Sabrina Jonnier took out today’s La Bresse DH World Cup 2009. The two-time world champ qualified second, but in her race run posted a time that top qualifier Tracy Moseley just couldn’t beat. Tracy has been unbeaten in races this year… until now. The crowd went nuts when the French riders came through, the screaming from some sections of the track was REDICULOUS, and they were stoked that their home-girl won! And a convincing win it was too, her time of 2:28 was 5 seconds clear of the rest of the field.

Young French rider Myriam Nicole had an excellent run, finishing with the third fastest time. Mio Suemasa kept her top five position from seeding to finish in fourth showing great style the whole way down the track.Emmeline Ragot had a shocker, nearly going over the bars just after the spot she crashed in yesterday, which is a shame – even Rachel Atherton (who was commentating for freecaster.tv) thought Emmeline could have won it.
The course had dried out even more today and right from the start riders were carving huge chunks off their qualifying times. Slowest qualifier Miriam Ruchti made it exciting by posting a 2:42:08 as the time to beat in the first run down the hill for the women, a time that held up for the first ten runs. Fionn Griffiths got to hang out on the hot seat for a while too.
Injured rider Rachel Atherton's commentating for freecaster with Rob Warner got off to a great start, straight into a discussion of the hotness of the female rider on track (started by Rachel), and then into some discussion of… pooh. Yup, seriously! But as well as lolz, she also brought good insights into the competitor’s riding styles and backgrounds. Hopefully we’ll get more of her on freecaster! She is definitely a bit of a laff.
Rachel Atherton walks the course for the La Bresse DH World Cup 2009
Full results from the UCI:

Don’t forget to check the rider’s blogs in their profile pages for the stories of their races in their own words. Well, Sabrina doesn’t have one… but Tracy’s is always a good, detailed and entertaining read. Mio’s has good pictures and is in English and Japanese, Myriam has a myspace with lots of slideshow action, and Emmeline’s is cool too but only in French.
Older: La Bresse WC Qualifying 2009
Fresher: USAC-MTB National Gravity Calendar races - the story so far
Published on 11/05/2009 by Martha Hucker.


