RACE HIGHLIGHTS | Round 1 Elite Women UCI Downhill World Cup | Poland Bielsko Biala

Highlights from the Elite Women UCI Downhill World Cup Bielsko Biala.

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here in Basco Bava. Let’s have a look at the track then to just under 2 km in length. Vertical drop of around 400 vertical meters. Average gradient about 20.4% 4% and steepest part of it really arrives right at that bottom. The wood section we’re entering now choices to be made in there as Niko Mali takes an intake of ref and a new kirk for frameworks racing leaves the startup. What can you tell about tells about Anna’s prep for this one? Anna is the pleasure of a rider to work with and she is up huge. 15.4 seconds to the good now. New carart making great sense of the conditions here in Biasco Bava. Hangs a leg off. Manages to skate her way around that turn, but she’s got a massive chunk of time to play with. This is looking good from Newark here. The US National Champion. Clean through to the finish here. Heads down towards the line. Newkerk crosses it and goes fastest by 17.7 seconds. Lea Bowman got the fastest time in Q2 yesterday. Young Swiss rider on the comment Sales set up European continental champion. Just tell us about the tactics of some of these riders. I mean, how tightly do you guys monitor weather fronts like we’re seeing that have just hit the start of this Elite Women’s Race. Is this something you’ll be thinking about when you’re looking at qualifying times or is it just give and go? It it’s so hard to compare the times. Conditions are different every run. You kind of just have to go for your your version of the perfect run. It’s never going to happen in a condition like this, but that’s got to be the goal. That’s what you’re rehearsing. Lisa Bman cross the line goes second fastest. 10.8 seconds back on that time. That was the only time. There you go. Didn’t enjoy it. Balanche leaves the Star Hut to get her 2025 UCI downhill world cup season underway. Swiss rider should be used to racing in the snow. Exactly. Yeah. Former Olympian of course as well in ice hockey. She’s got to get the bike moving through here. It just looks so much hard work out of that little bridge section, doesn’t it? Even with that new bridge. Yeah, it’s true. She did. That’s a great conditions. Camil Balanch then former UCI Dino world champion heads towards the bottom of round one in 2025. Bias Bawa crosses the line and goes into second position. Look at that. It really is snowing now. It’s really snowing now. Hoffman for the Santa Cruz Syndicate leaves the start hut and it’s so so heavy up there. What a brutal set of conditions to get the year underway in. 1.9 then at split one. Let’s get her through split two. Hoffman. And this sprint into split two is tough too. Th this one and then the one out of the third split is Yeah. 3.8 seconds. Not headed her way. Nina Hoffman needs to get in the trees and get to work here. Well, it’s all available here in the wood section. There’s a lot of technical sections and she can make that up. 173 beats per minute on the live whoop for Hoffman. She is working through here. It’s across that gap onto the bars. Going to jump out into the open here. Nina Hoffman down the line. Where is this one going to slaughter her in? It slots her in in second place. 3 seconds behind and a new car. Marine Cabaroo leaves the Starhut and gets her 2025 UCI downhill world cup underway. And it never fails to amaze me how Weller can arrive exactly on time for elite finals. If you want bad weather, plan a bike race. 44.7 km an hour. 5.5 seconds back for Cabaroo. So, she’s taken some time back. Nico, she hit that jump. One of the first women we saw cleanly over that. And that is just all those gaps are just so hard to make whenever you’ve been robbed of so much speed because of the slow rolling. Yeah, you can see smooth exit there. She rode that well. It’s going to it’s going to take something super super impressive to beat that time on you, isn’t it? Caparoo heads to the line, shakes ahead of before she’s across at 7 seconds back. Slutsson to fourth place. Anna Newerk sits on elite UCI World Cup downhill winner on a belt and gearbox bike. Scarzy maybe not the startup view she would have been expecting this morning, but the Italian national champion will give this a having a busy day of it yesterday. Next up, we’re going to see Hattie Hornen, then Tanny Seagrave, Valentina Hall. 4.7 seconds back at the second split that we’re watching. Gloria Scarzy on your screen now 4.8 eight. So she’s lost a 10th but has maintained speed. I mean that run of Anna Newkerk’s super impressive but taken off nothing away from Nina Hoffman actually as well. She was you know pretty far down after the top part of that uh run but rallied and brought it back together. Let’s see where Scarzy ends up then as she heads down towards the line. Glorious Garzy into fourth place 6.7 seconds back off Anna Newk’s time and got the enduro win at round one and Petra Leery she’s on the big bike now and what a big bike it is that Gam Seago so intermediate and a cup medium spike on that bike Hornen attacking as only Harden knows and she goes down Hornen just taken out there just find a compression on the outside will attract Gregor holds his she tried to go inside and miss it and just caught the end of it there. Oh, Hattie Horn in the reign and British champion down still clipped into the pedal as well, hoping she’s not done any damage. You would safely say that would be the one selected for today. Crave leaves the Star Hut then to get her UCI downhill world cup champion. Tanny in full flight. A sight to behold. Let’s get it’s go big or go home time for Tanny Cagrave as she heads down to the first split. Crosses and she’s faster by 4/10 of a second. Tanny Cagrave is up in impossible conditions here in Biasco Bawa the 29year-old. We’ve got a race on in some brutal conditions today. Nine times a UCI downhill elite level World Cup winner. 28 times in the top three. Can she notch both of those up one today? Rallying through these ruts in this in this little wood section. Crave really forcing that bike on with her elbows. Making sure that that forward momentum that we’ve talked about all race long is preserved. Crave on a run here in Pasco 2.9 seconds faster now. 43 km an hour for Tanny Crave through there. She’s on fire today. Tanny Cagrave on that brand new Orbeea. Is she about to get the Spanish brand off to a winning start in 2025? Absolutely. It’ll be really interesting what this last split says and then it’ll be all up to the final wood section. Crave, what is she going to stop the clock at? It’s split for them. Tanny Crave through this tricky off Camber and into the woods. 1.2 seconds faster. She’s lost time, but crucially it’s still green. And there’s still a margin of error of 1.2 seconds. Tally secret through this really rocky right hand corner now and heads into the really steep final section here in Poland. She looks solid through here. Going to go for the inside line. Can she hit this apex and get the exit? Tanny Cra nearly gets sent over the front of the bike now. Will time. She’s held on to it. Is she holding on to her lead? Tanny Cra down to the line. Tony Cra goes fastest and beyond by 1.7 seconds. Tony Cra team manager celebrates at the bottom or FMD into the lead here with just one rider to go with Bawa. Valentina Hall leaves a start hut. Here we go. Valentina Hall. Deep bre deep breath everyone. What is the timing beam going to tell us from split one? sliding a bit before that split. 2.9 back. Valentina Holes in trouble here. She needs to find some time if she wants to beat Tanny Crave. And it’s another thing on your mind forever. You’re amidst the chaos off a very very wet and challenging course here and Basco Ba. What is split two going to say when she comes back into the open? Finally pulls another T off. Our team manager Gunnar shakes his head. 6 and 1/2 seconds back on the time of Craig’s time all of a sudden looking absolutely superb. Doesn’t look like she’s attacking as hard as Tanya is. And if if you start to lose vision and can’t see very well, you can appreciate it’s hard to commit to how gnarly this track is. 175 beats per minute on the Whoop live conditions didn’t bother. Valentina Hall safely down that really really steep section. She’s going to turn left and she’s going to head towards the finish line, but it’s not going to be enough. You know, Valentino Hole, round one, UCI Downhill World Cup 2025, cross the line in fifth. And that means that your winner today is Tanny Crave. Tanny Crave cashing out at round one. A huge, huge result. Her 10th UCI World Cup elite level win. Valentina Hull slumps over the bars. Has to settle for fifth place today. Great to see though. Straight up. Applause Tanny Nina. Tanny Crave lifted in high in the air by Nina Hoffman. Tanny Crave your winner here today. Then let’s get some confirmation of the results. 1.7 seconds the margin in the end ahead of Anna Newer. Great run from her. Hoffman superb in third. Then Balanch and Hull round out the top five. Scarzy Cabaroo Hemstre Bowman and Miriam Nicole rounding out the top 10. 14 1/2 seconds back off the winner. Whitman Buladoo blew it harden with that crash. Phoebe Gail with that crash as well. Well, you are about to see one of the biggest smiles in mountain bike and Tanny Crave is down there with Ashley now. Tonnie, congratulations. What a way to start your season with a statement run. It was almost like it was dry out there for you. I mean, I did kind of set off thinking that way, but because of the conditions, my brakes weren’t working very well. So, I think that kind of helped to be honest. I was like, well, I guess we’re just going this fast. With the conditions, how pleased you with how you manage things like your brakes out there because you really have to adapt in the moment, don’t you? Like, yeah, it’s just the conditions. They’re like that and you just got to make the best of it. So, I kind of kept pumping the brake to make it work and I think I had a little sketchy moment at the end cuz I kind of forgot to do that. But, yeah, glad I managed to put it together. In terms of your setup, did you have to change anything whilst you’re at the top? Because it was snowing out there as well, wasn’t it? It was snowing. It was pretty cold, but other than keeping one up top. We didn’t really change too much from like this morning or yesterday. It’s been pretty grim all weekend. Now, we know you came third in the overall last season. It sounds like you’re very hungry this year. And I know it’s a bit early to be talking about that, but some vital points today. I don’t think it’s too early. Like I feel the healthiest I have have been and I’m back like from a series of horrible injuries and I’ve had a couple of years to get back into it and I’m Yeah. ready to give it my all again. Hungrier than ever. Yeah, for sure. Love that. Well done, Tan. Thank you. On one of the coolest, wetest days it’s seen.