LET IT ROLL: Notes from Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada, downhill World Cup R8 2023

• We wrote about the points standings and early week goings-on in our last two newsletters. Check them out here and here for a recap
• What a bonkers race. Riders flying off-course left, right and centre. Wheels imploding and tyres exploding. Slippery rocks catching out almost everyone. Big results despite massive race run moments. It was wild and electric and brilliant – downhill racing at its best
• Full results (elite and junior qualifying-semis-finals) here
• Watch our favourite videos from MSA here
• Downtime Podcast’s MSA post-race show provides the perfect audio summary of the event with lots of tech insight and analysis from racer and bike maker extraordinaire Neko Mulally and rider coach Olly Morris. People were gluing tyres to rims!

Here’s a quick recap of the race:

• Junior women: With the series title still hanging in the balance and one of the most competitive crops of juniors ever, all eyes were on Friday’s finals. In contrast to the elite race, juniors got a coating of slippery dust on MSA’s unforgiving rocks. Valentina Roa Sánchez took the win and in doing so claimed the 2023 series overall too – bravo! Sacha Earnest and Lisa Bouladou (who crashed but still managed a flyer of a run) took second and third spots in the race. World Champion Erice van Leuven went down in clouds of dust after the Stevie Smith drop but luckily wasn’t injured and had enough points to claim third in the series overall, with Bouladou finishing second
• Junior men: Wheel explosions, crashes, punctures and hairy moments galore but, above all, incredible, committed riding from everyone. Series winner Ryan Pinkerton was out of the running after a practice crash (he’d already won the series last week in Snowshoe), as was Bodhi Kuhn, who had been second in the rankings before MSA. Nathan Pontvianne put in a relentless run to take the race win by over 3.5s and move into second in the series overall (Kuhn still got third despite missing the race). Pontvianne’s Goodman Cycles-Santa Cruz teammate Mylann Falquet took second in the race, with Kimi Viardot making it a French 1-2-3 in MSA
• If you’re wondering why Pontvianne and Falquet are listed as riding for Pinkbike Racing in the results sheets, it’s because PBR helped register them for the season and gave them pit space for the races – a class move, bravo PBR
• In Aaron Gwin’s commentary on both junior categories, he proved his modesty, interest and encouragement for the next generation. As he noted, sometimes the speed comes before the strength. When this generation gets stronger, they’re going to be dangerously fast
• Watch an action-packed junior finals replay here
• Elite racing on Saturday was doused with light rain throughout the morning, leaving the course slick and unpredictable in places, not least in the unforgiving lower rock gardens where thousands of spectators had gathered
• Elite women: Vali Höll had wrapped up the series title at R7 in Snowshoe and, with nothing to lose, she was out to make a statement in MSA. Höll smashed it out the park, going all-out from start to finish and mastering the slimy rock garden to put in a time none of her competitors could come anywhere near. Höll won the race by over 13 seconds and saw the season out in style
• Not as much style as Nina Hoffmann though, who battled her way through an on-the-edge run full of near-disaster, culminating in a front tyre blowout on the final jump to somehow cross the finish line alive and take second in the race and the series overall (listen to her interview with Sven here)
• Veronika Widmann was just behind Hoffmann in third to equal her career-best result. Marine Cabirou crashed out in MSA but finished third in the series overall
• Elite men: Rider after rider threw themselves at the course, some coming away unscathed and with decent times, others crashing hard. The course was treacherous – a dangerous middle ground between dry and wet conditions where it’s fast as ever but blink and you’re going down. Jackson Goldstone was oblivious and rode it with absolute certainty, hopping from one section to the next and making downhill racing look like a whole lot of fun. The enormous crowd went wild as Goldstone crossed the line to become the only two-time men’s winner in 2023, taking the victory in front of an adoring home crowd
• In some respects, the drama had already cooled before Goldstone’s run – Loic Bruni had been leading the World Cup rankings on arrival in MSA but only by a small margin. He needed to put in a heroic run to ensure the series, but with the whole world looking on and a young whipper snapper (Goldstone) clearly riding on another level, the pressure was enormous. Bruni loves stress – or at least he’s very good at channelling it. Going hard from the start, he put in a fast, if not perfect, run, rising to the occasion like nobody else can and confirming his third World Cup overall title

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