RACE HIGHLIGHTS | Elite Women | Round 6 Pal Arinsal | UCI Downhill World Cup

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[Music] still learning the craft and growing. She’s got a factory deal this year. She’s been uh building off that confidence that the Q factory racing team has has had under that tent. You know, Max has had some great results this year that juniors have been riding really well. And now Jess is becoming one of those riders that we we expect to do well. We expect her to to be at the pointy end. And uh now we uh we’re really hoping for her to to get back on that podium. Really fast across those first couple of corners. She was fourth here in 2022 and 13th for the UCI Worlds last season. Nico full gloveless full Kiwi. Yeah, I’ve seen a few Kiwis running that style. I don’t know. They must have sticky palms down there in New Zealand. Sam Blankin’s legacy lives on. Josh, I mean, you’re from that rough part of the world. What is going on with the no gloves? Can you explain? It’s a no for me. I don’t present that talent. I’m either way too nervous and sweaty palms and mum spaghetti, but I can’t quite handle it. 4 hunds of a second there at split one from Jess Blue. Should get the triple goes out the front door. So that’s a very hard little section there as you roll on and jump off. 2400s of a second at split three. It’s hard to maintain that momentum when it’s got a little kicker there. So we’ve seen people over the week almost double in try and go for the rollers. There’s a couple of BMX style wheelies over it. So it’s a very difficult section halfway down the track. Carrying good speed through the bottom woods here. She needs to get a great exit in this glass rock garden to maintain speed here. Absolutely nothing in it so far. Jess Blue. Is she going to go into the hot seat? It’s currently Roa Sanchez, Ernest and Fergus in the top three. She’s 9/10 of a second faster now. Blue accelerating through sector 4. Yes, you can see you got some great speed in that lower rock garden. Really exited fast and smooth there into the final corner. Here comes Jess Blue. Are we going to see a new hot seat time from the Kiwi? Desper crosses the line and goes fastest by 1.2 seconds. Dislodging Valentina Roina’s perfectly cut out for this. 120 beats per minute in the Star Hut. Remember that number. Nina Hoffman sets off at a track that she really really enjoys and has big success out here over the years. Got a win and got a second place here and riding that confidence wave. I mean last weekend she started so calm and just rode more and more aggressive. Pina Hoffman is down in Palar and Salah and Tora just about. It went wrong in the middle of the turn, but it took a long time to come to a stop, man. Considering she got out of that really well. She could have got bucked over the front going off that kicker with one foot on the bike. Yeah, she’s strong and aggressive on the bike and I think that pays off. You can get a clean run down. Valentina Hol leaves the Starhawk in Palaron S and Dora. Josh, that looked like all out attack mode. Straight out of the traps. 144 beats per minute on the whoop live. Yeah. Round after round, we see Valentina chasing that extra little bit. She needs to get the victory. She wants nothing but a win. And right here, this track, these conditions, the way this course rides, she is running those UCI world champion stripes after taking them here in 2024. Likes this place. Goes well here. Hoffman crosses a line and looks to be in one piece and no big rush to get out there. Great to see she’ll live to fight another day after the mid-season break. But meanwhile, Valentina Hull setting about the top sector here in Palar S. What is the first split going to tell us? Valentina Hull is 3/10 of a second faster now than that time of Jess blew it speed trap. And you can see how well that bike was working through that high speed cher and that’s what we talked about how that is so important. That little lefthander that sets you up the whole way down through that compression. Now she’s got to feed it all the way to the bottom here. This lower section is where I expect Valley will excel. She’s got a great line in this lower woods. She’s maintaining some good speed. Nico, this is looking really good so far. 2.4 seconds now. Faster. Valentina on the tear here. Look at that. Straight back into position. Pulls the triple like nothing. Um, and then almost takes a rest zone here. It’s not a place where you can gain a lot of speed. So, catch your breath and then pin this bottom sector. Here we go. 180 ft per minute into the red zone. Look how high that’s jumped up now. Josh on the start gate. Valentina Hole throwing everything but the kitchen sink at this one in Andor. Yeah, this is great to see Val Hole charging. There’s no much better than watching Valley Hole rip a downhill track to pieces. She’s charging hard and extending her lead here coming into the bottom. 2.9 seconds now. Valentina Hole looks to be underneath the qualifying time set by Gracie Henry gets around slightly in the run. Manages to hold the tiller steady heads down towards the line up in the open for the last time. Valentina Hall. Is this going to be enough to win her first race of 2025? Valentina Hall goes fastest by 2.4 seconds. And this was a real good news story from qualifying yesterday, Josh. This is great news story. You can see the emotion from Millie. She has been in it, amongst it, and against it all season battling just to make the final. So for her to go through in Q1 with such an epic time, it’s a absolute reward for the entire Access in Intense Factory Racing team and herself. A reward for all the hard work, the the crashes, the the ups, the downs, all of it. This is a great start for Millie here today. Look at sector times. Valentina whole faster in one, two, three, and four. Only blew it, breaking her win streak down low. So there is time left by the UCI world champion in the final sector. But Nico explosive start out of the gate for Millie. I think she’s feeling the confidence this week. This track suits her really well. She goes for that inside line that we saw um a couple of riders do there. I think this track, you just have to ride really committed. It’s got a lot of support. You can attack it hard and that’s Milliey’s style. So she’s been building off that confidence all weekend and showed in qualifying. Yeah, that that key left is going to carry her all the way down that straightway. through some of this more gnarly section, this rock garden here and this off camber coming up. If she can maintain this pace and put that mistake behind her, she could still be in a really good position for the overall result today. Two riders to go after this woman on your screen now. See, and Hem Street away at the top set down towards the third split. Yeah, this is one of the faster sections here. She’s looking really strong and if she can get this triple nicely, I think she’s going to be in a good spot. She’s made back time in that sector as well. made back two t of a second. Ollie Morris watching on at the bottom. Still has that camera stuck in his face. He’s going to have it a lot today. He’s got a lot of riders in the final. This is what happens when you start putting in qualifying winning performances. John set for Access Intense. This is good. She’s looking aggressive down here. You can see she’s riding that edge of the speed limit, the track limits. She’ll be fighting herself to make sure she continues to push. Come on, Millie. Let’s go. We got one split to go on that gearbox belt driven equipped intense cycles prototype. We saw Valley have a mistake here. So if she can ride this smooth, it could be [Music] absolutely gets away with one through that run section. Take off away from here. We go down towards the line as it’s going to be the time of Valentina Hall. Bill goes second fastest by a tenth of a second. You can see it this weekend. This is the most aggressive I’ve seen in a ride since the first round. We got two riders, Hole and Jonet, now inside that fastest qualifying time and inside of this woman’s fastest time from yesterday. So, Tanny Crave needs to go faster than she did yesterday, but we do think the track is running faster here in Palaron Saland thanks to huge efforts of the local trail crew. Let’s get Tanny Crave across the top of it. Josh, how do you rate her chances today? Oh, I rate them very highly. Look at the speed she carries through those breaking bumps. Those are the details we’re talking about. Wow, that was an extraordinary two corners. This is looking fantastic for Tani. Slaps the outside BM there. She is fighting and she is aggressive and she wants it here today. Neatly done through that top sector. Nico, let’s get her across the split line. What’s it going to tell us? Tanny Crave as we wait for it to appear. Our screen is 8/10 of a second faster. Split one. Tony Crave can hardly watch. That’s a huge margin on this track. You can see she’s not sliding around too much. She’s keep maintaining good level of grip but carrying really nice exit speed through all these turns. Josh, huge huge time already. Huge time already. You can visibly see how aggressive she is and she is not waiting for this track. She is going for it. She’s attacking every single section and riding with a level of anticipation that we’ve been waiting for from Tiny Crave. A win here today would put Tiny Crave level with one of the alltime greats of this sport, Missy Giovi. She’s 1.6 seconds faster. She’s lost time, but she has time in her back pocket here. Crave 1.6 is a big margin. I think if she can maintain the speed she’s on, she’s going to be in a good spot coming out of this last. Yeah, there’s a big hold on that piece. So, she does get over that hole where we saw Millie get hung up a little bit. These final two rock gardens will be crucial here that here this afternoon, but we know that John set and blue really extended here down low. Oh, that looked fast to me. Josh, that was a great exit into the final split. He’s pulled back some more time. Tiny Crave is accelerating here today. 3/10 of a second now. 310 of a second more in this sector. What can Tanny Crave do? Tony Crave roar all at on the bottom. Here comes Tanny Crave. Are we going to see win number 11? Is this going to be enough? Tanny Crave crosses the line and goes faster by 1.8 seconds ahead of Valentina. Just what we thought we’d seen the Austrian. We are going to see her absolute best. Gracie Hem Street Deep Breath leaves the Star Hop. We know that when she gets on a race run in 2025, she’s borderline unstoppable. But Tanny Crave has set the bar extremely high today. Tanya was really fast through the top half of this track. If Gracie can just be in touch at the midway point through the rock garden and the lower steeps, I think she can pull it out. Hemp Street kicking the back end lap. Big Norco Race Division bike out as she crosses. It goes really really low there. Josh looks like it worked for her. Yeah, you can see those braking bumps getting bigger and bigger and she’s just avoiding a lot of them. Now, this section here we’ve seen be crucial. Carries a good inside line there. Almost a little bit too quick. They got a great setup under that Norco Racing Division. Pent. They got the naughty uncle looking after all of the all of the races. She’s starting to feed it the whole way down here today. She makes her way across the piece. This is great from Hem Street. Currently second in the UCI Downhill World Cup overall for Gracie Hem Street. Is that going to change today if she can get past Valentina Hole? But she wants the race win. Nico, this is what all the focus all week long has been for. Yeah, she’s so fast to this bottom sector. Let’s see if she can get through this last rock garden clean. She’s 2 seconds faster now. 2 seconds to split four for Gracie Hemstream. Gracie Hemstre on an absolute run here in Palaron Salandor. Here she comes down the line. He street. No, Gracie Hemstre loses the back end within sight of the finish line and goes down in Palar and Sal and Dora. That is going to get the win to Tally Crave. Gracie HR 5.2 seconds back home in fifth place even with a crash within sight of the line. You wouldn’t miss it for the world. No, that was incredible. The run that we saw from Millie onet coming through that final rock garden and valley hole charging. Who would have thought we’d see Valley Hole put down a run like that? Yeah, for sure. I knew like I kind of knew Gracie was going to win. She was so like so pinned at the bottom. So, I’m kind of gutted that like she crashed so close to the end. But yeah, I’m I’m happy with my performance today. [Music] on the podium.