the first sector.

What this chart does show is that the long, brutal nature of the Mont Sainte Anne course leaves room to make up places lost near the top of the course. Seven of the eventual top 20 placed worse than 20th at split 1 with Sam Blenkinsop the rider that improved the most. He went from 38th at split 1 to 32nd at split 2 and eventually climbed up to 9th at the finish.

Overall position tracker

Going into the final round it’s still Gwin’s to lose in the overall due to his stunning consistency. Two wins, three second places and his worst result being fourth in Cairns. However, Hart has only had one ‘bad’ performance – 11th in Cairns. It would take Hart to continue his hot streak for the rest of the season and for Gwin to finally have an off day but stranger things have happened. Roll on Vallnord in September!