Conditions were terrible for the riders, along with one of the largest crowds of the season, and Marine Cabirou (Canyon CLLCTV Factory Team) responded in the Women's E Elite race with a morale-boosting ride to the top.
However, on a course where every corner offered the chance to gain or lose seconds, the race turned out to be the usual battle between Hemstreet and Valentina Hell (YT MOB).
Meanwhile, Dunne celebrated his return to the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series in the best possible way, while Loïc Bruni (Specialized Gravity) gained ground on the overall leader Jackson Goldstone (Santa Cruz Syndicate), but failed to deliver the decisive blow after the Canadian's fall.
And despite the worst conditions of the day, Max Alran (Commencal/Muc-Off by Riding Addiction) and Rose Zierl (CUBE Factory Racing) won the men's and women's junior races, strengthening their lead in the UCI Downhill World Cup.
DUNNE REVEALS COMEBACK VICTORY THAT'S ON THE WAY IN LES GETS
Goldstone felt the crushing pressure of a UCI World Cup title fight for the first time in France, after a difficult Friday in which he was forced to reach the final via Q2 after crashing in his first run and a crash at the same point in the final that dropped him to XNUMXth in the overall standings.
Loris Revelli He was the first off the ramp and attacked the course aggressively, taking both feet off the pedals to stabilize himself at one stage, but was Troy Brosnan (Canyon CLLCTV Factory Team) set the first true benchmark, celebrating a century of appearances in the UCI Downhill World Cup.
Wearing a bold all-white outfit, Brosnan needed a strong performance to thwart the ire of the team's equipment manager, and he delivered, beating the best time by nine seconds and heading straight into the spotlight.
Several riders crashed while trying to beat Brosnan's time, including Goldstone, who jumped over the root that caused him to crash in Q1, but hit another root as he landed and was knocked to the ground before he could react, appearing animated in his debriefing with mud still caked on his face.
Andrea s Kolb (YT MOB) was the centurion’s first real challenge and he did his part, blazing through the opening section and then holding onto his lead to the finish, gaining more than a second on Brosnan and bringing tears to the eyes of the field.
It seemed the joy would be short-lived when Amaury Pierron ( Commencal / Muc-Off By Riding Addiction ) started his rocket run , but was hit by a somersault and only when Martin Maas ( Orbea/FMD Racing ) exited the ramp with only five riders left, the Austrian was defeated.
Over 1,5 seconds down at the final split, Maes took his best result of the day, stunning Kolb by a tenth of a second, and Bruni had no answer to the Belgian.
Dunne did it, lighting up the clocks from halftime as he powered his way to a second UCI World Cup victory – the first time an Irishman has achieved this feat.
“There are no words to describe how I feel, it's been a really tough season and all I've been thinking about in the last few weeks has been doing well in this race and showing everyone that I can still win,” Dunne said.
“My motto is 'helicopter or victory', or 'helicopter or podium', and in La Thuile I lived up to this motto, and here we won.”
Meanwhile, Bruni's fifth-place finish allowed him to take 112 points from Goldstone, but was unable to take the leader's jersey from the Canadian.
“It was definitely the toughest race I've ever done,” Goldstone said. “It was a hectic race all the way down and I couldn’t even stay in the saddle.
"Somehow I'm still holding on to the green jersey, which is fantastic, so being involved in a crash and two bad races is really positive. From here on, we just have to give it our all and try to beat Loïc."
HEMSTREET HAS THE COURAGE TO BRING HELL DOWN ONCE AGAIN
Cabirou needed the repechage to qualify for the finals in Les Gets, Haute-Savoie, but she made the most of it, making the most of the conditions she found, being one of the first elite athletes off the ramp before the race was disrupted by the later competitors.
Even though the sun was slowly making its way down the valley, the drying was compensated by the cyclists who had to fight in the mud every minute and only Tahnee Seagrave (Orbea/FMD Racing) managed to seriously close in on the Frenchwoman before the final heats.
In conditions similar to those of the 2025 season opener in Bielsko-Biała, Poland, won by Seagrave, the Briton pushed hard in the opening part and had a three-second lead with just one split time to go.
However, once out of the forest, Seagrave was pedalling through treacle and lost nearly five seconds between there and the finish.
Jess Blewitt (CUBE Factory Racing) crashed after a couple of corners, while Nina Hoffman of the Santa Cruz Syndicate She crashed in the next heat and crossed the finish line 18 seconds behind, but still finished provisionally in fifth place with only four riders remaining, demonstrating the huge gaps created by the muddy conditions.
Both drivers were luckier than Sacha Earnest (Trek Factory Racing); the New Zealander fell during training before the final and suffered a torn acromioclavicular joint.
Scarce Glory (MS-Racing) briefly brought the green light back to the timesheets, but as has often happened this season, Hemstreet and Höll were the protagonists of the final two heats.
Like Seagrave, Höll worked her way through the trees, not as aggressive as her rival but with more speed out of the corners and looking set to finally end her 2025 UCI World Cup drought.
But the UCI world champion looked in disbelief as she stopped after the finish line, having fallen by tenths of a second at the final split, before slipping to third behind Cabirou and Hemstreet, who took his fourth win of the season.
“I don't even know, I can't believe it,” Hemstreet said. “I'm not really a mud rider. I felt really slow at the top, so I thought, ' I prefer 'fall' and get in as quickly as possible rather than recover a bit. It was really tough.”
Hemstreet now sits just 59 points behind Höll at the top of the UCI World Cup standings, and the overall leader looked discouraged afterward.
MEN'S ELITE RANKING
| 1 |  | DUNNE Ronan MONDRAKER FACTORY RACING DH | 3:56.586 |
| 2 |  | MAES Martin ORBEA / FMD RACING | 3:59.407 +2.821 |
| 3 |  | KOLB Andreas yt MOB extension | 3:59.517 +2.931 |
| 4 |  | BROSNAN Troy CANYON CLLCTV FACTORY TEAM | 4:01.104 +4.518 |
| 5 |  | BRUNI Loic SPECIALIZED GRAVITY | 4:02.715 +6.129 |
| 6 |  | SHAW Luke CANYON CLLCTV FACTORY TEAM | 4:02.754 +6.168 |
| 7 |  | HARTENSTERN Max CUBE FACTORY RACING | 4:03.560 +6.974 |
| 8 | | PIERRON Antoine COMMENCAL SCHWALBE BY LES ORRES | 4:04.275 +7.689 |
| 9 | | PIERRON Amaury COMMENCAL/MUC-OFF BY RIDING ADDICTION | 4:05.415 +8.829 |
| 10 |  | BREEDEN Joe AXESS INTENSE FACTORY RACING | 4:05.737 +9.151 |
GENERAL WORLD CUP
FEMALE ELITE RANKING
| 1 |  | HEMSTREET Gracey * NORCO RACE DIVISION | 4:55.517 |
| 2 | | CABIROU Marine CANYON CLLCTV FACTORY TEAM | 4:56.589 +1.072 |
| 3 | | HÖLL Valentina yt MOB extension | 4:58.258 +2.741 |
| 4 |  | BALANCHE Camille YETI / FOX FACTORY RACE TEAM | 4:58.367 +2.850 |
| 5 |  | POOR Glory MS-RACING | 4:59.516 +3.999 |
| 6 | | SEAGRAVE Tahnee ORBEA / FMD RACING | 5:00.348 +4.831 |
| 7 |  | JOHNSET A thousand AXESS INTENSE FACTORY RACING | 5:00.625 +5.108 |
| 8 |  | HASTINGS Jenna * PIVOT FACTORY RACING | 5:07.805 +12.288 |
| 9 | | HOFFMANN Nina SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE | 5:14.833 +19.316 |
| 10 | | NEWKIRK Anne FRAMEWORKS RACING / 5DEV | 5:21.188 +25.671 |
GENERAL WORLD CUP
The action continues in Les Gets, Haute-Savoie, with the UCI Olympic Cross Country World Cup closing out the weekend on Sunday. Hemstreet, Zierl, Alran and the rest of the peloton downhill will be competing again for the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series in the Swiss Bike Kingdom of Lenzerheide in three weeks, after the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Valais.
