Moseley prevails, extends World Cup lead

Tracy Moseley (Trek World Racing) took her fourth win of the season to solidify her lead in the UCI Downhill Mountain Bike World Cup, at round six in La Bresse, France. Moseley now leads second place finisher, and second-ranked, Floriane Pugin (Scott 11) by 150 points going into the final round in two weeks' time. Sabrina Jonnier (Maxxis-Rocky Mountain) continues her comeback, posting a season-high third on the course she won on in 2009.

After a dry run during qualifying a day earlier, the rain moved in and soaked the course all night and the morning of the final, changing lines and sending riders scrambling for spiked tires. While it was not raining during the women's race, there were still plenty of slippery sections and water-filled ruts to give riders problems.

Junior World Cup leader Manon Carpenter (Madison Saracen) set the first fast time, and held onto the lead until one of the favourites, Rachel Atherton (Commencal), smashed her time by nearly five and a half seconds, to finish in 2:46.385. Atherton had crashed in training and just rolled the start of the qualifier, so she rode much earlier than usual. Atherton's time was even more impressive given that she slipped on one of the singletrack sections low on the course and laid her bike down momentarily.

Atherton retained the lead until Jonnier, third in qualifying, posted the first sub-2:40 time. The French rider, cheered on by thousands of compatriots, was 1.1 seconds up at the first time split, 1.8 seconds ahead at the second, and then completely crushed the lower section to finish over 8.5 seconds ahead at the finish line.

Pugin, one of only two riders to beat Moseley this year (Atherton is the other), was expected to offer the greatest threat to Moseley, but she struggled with the pedaling section at the top of the course, nearly 3.5 seconds behind Jonnier. By the second split she had improved to only four-tenths of a second back, but was a minuscule one-hundredth of a second ahead of Jonnier at the finish; not the run she was looking for.

Moseley, on the other hand, stepped up her game for the final, and was fastest through every section of the course, despite hitting a big puddle near the top which temporarily blinded her. The world champion finished nearly five seconds ahead of her French rival to extend her lead in the overall competition to 150 points, with Atherton third, a further 235 points behind.

"It didn't feel that good at the start, that's probably the worst start I've ever had at a World Cup," said Moseley. "I took a line that absolutely drenched me, there wasn't a puddle there before today. I was soaked, through the helmet ...I could not see a thing. I had to grab a tear-off from my goggles.

"After that awful start I just tried to keep it going, I had lost so much speed that I felt like I was starting from zero again. It was a pretty tough track, and it had changed a lot from yesterday. I knew that I would have to give it everything to beat Floriane in a home race, and she is often a better mud rider than me. I just had to bury myself and go for it. I'm just glad that I managed to stay on, it's pretty amazing."