Ragot wins women's downhill World Cup in Windham

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Emmeline Ragot (Lapierre Gravity Republic) broke Rachel Atherton's Windham World Cup winning streak on Saturday afternoon when she won the elite women's downhill race.

"It was a short run so I had to focus and just think about it," said Ragot to Cyclingnews. "I rode it fast and I think I was in control though it may have looked like I was on the edge of control."

As rider after rider came down the mountain and set a new fast time, bumping the previous fastest woman from the hot seat, it seemed like business as usual.

But when Micayla Gatto (Pivot Factory Downhill) undertook her run, she crashed hard and was not able to resume racing. Gatto was later reported to be upright and talking, but disoriented, probably after hitting her head.

Tahnee Seagrave (FMD Racing) was told not to start, then to start, but during her run, she started seeing red flags everywhere. She also saw her friend Gatto on the ground but was not allowed to talk to her. Given the red flags affecting her run, she was sent right back up the lift to do a re-run.

"Micayla Gatto is one of my best friends. I saw the red flag at the top and they were telling me not to go, but then they were telling me to go so I went," said Seagrave. "There kept being red flags in my face, so I knew I couldn't keep going. I slowed down to try to talk to Micayla, but they wouldn't let me. I was hoping she was all right."

Once Gatto was safely off course, officials briefly debated whether to halt all competition while Seagrave worked her way back to the top, but with the pressure of live TV coverage, Jill Kintner (Norco) and Manon Carpenter (Madison Saracen) were sent down the mountain in the meantime. Both set new fastest times. Kintner knocked off 1.4 seconds to be the fastest American on the day while World Cup leader Carpenter dropped the bar another six seconds.

"I was a little too conservative down the steep bits. You just have to let it go. These girls go fast, and I just need to go a little faster," said Kintner.

Seagrave did run number two, which wasn't a fastest time but was good enough for fifth on the day.

"I figured I could push it a bit more although I did clip out in the first corner on the second run," said Seagrave. "The up side of that was that it made me push hard lower down. I didn't expect to do well here, but I have, so I'm happy."

Third to last was Tracey Hannah (Hutchinson UR), who was two seconds faster than Carpenter and ultimately third overall.

"I had a good run. I knew I had to pin it as hard as I could at the top," said Hannah. "I had a fast run and yes, I made a few mistakes, but you can't not make mistakes on a track this short."

Ragot was the second to last woman to start, and she had a blazing fast run, taking a whopping 6.9 seconds out of Hannah's time.

Current world champion Atherton started last and after making some mistakes up top, she never really got into her groove. Still a respectable run, Atherton finished second, 2.886 seconds off Ragot's pace.

Atherton had won all three previous Windham World Cups.

"It was such a fast track. It was so fast and short. You make one tiny mistake and it's hard to get over it," said Atherton. "I made a mistake at the top and I was panicking after that - trying to push and make time. I was getting messy. I knew it wouldn't be a winning run, but anything can happen, so you have to keep going."

"It's cool to have all the girls so fast. All year it's been pretty tight, so it's good."

Carpenter defended her World Cup lead and now has 1180 point to Ragot's 1110 and Atherton's 1060, setting up what will be a close race going into the World Cup finals in Meribel, France in two weeks.

"I had a good run - it was pretty safe," said Carpenter. "I had a bad crash a few years ago here when I was a junior, and there's something about this track that I struggle with. I would have like to place higher to help me out points wise but I'm happy to still be leading. It's going to be tight going into the last round."

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