Leogang World Cup

The DH world cup train moved onto the legendary Leogang track last week.

The changing weather, super fast track, close calls and new race schedule all provided an exciting weekend of racing.

Leogang 2023 saw a first win for the incredible Vali Holl on home territory in the women’s final - she has been building towards this for a few seasons; how much of a psychological boost does this give a rider? Will it create a wave of momentum and how does she harness that?

It was awesome to see Rachel Atherton on the podium again on such a physical track - the queen is certainly having fun racing - could that be the secret to her incredible return?

Rach’s team-mate, Andreas Kolb took his first win (and another win for an Atherton bike). His consistently solid riding paid off this weekend and is brilliant to watch, especially as a comparison to some of the more risky riders in the top ten.

Some ask us, which approach is best? We think that’s a personal choice and depends on many things, but it is great to see a rider sticking to their plan and their personal approach to racing - it definitely paid off for Andreas Kolb.

Other riders had really bad luck with the sudden and intense rain providing very different track conditions for them in semi finals. It happens to every rider in their career and those that respond positively and move on in a motivated way to the next round are impressive to see. That positivity and the right mindset is very likely to serve them well for the rest of the season.

It was an incredible weekend with some brilliant racing; the different approach each rider took was really interesting to watch. You should definitely take a look.

After the event, Olly Morris joined Neko Mullaly and Chris Hall at the Downtime Podcast again for the second post race session of the season. If you want to hear their thoughts about the race, the track, the new format and on how the best riders in the world performed, you can listen to it here.

‘The 2023 Mountain Bike Downhill World Cup is hotting up. Leogang provided wild racing and I’m joined by Neko Mulally and Olly Morris to find out all about what went on. How was the track, how much impact did the weather have, how’s the overall battle developing and plenty more. So sit back, hit play and listen to this Leogang post-race show with Neko Mulally and Olly Morris.’

Chris - Downtime Podcast