FINAL RESULTS - 2024 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Downhill Fort William Elite - Mountain Bike News Story

Moments after the Junior finals wrapped up, we were back in front of our screens for the Elite finals. Sadly, it appears that many European markets were robbed of the live broadcast, with Eurosport only scheduling a 1 hour highlights show TOMORROW - an unfortunate evolution of the coverage indeed, to say the least. Those of us able to tune into the live stream were treated to longer time gaps between the riders in the top 20 and top 10, which meant we could see more of the track than during the free Junior broadcast earlier. Aaron Gwin, Myriam Nicole, and Tahnee Seagrave in the booth sure was rad too!

In the Elite Women's, Gloria Scarsi laid down the early reference time, and it would take until Nina Hoffman's run to see it beaten. Green at every split, 6 seconds up on Gloria as she crossed the line (with a 7-second improvement on Tahnee's first place qualifier from yesterday). The writing was on the wall for the three riders still in the start hut at that time. Neither Camille Balanche nor Tahnee would challenge the lead despite recording significant improvements on their own fastest times of the week, leaving only Vali Höll able to spoil Nina's party. Vali looked a little too conservative up top as she was back by 1.2 seconds at one point - but as a bonus she seemed to have plenty left in the tank for the all-important final motorway section, crossing the line 0.5 ahead of Nina to start her overall title defense off in the best possible way.

As the Elite Men got underway, a couple of big names returning from significant injury set the timing screens on fire early on. Reece Wilson threw down a 4:13, followed by Amaury Pierron who promptly signed a 4:11.7. For reference, Loic Bruni won qualifying with a 4:08, while Troy Brosnan took the first place in the semis with a 4:14 (when the track was running significantly slower). Side note: Asa Vermette won the junior finals earlier in the day with a 4:10 - yep, the hype is real!

On the topic of 4:10, that's how long it took Ronan Dunne to get down the Fort William track and grab the hot seat from Amaury. Ronan looked uncharacteristically smooth and was rewarded with a great time at the line. There were plenty of fast riders left at this point in the race, but it would take until Matt Walker to see a new tenant take up hotseat residence. 4:09 was up next, with Loris taking over control of the race just as we got into the top ten - and it went to 5 minute gaps now, which meant we got to see a LOT of each run. Williamson then, clean and fast, straight into the hotseat! Stack Attack Norton next, riding those riser bars straight into the hotseat by a massive margin, and our first look at a 4:07! The gauntlet was well and truly down by now. Into the top 5, Luca with a really good run, but still Dak holds on. Canyon vs. Specialized now, as Loic and Finn take on Troy. 2.7 up at the 2nd split for Super Bruni, looking every bit like his absolute most dominant self - and 4:04 at the line!!! The run was a display of flawless perfection from both man and machine, could anybody top that? Team mate Finn came up 1.9 seconds short, still good enough to set up a Specialized 1-2 with only Troy left in the start gate. Would the ultra-consistent Australian make the jump from eternal bridesmaid to top dog for just the 4th time in his career here today? Not to be, but a valiant effort sees him into 2nd place with another fantastic run. What a return to racing for us fans!