Moseley tops women's downhill

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Tracy Moseley (Trek World Racing) won the elite women's downhill World Cup opener in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, on Sunday afternoon.  The British racer finished ahead of compatriot Fionn Griffiths (Team GR) and Frenchwoman Emmeline Ragot (Team GR).

The course had continued to dry out through the weekend, and by the time the elite women took to the track the conditions were near perfect. While the course had technical sections, it was primarily "pedally", favouring riders that could put down power on the flatter, smoother sections through the middle of the run.

Junior Manon Carpenter (Madison Saracen) was the first rider off, after technical problems hurt her time in qualifying, and she showed that she could do better by posting a respectable sub-5:12 time. This time would hold up for nearly half the field before the Swiss rider Emilie Siegenthaler (Scott 11) knocked nine seconds off. However, Siegenthaler didn't even have time to slide into the hot seat before Griffiths obliterated her time with a 4:56.454.

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Griffiths stayed in the hot seat as rider after rider came down, none able to come within a second of her time. The closest was Griffiths' own teammate Ragot, but she was still 1. 296 seconds slower. Impressively, Ragot was riding with a broken ankle.

Finally, it was the turn of Tracy Moseley (Trek World Racing) - the fastest qualifier, current world champion and winner here in 2009. Moseley picked up speed as her run progressed, and she posted the fastest time for the lower half of the course, finishing a mere 0.288 seconds ahead of Griffiths to take the victory, and don the World Cup leader's jersey.

"This is certainly the toughest track," said Moseley. "Coming back two years later, it's gotten longer. Even though it's dry today, there is still so much pedalling. I really tried to give it a lot in the pedalling, but then felt like I suffered in that last section, through the four cross course."

"I felt a bit ropey in some of the technical stuff and the big jumps, I lost some time there, but I was able to make it up on the pedalling, I was just hanging on for dear life. A tough, tough race, but such an awesome start to the season."

Moseley said she was nervous coming into the weekend.  "I spent years trying to get this [world champion's] jersey, and it is so amazing to get to ride in it. I wanted to do my best wearing the jersey. To get to ride in it to the first win of the year is pretty special. It did play on my mind a bit [the rainbow jersey]. It was my dream fulfilled, and so I thought that this year was going to be fun, and no pressure, but I still wanted to do the jersey justice, so I was pretty damned nervous this weekend, and that's probably why I went so hard... I didn't want to disgrace it."

Moseley, who raced the eight-day Cape Epic mountain bike stage race last month, said that doing that event had paid off, improving her fitness.

Frenchwomen Sabrina Jonnier (Team Maxxis-Rocky Mountain) in fourth and Floriane Pugin (Scott 11) in fifth rounded out the top five to complete the podium.

Full Results

Downhill team standings after one round