The rain kept at bay rather nicely with the exception of some brutal wind. In the men’s field, Loic Bruni would keep the hot seat warm for quite some time after a bad qualifier combined with a solid effort on the last section of the track. Brosnan put in a stormer of a run and toppled him by nearly 2.5 seconds. Stevie Smith would unfortunately have a high speed crash in a turn up top – uninjured though. Remi Thirion proved his mettle by upsetting Brosnan and settling into third. Connor Fearon threw down a blistering run and took his career best run. With perhaps the greatest run of all time, Aaron Gwin snapped his chain in the start gate and took the win by .04. Faces melted and minds blown, Gwin did not pedal once on the entire track and still stood atop the box. Unreal – what a race.
In the women’s field, Rachel Atherton let us know she plans to dominate this year and won by a full 3 seconds. Tahnee Seagrave matched her career best performance last week to take second place again.
In the juniors, Aussie Andrew Crimmins took the win – also by a full 3 seconds.
Photos : Hoshi Yoshida and Constantine Fiene
