Rachel Atherton wins women's downhill at Vallnord World Cup

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Rachel Atherton (GT Factory Racing) won the elite women's downhill World Cup in Vallnord, Andorra on Sunday, keeping her perfect World Cup record intact for this year.

The women's race was marked by a demanding course in which only three riders were able to finish under minutes.

Myriam Nicole (Commençal) set the fastest time when there were still 10 riders to go. The best were still to ride. Atherton, second last to start, crushed Nicole's time over 11 seconds.

The fastest rider in qualifying, Manon Carpenter (Madison Saracen), was the last woman to start. She gave it all with the goal of confirming her qualifying results, but she finished 1.6 seconds slower than Atherton.

Emmeline Ragot (LaPierre) and Floriane Pugin (GStaad-Scott) completed the podium.

"Clearly this is one of the toughest World Cups I've ever ridden. It is a course of nearly five minutes and that's absolutely killer," said Atherton. "I knew Manon was going to ride at 100%. I knew it would be very close after she classified first on Friday. This is racing and everyone wants to win; I'm glad it was me today."

After this round, Atherton continues to lead the World Cup standings with a margin of over 200 points on Ragot and Carpenter.

With the World Cup completed, Vallnord, Andorra officially announced that it was putting in a bid to host the 2015 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships.

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