Our man Pete was on the hill in Les Gets for qualifying day to catch the action on a rapidly drying course, but who would emerge on top?
After a full day of the heaviest rain available, the Les Gets downhill track started to dry and change dramatically. As the runny mud turned to peanut butter, it proved quite the challenge.
Photos by Pete Scullion.
Above: One man and his dog, went to… Watch a World Cup downhill race.
Below: Mark Scott and Seb Ramsay in between course tweaks, enjoy the plethora of kestrels hovering at the top of the hill on their eternal search for critters.
Below: Les Gets sees the World’s largest amount of migrating chainless chainsaws. Young chainless specimens battle for supremacy by attempting to make the worst noise imaginable.
Below: Bode Burke shows just how slick that peanut butter mud became as the overnight rain started to disappear into the trees and the sky.
Below: Same bike, different team. Ol’ Momo doing a bit of landscape gardening in the woods below the road gap. This corner had plenty of line choice, but the big man just ran it straight.
Below: Mille Johnset goes well at Les Gets. She made short work of one of the trickiest sections of track to cross the line in 7th and go straight into the main event.
Below: In El Chalten, Misspent Summers have a photography-led pop up, complete with Syndicate-themed empanadas. Lozza seen here, enjoying… himself?
Below: The Les Gets roots get the better of Trek Factory Racing’s Lachlan Stevens-McNab. The rapid Kiwi would be one of the high-profile names in Q2 but would slot into 4th and advance to finals.
Above: As Le Tricolore rose, La Marseillaise rang out, bringing an end to the rampant chainsaw din.
Below: Gloria Scarsi rode this root-infested slop-fest faster than most. Keeping her feet up and attacking in the slick conditions. Third place in Q1 for her efforts but still has some work to do to catch Gracey and Vali.
Below: There’s no real time to enjoy the views here in Les Gets unless you’re trackside.
Below: Norco Race Division’s Gracey Hemstreet was the only other rider to bother Vali in Q1, being just under two seconds adrift. Sacha Earnest went quicker in Q2 but likely benefitted from a drier track. As the rain hammers off the roof, this might all change for race day.
Below: Young Kiwi Jenna Hastings edged out Nina Hoffman by almost 0.8 seconds to finish 4th in Q1. Scarsi, Hoffman and Hastings are the ones who will need to take the fight to the front two ladies in finals.
Below: We don’t even need to mention the name. Just look at those bars… Great to see Dak Norton back on a bike after wrecking his hip earlier in the year.
Below: The wily fox that is Remi Thirion put down a 3:58.309 in Q1 to pip Ronan Dunne by 1.1 seconds. When it’s steep and mucky, the quiet Frenchman excels and he did so on home turf today.
Max Hartenstern won Q2 some nine seconds quicker than Thirion’s Q1 time. Again, a drier track will have come undone as the rain continues to fall here in Les Gets.
