2025 Downhill season returns with a BANG in Bielsko-Biała | The B Line UCI Downhill World Cup RECAP!

The WHOOP UCI Downhill World Cup returned this weekend in Bielsko-Biała, Poland. Kate Mason is joined by the team to recap a thrilling opening round.

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All right, everybody. Welcome along to the first beline of the downhill season. We have just wrapped things up here in Biocoa. We have been pretty soggy. We’ve been snowed on. There’s been wind and that is just us in the studio. So, you can only imagine what’s been going on up on that hill. The start hut looked like a beautiful Christmas cake at one point earlier on in the day and that was what it looked like when some of the elite women took to their runs. Let’s see the highlights from the girls. The first round of the UCI downhill world cup in 2025 got off to a pretty frosty start in fascia in Poland. The American National Champion and a new car freshly signed to Frame Works Racing was one of the first riders to really put down a run in the elite women’s category. This surf down the really really steep final section in Sturk Bike Park would be enough to keep things upright and get her into the not so hot hot seat behind her though at the top. Chaos rain. The snow was falling as Nina Hoffman, the German from the Santa Cruz Syndicate, left the start hop. Hoffman’s run initially would suffer a move away from her, but she clung on, kept fighting, and would be rewarded with a second place on the hot seat. Good enough for first place once all was said and done behind Newkerk’s second. Nina Hoffman on the hunt for another UCI downhill world cup win this season as was this woman with Tani Seagrave whilst all everyone else’s splits were growing and growing the British rider absolutely destroyed the track here in Sturk Mountain Resort to clock yet another UCI downhill world cup win on board the brand new prototype or baya for FMD racing. The bike’s first competitive outing. Clocking yet another win for Seagrave. 11 career UCI Dino World Cup victories for the British rider and a statement of intent to start her 2025 season. Crave goes fastest with a free 34.34 to take the win. The UCI World Cup overall title holder was still at the top of the track at this point. Valentina Hull, the Austrian double title holder from last season, reigning UCI downhill world champ. She crashed out early here last time out. kept the rubber side down in Sturk this time but just couldn’t match the fire and the energy of Tanny Crave would end the day in fifth place. You win titles on your bad days in this sport and maybe just maybe Valentina will be content with a bit of damage limitation on what was a really really tricky start to the season. Crave takes the win ahead of Newkerk, Hoffman, Balanche and Hall the top five. Then Scarzy, Cabaroo, Hem Street, Bowman, Miriam Nicole rounding out the top 10. Top step went to Tanny Seagrave and that brand new Orba. Plenty more to come in a couple of weeks when the series heads to Luden in France. And when it does, it’ll be Crave in the overall points leaders jersey. 80 points L good ahead of Anna Newkerk from Frameworks Racing. Tunny Crave putting down quite an amazing run really, particularly given the conditions, particularly given everything she’s fought back from over the course of her career. Her 10th World Cup win. Charlie Murray. Uh what did you make of it? Oh, she was uh she’s sort of stood she stood out above the rest of the competition today. Just I think she’s riding with confidence. She’s had a really good off season and good season last year building and she just said she’s as happy and healthy as she’s ever been. So that we just saw that in her riding. She go off the brakes, lent the corners, trusted the bike, and yeah, just attack from top to bottom. How hard is it to do that in these like when it’s absolutely uh chucking it down? It’s tough. Trust the bike. I mean, particularly, yeah, you you can’t respect the mud too much. You have to show it who’s boss. And she rode a really committed ride. She looked like she took the race out like she wanted to win. And she wasn’t being too cautious. And when you commit and you have good technique, most times it works out. Yeah. And it did today. And she afterwards, we we talked to her Josh and she was like happy to look ahead to the rest of the season. Happy to say, right, I’m here and I’m here to win it. Looks like the whole thing from last year. She’s backed herself. She’s got a brand new bike underneath her, development bike, a prototype bike, and to come here for round one, as tough as it could be and come out with a performance like that. Tani’s not shy of a podium. She knows how to win. But it doesn’t get much tougher than that. It was literally dumping with snow at the top. When they rode the track earlier in the week, it was dry. Unknown. Was the bike going to perform today? We didn’t exactly know. It’s a brand new platform underneath her. She’s been on the old platform, not the old platform, but been on the same bike for a little while now. Uh huge result to step up especially at the end of the day. Yeah, we’re getting this sideways rain that’s coming at us right now, but you know, take it up a few hundred meters and imagine that. I mean, probably takes you guys back a bit, doesn’t it? Or not even back. It takes you into thoughts and memories of beautiful scenes that you’ve been a part of. Beautiful. What uh what is what what does this compare to what we saw today, Charlie, in terms of what you’ve had in your career? Well, yesterday we raced in similar conditions and on Thursday we had probably 10 cm of snow at the top of our courses for our practice. So, doesn’t have to take me back too far really to to have similar conditions. And I just remember feeling cold and stiff as a board and just hard to relax and enjoy it when everything doesn’t want to work. Your hands don’t want to work. Your lungs don’t want to work. Last year, we raced the uh first ever enduro and enduro world championships in Valdasa and they had to blow the snow off the tracks the day before. like a leaf blower. With a leaf blower. Yeah. Of flames just to open the tracks up. Um I mean, you know, we’re winging down here cuz we’re cold and wet and the riders, but think about the crew up there building the track, the marshals out there on the side of the course. And the biggest credit to the spectators. They were up there still yepipping and yahooing and loving it. Good job, Poland. Well done. The spectators have absolutely unbelievable. We had Gatherton in the studio as well, who we’ll hear from at some point. and uh he was he got a little model bike given to him by one of the spectators. It was absolutely gorgeous. So yeah, they’ve been they’ve been incredible. Um what do you reckon? What do you what’s your your favorite worst conditions that you’ve been out in? Oh, this seeing the shots of the snow at the start gate reminded me of Leo Gang World Champs in 2020. I remember for that race like warming up was such a hard thing. It was so cold. It was snowing at the top. They had a small tent where the riders were. They called me out for my start like you’re next. I got out. There’s like six minutes to go. I was like, “You called me way too soon. I’m going back in the tent. Let me know when there’s one minute to go.” Did the tent make that much difference though? I guess it does. You’re trying to get some heaters and stuff going, but it’s just Yeah. I mean, the riders are normally tense and nervous is like they put the past six months of training into today and then to add this weather to it, it just makes tensions pretty high. The crucial point is keeping your hands dry, isn’t it, Charlie? If you can. Yeah. I mean, we often run dish gloves over top of our mountain bike gloves like for washing up. Yeah, like washing up gloves a few sizes too big and then that keeps your hands relatively warm and your gloves dry. So your gloves get wet and you get windchill, which you do when you’re going 30 or 40ks an hour down this course, then your hands are useless and you can’t feel the brakes, you can’t control the bike and it starts to go downhill pretty quickly metaphorically. In a bad way, that’s a good thing. Oh, Charlie, how’s your how’s your standup career going? Tony Grave was the woman who managed the conditions and everything around them the best today. Let’s hear from your first World Cup winner this season, Tarni. 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 because 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 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. 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, Tano. Thank you. Yeah, she’s not wrong. It has been a pretty grim all week. So, the snow was falling up in the start hut for the women’s elite race. And after that have been won by Tani. Next up came the men’s elite. What would the conditions remain like for them? And how would it go? Amidst the snow and frankly absolutely blizzard-like conditions at the top of the opening UCI downhill world cup race of the season, Amory Peron was extremely busy. Frenchman had had been in the wars during the qualifying sessions of Saturday. Managed to put them all behind him and was one of the early pace setters in Sturk Mountain Resort. Pier on two victories last season in very muddy challenging conditions. Fancy a good go at this one and would stay on the not so hot hot seat for a sizable chunk of time. But it was Oshino Kalan, the double O, the Irishman who would set about an absolutely superb start to the season. Okalahan was perfect amongst the slop and the ruts already a UCI downhill world cup winner back in snowshoes. West Virginia a couple of seasons ago. Well, Callahan was on the hunt for his second win and maybe just maybe was thinking that he may have done enough as he headed towards the finish line in Biasco Bawa. The YT Mob liked what they had seen from the young Irish star as did his new teammate Andy Cole. And then there was one rider left at the top of the hill. The reigning UCI downhill world cup overall title winner Lloyd Brun knew that nothing but perfection would do today on his brand new prototype specialized specialized gravity racing machine. Brun, who had won the opening round in Fort William last time out, was all too aware of how important a good start to the year was. made his job slightly easier by winning the Q1 session on Saturday, but made sure that the job was done with an absolute masterclass in per perfect downhill riding. managed to hold on to things towards the bottom and would get ahead of Oshino Callahan by just over a tenth of a second. An Irish rider had beaten him here last season in Ron and Don. Rooney did fancy letting it happen again. Lauren Delorn the specialized gravity racing team went wild but it was Brun Okalahan from Peron. Richie RDE stellar performance in fourth place. Tbo Drella for his new team Rogue Racing. SR Sunour rounded out the top five. Rooney though took to the top step took the points and took the win. There we are. Brun O’ Calahan Piron your top three from Belco Bawa. Loic Brunie delivering a big win for the first downhill race of the season. It feels like we’ve seen that before. But the man who won last year’s overall title is looking pretty scary. He thought he’s not really at 100% out there. Um, if he can build up to it over the course of the season, well, that’ll be something pretty special. I have a stat for you about the winner, the men’s winners of the first World Cup of the season. They often don’t go on to win the title. It’s only happened five times before, of course. Charlie Loick Brun has done that. What kind of marker is he laying down here? I think it’s it’s awesome for his confidence. He didn’t know where he was at. He had that collab injury recently. So to come in and win the first race for him, that’s just going to help strengthen his mental game. And he’s only going to get stronger physically, too. So yeah, you’d be pretty crazy to bet against Brun for the overall. But hey, it’s the first race, so we don’t know. Okay. All right. He’s setting the tone, but we can’t necessarily weed too much into it. Do you Are you on board with that? I think so. I mean, Lo the past couple years has gotten a points lead when he’s won the championship and then managed it after that. So he likes to start off strong. He probably didn’t have everything perfect today, but it was enough to win. Another thing to consider, too, is he’s got a brand new bike. It’s a new bike Specializ has been working on all winter. I’m sure it took a lot of his time to get it ready, and it’s probably, you know, they’re going to learn more as they go, so the bike’s only going to get better. How involved would he be in in the development of that bike? Is he someone who really likes to to to engage with that kind of technical stuff? It he’ll be 100% involved with it. I mean, the bike’s made for him, so he’s got to be the final seal of approval. And that team in particular have a freedom to choose what they want. I mean there they are supported by Specialized, but Laurent has built that program with the freedom and flexibility to pick the parts, the design, the bits and pieces that’s going to help performance, which is a huge part and a huge kudos to Laurent and the way he’s built that team there. And uh Loick’s only going to get better and better. He won last year, but if there’s anyone that’s probably in a space now that we haven’t seen in a couple of years, it’s Loick Brun. I mean, I think the stat that not many people have won over the last couple of years probably shows the diversity in the field. But now, Loick is in a space that we haven’t seen in many years before. There is a new generation coming, but do they have the same consistency as Loick? Loick’s won a lot. Uh, has he been as consistent? No. But the last couple of seasons, he’s getting a lot more consistent as we progress. And a scenario like this where he only wins at his claimed 85%, uh, that should be a warning sign to the rest of the field for sure. Yeah, Charlie, I see you nodding away there. Obviously, you’re you’re part of that team. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I was talking to the whole team before and and Laurent and and the boys and like Josh said, they just they just are prepared for everything. I think they put in more work collectively than everyone else. I mean, it’s easy for me to say that, but they have such a strong network. They’ve been working together with for 5 or 10 years with most of those um staff on the team. And he even had his his boys up on the track there at the crucial moment when he knew he’d be feeling tired, you know, cheering him on, encouraging him to pedal harder. So that sort of stuff. You don’t see every team up there doing that. And that team is working on their own tires. Not their own branded tires, but Specialized have their own somewhat chemist engineer warehouse now working on compounds and rubber and and carcass. So that’s a big thing. We’ve heard that a lot with Emory Pon the last couple of years. Maxis have a brand new tire out and about. Michelin have a compound that’s phenomenal in conditions like this. So now for Specialized to step up with their own tires, the same tires you can buy, it’s pretty unheard of and it’s a big deal. It’s a big deal for that team. They went for the hillbilly this weekend, that mud tire and it shows that it’s working for to have a offtheshelf and off the shelf tire to use and win a World Cup. That’s truly impressive. And there must be something cooking over there for sure. And it’s uh it just adds to the whole level of performance that that team is currently providing. It’s sick. I love that you could just in theory get out there on their tires as an amateur. It’s just like I mean if you have enough pennies and you keep saving them in the end you can. They’re not that expensive. You can buy the whole setup. The whole setup. I mean I think that’s pretty cool. I’ll donate you some some tires, Kate. Yeah, you can have a set of hillbillies if you like. Yes, we’ve got this. I would absolutely love that. Yeah, we got this the tires. It’s only tires that we get you down the hill. We got this on tape now. I love it. You mentioned about Q2, right? So this was a the first race of the se first world cup race of the season. That was a big change. The key point about that is no protected riders at the start of the weekend. We didn’t know who was going to be on the roster for the final and that is new. Uh it was exciting, wasn’t it? Having Q1 first of all, you could get in there and you could claim your place in the final. If you didn’t, you had to go again and then you had to finish. If you’re female, top five. If you’re male, top 10. The tension was uh it was from this side. It was pretty fun. Yeah, I think the feedback from the fans has been awesome. Everyone loved it. I loved it. It was so exciting. And the for the riders, they got two chances if they didn’t get through in that Q1. Um, but as a team manager, Nick, I’d love to hear what your thoughts are on it. Uh, I think it it gives everybody’s happy, right? Like if you you’re rewarded if you do well in Q1, you don’t have to go again. And if you don’t, you’ve got another shot at it. So, you’re not just cut from the final. Uh it is hard on staff like mechanics, everybody to turn the bike around, especially in a mud race like this to turn everything around and go back up and do the whole job over again. It’s it’s pretty tough. Uh I think a lot of teams had several riders in that position. So, uh yeah, it’s a stress on the program, but um seems like everybody’s making it happen. Well, look at Athetherton. Uh Charlie Hatton came down the hill with a crash. Took out I think he took out a shifter maybe towards the bottom. So, he had to go reset, rebuild that bike, then go again. Then he crashed again. So, it’s an extra level of stress, extra level of pressure in the canyon pits. Troy Brosman and Luca Shaw were giggling at each other. Luca made it was happy days. And he was like, “Dude, I do not want to be in your position.” Troy went out, won Q2, but you got to remember winning Q2, it’s cool, but you’re only 21st. So, to fight, you’re fighting just to make the final now. So, yeah, you can celebrate that win, but you’re just surviving, which is crazy. Jackson Goldstone came into the season. We almost didn’t see him race today. did not qualify to serve as a bit of a warning to the field that you’ve got to bring your gun. Someone like Richie Rude, Martin May qualified straight through in Q1, which shows the hard work that they’ve put in. Whereas some of the other riders, Loris didn’t do too good. Jordan Williams was just off the cuff. So, great result usually, but now they’ve got to go that little bit more to go straight through or plan for Q2. Plan to do that second run. It’s a lot. We had 10. Was it 10? Maybe 12 World Cup winners in Q2. Yeah. So, we almost had 12 World Cup winners that were not going to make the final. Crazy. That’s an epic stat as as you mentioned before. And uh quite an interesting way that season’s going to develop. I think they’re going to have to change their strategy a little bit. Bit of anxiety, bit of stress, bit more pressure. That’s what we need, more pressure. Uh and it’s going to be some exciting racing to wrap up the rest of the season or to continue the rest of the season. Yeah. Nika cuz from the what it means as well as Josh is pointing out is that some of those riders in the bottom in the first who are going first 10 in the race you know they are they are your big names the ones you’d expect to be competing at the top. How does that change your mentality if you’re going off the hill so early? Well it was it was gnarly to watch. I mean we saw the first three riders look like could be the podium. Yeah. Um it’s tough because you you you might get a different condition. The course might get better or worse. You can’t control that. You have to do your best run. Um, but yeah, I think just going in the Q2 is stressful for those guys, especially yesterday in a in a situation where there were so many good riders in it. They uh guys that had mistakes like Amarie Pirion, like if he has to go to Q2, that’s one spot of the 10 that that he’s taken. Yes. So, it it it’s really Yeah. pressure cooker situation. Q1 you have a safety net. That pressure cooker in the in the first one, I mean, it’s there, but you’ve got a safety net. You can still go to Q2. If you miss Q2, there’s 10 spots. There’s five girls that are going to make it. 10 spots. So, if you are you come down the hill early and you’re seventh or eighth, you’re in trouble. There’s 10 people and that’s separated by just a couple of seconds. So, the level has lifted and it’s not taking anything away from riders who just missed out like Charlie Hatton. Ka Hearn finished 37th outright. So, just missed out. Reese Wilson, Monica Rasnik, and the women. Yeah. So many huge names who didn’t make it through. An epic result, but now they need to reset and they need to step up now. Bludenville is in two weeks. It’s coming. It’s coming and it’s live with us. We’re going to be there. Someone who completed a perfect weekend though, who was first in Q1 and then first on the podium was Loick Brun. Let’s hear from her. Super Brun strikes again. You came second here last season. You weren’t going to settle for that today though, were you? No. Last season was a bit stingy with finishing so close to the win. I didn’t think I had it in me with the offseason a bit complicated and the weather being so far from my favorite conditions, but I never really uh complained. I just kept on riding. Had good feeling. The bike was working really well. We had some last minute changes on the suspensions and I think we did well to do that cuz the track was so rough. It was really sticky and physical. So, I’m absolutely pasteurized, but I’m uh super happy to start a season this way. That was as close to perfection as you could have come today. You really didn’t put a foot wrong. How aware were you of what was happening before you took to that track? Um, to me, it was not so perfect. Obviously, it’s never as easy, but it was really rough and I was getting uh caught off guard in some of the braking, so I would lose a bit of exit speed in some corners, but uh I knew the track was going to get stickier because of the the range stopping. So, that was going to be a bit of a mix between maybe a bit more grip, but slower rolling. So, I just had to give everything. I had two sections where I was a little bit mad at myself just uh breaking a bit too much but my boys were on the sprints in the last traverse headwind sticky ass. So I gave everything I had and it was enough. So hell yeah. You mentioned it’s been a tricky preeason. How has preparations been ahead of this race? Uh we’ve been crushing it and before my injury we’ve been uh going to America to specialize developing the new bike. Like we’re really close to production so we’re super happy with it. But uh I had some uh bad luck, let’s say, with a big crash and uh back to back. So when I came back after that, six weeks later, I I hit a tree super hard, reinjure myself. So I was a little bit all over the place around that time, super stressed out that I wouldn’t wouldn’t be able to make it for Poland. But the last few weeks, I’ve been cranking. I’ve been really trying to put in the work. And uh I didn’t think I had it in me. The goal was to see where I was and we’re good. So I’m really happy. You’re now level with Nicola Villio on 44 podiums. What does that mean to you? Uh Nikico is one of my biggest idols. Uh podiums doesn’t really matter. He has way more wins, way more titles, so we’ll try to get close, but it’s still a really good uh statistics to put in my resume and uh uh let’s try to keep on doing more. Cracking start. Well done today. Thank you. Yeah, Loic Broody adding to his resume yet again here in Biosco Ba and it was it was just quite a sight to watch to be honest. An amazing race day. A great way to start the downhill World Cup season. We we have loved every minute of it even if our toes are are pretty cold at this point. And of course, Charlie Murray, you’ve been you’ve been racing this weekend and now we’re getting you to stand up and hold umbrellas and talk for ages. So, thank you so much for that. Uh the next race up for these guys and girls is Luna Vel. What do you think we’re going to see there? Hopefully not too much rain. Last year was also wet and pretty cold. So yeah, I would love to have a warm warm week, warm race and a warm race for the downhill too. That’s what I hope. But in terms of priorities, in terms of the riders, I think you know the the two winners um Tana and Lo from this week will be they will have the target on their back for sure. And how will you be preparing with your team, Nico? Yeah, so we’ve got a week off before Ludenville. We’re going to be in Andor. It’s not too far from Ludenville and a good track to ride. So, we’ll be out there together doing some riding, training, testing, whatever we can do to help the riders feel comfortable for the next race. Yeah. And of course, big Yeah. Well, big result for Anna Newkerk in today’s race as well, her second uh second place finish. And I know Josh, you just between race, you just spent the time writing poetry and composing uh our ears. And uh it’ll be more the same again, I imagine. That’s right. My daughter and I have started knitting. So uh she’s going to teach me how to pearl knit. Apparently I can only normally knit, whatever that means, and she got upset that daddy didn’t teach her how to pearl knit. So we’re going to continue the scarf making. But we do go to Nova Mesto. Uh we got the next round of our XCO and XC World Cups in Nova Mesto, which is always an iconic venue. And then back to Luden that we’ve had plenty of great races over the years. The downhill has been spectacular last couple of seasons. Uh hopefully ASA can hold it together for the juniors. Uh so it’s going to be a big couple of weeks. So I’ll get knitting, continue that poetry, and then get stuck into some cross country Carson on course previews. Okay. Wicked. So Charlie, if I’m getting tires from you, do do I get a scarf off you and your I’ll ask Remy. Yep. She’s uh we might be able to knit you a new headpiece there. Uh we’re working on it. That would be outstanding. All right, we’ll send all of those things in and uh we’ll look forward to seeing you for the beline next time or on our live coverage. Do join us as Josh says in Nova Mesto and the Nudenville as well. We got race weekends back to back and we can’t wait to see you.