6 issues we realized from the Snowshoe DH World Cup

There are two names that stand out in junior racing: Canadians Jackson Goldstone and Gracie Hemstreet. Each riders are dominating the junior area, with Snowshoe giving each 4 wins in 2022.

It was his third straight win for Jackson. Along with his string of wins, he’s now simply sixty factors forward of Jordan Williams within the total sense we may see him wrap up the general title at Mont-Saint-Anne, if Jackson can pull it off, it is a particular feat.

Gracie Hemstreet also can wrap up the general in Canada as she presently has 40 factors. Gracie must struggle a bit more durable to say the sequence title at her dwelling race, however with 4 wins, a 2nd and a third place, she has the abilities to do it.

Similar to her earlier efficiency in Camille Balanche’s Mud, Leogang proved as soon as once more that she belongs in a mud-drenched league. Not solely did she make the tough monitor look simple, however she did not crash all weekend. With most riders pulling out of the monitor or a minimum of stopping of their ultimate runs, Camille was in a position to put collectively an nearly utterly clear leg-up run to win by 4 seconds in opposition to Myriam Nicole.

Camille’s win in Snowshoe made it 5 consecutive qualifying wins, together with three in 2022. If she will be able to win the second qualifier and Miriam Nicol qualifies third, the general for 2022 will probably be tied earlier than the finals start.

Not solely did the Snowshoe ship nice racing, however it additionally produced the perfect weekend ever for Continental Tires with three elite males on the rostrum and second place within the junior girls’s race for Aimi Kenyon.

Whereas we often see the likes of Schwalbe and Maxxis on the rostrum, it was fascinating to see the German model’s new tires doing nicely within the mud. With an excellent weekend for Continental we noticed profession finest performances from Bernard Kerr, Andreas Kolb and Ronan Dunne.

The elite males’s race was one of many wildest races of the 12 months, with a effective line between a possible race-winning run and catastrophe. Amaury Pierron has been a grasp at using this edge this season and he did his finest on a drying monitor to take his fourth win of the season. With this feat Amory grew to become solely the fourth elite man to win 4 World Cups in the identical 12 months, with Mont-Saint-Anne and Val de Soleil nonetheless to come back, we might say he may higher that report.

Taking a look at Amaury’s race run instances he led the ultimate break up with a second break up results of simply twelfth and the third break up coming in fifth. Each of those splits had been a few of the worst-case situations with Amaury setting blistering instances in secure higher and decrease splits. Taking a look at all the highest 4 riders, their ultimate positions had been reached within the fourth break up, with no change.

Up to now we have solely seen dry and dusty World Cup races in snowshoes with many saying it was fortunate the monitor wasn’t moist. In spite of everything, after three earlier races at this venue we acquired to see how tough this course may be. You understand a World Cup course is hard when even the highest qualifiers are saddled all around the monitor, and even placing a foot down is not the tip of a possible race-winning run.

Dakota Norton got here up with some fascinating line decisions in robust conditions, using a wild line from a double drop that regarded extremely quick, and we do not suppose anybody else tried the road all week.

Whereas it is nice to have World Cup races and never simply in Europe, it is onerous to recover from the shortage of riders who competed in final weekend’s World Cup races. In all classes, we noticed modest to important measurement reductions in numbers. The junior girls dropped two riders from their earlier low and the junior males misplaced seven. In elite girls’s racing, this 12 months marks the primary time the numbers have dropped under 30, with solely 20 riders truly on the beginning record. The elite males additionally dropped under 100 for the primary time in 2022 with 93 riders, 54 riders from the earlier lowest quantity.

With the information that subsequent 12 months we might even see simply 30 riders within the finals and extra on the worldwide race calendar, it is onerous to see how this may profit the riders with a transparent hole within the variety of riders in a position to race within the North. America.