Rachel Atherton wins UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Downhill  round in Austria

Rachel Atherton wins UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Downhill round in Austria

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Britain’s Rachel Atherton took her second consecutive win in the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Downhill in Leogang on Sunday.

Atherton was joined on the podium by fellow Briton Tahnee Seagrave, who finished just three seconds behind Atherton. With the win, Atherton extends her world cup series lead to 85 point ahead of France’s Emmeline Ragot.

But it was disappointment for defending world cup champion Manon Carpenter, who was disqualified. On the final jump of the course, Carpenter was blown by a gust of wind which caused her to leave the track just metres from the finish.

Atherton started the weekend as she meant to continue, four seconds faster than Carpenter in Friday’s timed practice, with a run of 4:18.169. The following day the GT Factory Racing rider carved 12 seconds off her timed training run to top the qualifying results sheet ahead of Ragot.

However the 2013 world champion saved the best for her race run, posting a 4:04.108 that only her compatriot Seagrave could come close to.

The result left Atherton on 670 points to Ragot’s 585 on the overall standings, with Seagrave’s performance elevating her to third overall on 446 points with four of the nine world cup rounds remaining.

Gee Atherton couldn’t match his sister’s performance in the men’s event, placing sixth, 2.7 seconds off the pace of race winner and world cup leader Aaron Gwin of the USA, who astonishingly completed his winning run with a snapped chain.

Current world cup champion Josh Bryceland was eight-tenths of a second behind Atherton in seventh.

The junior men’s event saw a podium finish for Britain’s Laurie Greenland, finishing third, 3.3 seconds down on Australia’s Andrew Crimmins, who overtakes Greenland at the top of the world cup rankings.

The next round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Downhill takes place in Lenzerheide, Switzerland from 4-5 July.

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