Source: Giulia De Maio
Winning debut for Atherton and Fayolle in Lourdes. Review the most spectacular runs on Red Bull TV.
The first stage of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup of downhill in Lourdes he gave glory to the English Rachel Atherton and the French Alexandre Fayolle. You can watch yesterday's final heats and highlists on Red Bull TV.
The favorite of the women's race (available in full on www.redbull.tv) did not disappoint, confirming that this year she will be the woman to beat to win the coveted title. On still dry and dusty ground, the world champion finished the game with a time of 3'21 ″ 430, relegating the Australian Tracey Hannah to the second position at 2 and a half seconds behind. The British Tahnée Seagrave, who had won the qualifying heat, completed the podium. Eleonora Farina, with her 12th position, confirms herself as the most fit Italian athlete, with the other Italian athlete Veronika Widmann who finished just behind her.
The weather has cleared the cards in the spectacular men's final (the replay is available on www.redbull.tv). Rain and wind began to hit the French location when the bigs' turn approached, heavily influencing their performance and relegating them to the bottom of the standings, due to an extremely slippery ground, almost impassable with the dry tires that everyone had.
Alexandre Fayolle, who started when the course was still dry, took home the victory thanks to an impeccable run in which he dared a lot and pushed without reserve, winning the hot seat he kept for the whole race. His time would certainly have earned him a prominent position and would have given a hard time even to the top ten athletes, regardless of the weather conditions. Second position for Canadian Mark Wallace who, riding the Canyon Sender on his World Cup debut, finished his test 3 seconds and 3 tenths from the best time of the day.
Third position for Colombian Marcelo Gutierrez, just over a tenth of a second behind Wallace. Surprisingly, Fayolle has thus conquered the leadership of the circuit, a position that will be hard to keep after round 2 of Fort William, scheduled for 3-4 June. The big names will want to make up for it.
