Tracy Moseley lived up to the crowd’s expectations this Easter Sunday, taking the win on the pedally Pietermaritzburg DH course on her 30th birthday. She had also won the qualifying and last weekend’s Nationals event on the same track, and didn’t let up in her race run, finishing convincingly ahead of the field.

Women's podium at Pitermaritzburg WC 2009.
Photo: Emmeline Ragot

Emmeline Ragot finished second, again proving consistent in keeping it tapped through the technical sections and finding the strength to put huge power through the pedals in the flatter parts of the course. “It was a hard track, so much pedaling. I cut the knobs on my tyres to go faster, and didn’t wear my armour for race run to save weight. Also some of the jumps were huge!”

Sabrina Jonnier proved her new Rocky Mountain is just as good as her Ironhorse, coming back after a slow seeding run to finish third. She posted a time one second quicker than Tracy’s qualifying, putting everyone on the edge of their seats waiting to see who would beat it. Fionn Griffiths got a silver in the 4x on Saturday, but still managed to pull out enough energy to improve on her DH qualifying time to finish fourth. Claire Buchar hung on to her podium spot to finish fifth.

Event village at Pietermaritzburg.
Photo: Emmeline Ragot

Top ten (And your 2009 WC rankings so far):

1 Tracey MOSELEY 4:20.10
2 Emmeline RAGOT 4:26.50
3 Sabrina JONNIER 4:28.60
4 Fionn GRIFFITHS 4:32.90
5 Claire BUCHAR 4:34.20
6 Floriane PUGIN 4:35.90
7 Melissa BUHL 4:40.90
8 Myriam NICOLE 4:41.90
9 Joanna PETTERSON 4:42.50
10 Emilie SIEGENTHALER 4:47.30

Full results here

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Fresher: Melissa Buhl wins Sea Otter Dual Slalom

Published on 13/04/2009 by Martha Hucker.