2015 UCI World Cup 1 Lourdes France

New to the UCI MTB World Cup presented by Shimano in 2015, Lourdes will be one of three rounds – with Fort William and Leogang – 100% dedicated to Downhill. A regular French Cup stopover, the city in the south-west of France will kick off the season. The riders will no doubt enjoy its demanding track that offers a stunning view of the city.

"The 2015 season of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup presented by Shimano opens with round 1 of the downhill series, in the new World Cup venue of Lourdes, France. However, while Lourdes is new to the World Cup, it has a strong gravity resume, having hosted French Championships and National Series competitions in previous years.

The town of Lourdes lies in the southwest corner of France, part of the foothills of the Pyrenees mountain range. While the town has only 15,000 residents, it attracts some 5 million visitors on an annual basis, visiting on pilgrimages to the Sanctuary of Our Lady, where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared and miraculous healings from the waters have taken place.

The 2,000 metre track begins at 900 metres of elevation, losing over half of its altitude (477 metres) over the run, for an average grade of nearly 24%. Riders and spectators ride a funicular tram from the base to the start, with the course zig zagging through tunnels under the tram on the way down.

The course is rough, rocky, rooty and, mostly likely, wet and slippery. From the start house riders immediately face a series of sharp turns and rocky, open terrain. From there, the course becomes fast and flowy, dropping in and out of lightly wooded sections dotted with roots and a couple of gap jumps. After this slight recovery, riders hit the final extremely steep rock-strewn portion of the run before a final jump into the finish bowl.

This is not a pedalling course, but one that requires tremendous technical skills and the ability to resist losing speed by touching the brakes. Any mistake is likely to have a huge impact on run time.

In the Women's field, all of the top riders are entered, with reigning World Cup Champion and World champion Manon Carpenter (Madison Saracen Factory Team) sporting the Number 1 plate after her breakthrough season last year. She is expected to resume last year's battle with countrywoman and former World Cup champion Rachel Atherton (GT Factory Racing). Others expected to be in the fight for podium spots are Emmeline Ragot (MS Mondraker Team), who could receive a huge boost from riding on home soil, as well other French riders such as Myriam Nicole (Commencal/Vallnord) and Morgane Charre (Solid-Reverse Factory Racing).

The Men's field will see 2014 World Cup champion Josh Bryceland (Great Britain) with the Number 1 plate. This will be a chance to see if Bryceland is fully recovered from the serious foot injury he suffered at the UCI World Championships last fall. Others sure to be in the mix are former multi-time World Cup champion Aaron Gwin (Specialized Racing), UCI World Champion Gee Atherton (GT Factory Racing), Troy Brosnan (Specialized Racing), Sam Hill (Chain Reaction Cycles/Paypal) and former UCI World Champion Greg Minnaar (South Africa), who is coming back from a hand injury. The big French hope will be Loic Bruni (Lapierre Gravity Republic).

The action begins on Saturday with timed qualifying runs, followed by the World Cup on Sunday. The Juniors Men start the racing at 12:30, followed by the Elite Women at 13:15 and the Elite Men at 14:00 (all times European)."

Hang on for the POV ride of your life! Claudio is back for a new year of World Cup course previews. 

A new track awaits the world's fastest as they make their way to Lourdes, France, for the opening round of the UCI MTB World Cup.

Join Claudio Caluori, with special guest, Loïc Bruni, as they take to the French hillside for the first course preview of 2015.

"The first event of the 2015 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup presented by Shimano got underway on Saturday with qualifying for Sunday's final at Downhill #1 in Lourdes, France. The course is proving to be as difficult as expected with multiple crashes affecting the rankings.

Australian champion Tracey Hannah (Polygon UR) served notice that she is starting the season with great form, finishing first in the women as the only rider to crack the three and half minute mark with three minutes and 29.785 seconds. Former World Cup champion Rachel Atherton (GT Factory) was a distant second, nearly six seconds back. The French duo of Myriam Nicole (Commencal/Vallnord) and Emmeline Ragot (MS Mondraker) took the next two spots, over eight seconds in arrears. World champion and defending World Cup champion Manon Carpenter (Madison Saracen) struggled on her run, finishing fifth and 12.588 seconds back.

For the men, one of the pre-race favourites, the French national champion Loïc Bruni (Lapierre Gravity Republic) gave local fans something to cheer about after posting the fastest time of three minutes and 3.908 seconds. Three riders finished within hundredths of a second of each other for the next three spots - Remi Thirion (Commencal/Vallnord), defending World Cup champion Josh Bryceland (Great Britain) and Neko Mulally (Gstaad-Scott), but all were more than 1.8 seconds behind Bruni.

Missing from the top ranks was world champion Gee Atherton (GT Factory), who crashed heavily and did not finish, although he is a protected rider and can start the final, depending on his injuries. Former World Cup champion Aaron Gwin (Specialized Racing) was disqualified after crashing and rejoining the course lower down the mountain, however, he is also on the protected list. Not starting was former World Cup and world champion Sam Hill (Chain Reaction Cycles/Paypal), who is injured.

In the Junior men's seeding run, Laurie Greenland (Trek World Racing) was fastest with a time of 3:09.063, almost three seconds ahead of Andrew Crimmins (Kona Factory), with Alex Marin Trillo (Giant Factory) third at 6.395 seconds."

2015 World Cup Round One Lourdes Junior Men Qualifying

2015 World Cup Round One Lourdes Women Downhill Qualifying

2015 World Cup Round One Lourdes Men Downhill Qualifying

"Round 1 of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup presented by Shimano on Sunday saw the return of two former World Cup winners to the top of the podium in Lourdes, France. Emmeline Ragot (MS Mondraker) gave French fans a home win in the women's race, while Aaron Gwin (Specialized Racing) crushed the men's field.

Ragot will wear the World Cup leader's jersey for the women. but her French compatriot Loïc Bruni (Lapierre Gravity Republic) takes the men's jersey after finishing second to Gwin in the Final and winning the Qualifying run, where Gwin crashed.

Tegan Molloy (Kona Factory) was the first woman to record a sub-4 minute time, with ten riders still to follow. The time steadily dropped over the next six riders until, by the time defending World Cup Champion and World Champion Manon Carpenter (Madison Saracen) rode with five to go, the leading time was down to three minutes and 40.531 seconds.

However, this was still more than ten seconds slower than the fastest qualifying time, set by Tracey Hannah (Polygon UR), so everyone was expecting the winner was still to come. Ragot was the next rider after Carpenter, and she knocked 7.906 seconds off the best time to take the Hot Seat. Myriam Nicole Commencal/Vallnord) was next, but was 2.5 seconds slower, slotting in between Ragot and Carpenter. Next was Rachel Atherton (GT Factory), multiple time World Cup and World Champion, and she was faster than Ragot in both intermediate splits, up by two seconds after Split 2. However, she could not maintain the pace after washing out her rear wheel following a rock jump, and had to settle for second, two seconds behind her French rival.

The final rider was Hannah, whose qualifying time was nearly three seconds faster than Ragot's final run. At the second split Hannah was less than half a second back and still in contention for the win, but a crash in the lower third of the course ruined her chances. Remarkably, the Australian managed to get back on her bike quick enough to finish fifth.

"It was okay, but I thought I could not win because I made a couple of mistakes at the start," commented Ragot. "After that I knew that I just had to go full on. It was good to be here in France, with all my family and friends here."

After factoring in points from Qualifying, Ragot leads the standings with 225 points, followed by Atherton at 200 points and Nicole at 170.

The men's Final had Bruni as the favourite, after qualifying first and riding in front of a home crowd. However, a number of top riders suffered problems in qualifying, with Gwin, Danny Hart (MS Mondraker) and world champion Gee Atherton (GT Factory) all crashing, so there was no way to know how fast they might have gone.

Amaury Pierron (Lac Blanc Scott), at 34 riders to go, set the first sub-3:10 time, a time that would hold up to 17th overall at the end of the day. Bernat Pascual (Intense Factory) immediately knocked a second off that time and would hold the lead until Hart came down with 24 to go. Former world champion Hart took the top time down to 3:05.577. Atherton, who had injured his wrist in his qualifying crash, was clearly not on form, finishing 48th, but Gwin, starting with 21 riders to go, then obliterated the top time, almost seven seconds faster than Hart, and the first of the weekend under three minutes, at 2:58.691.

There were still 20 riders to go, but it quickly became clear that Gwin, the 2011 and 2012 World Cup Champion, had put down a special run, with no one able to come close. Rider after rider among the top qualifiers came down six, seven or eight seconds slower than the American champion.

Michael Jones (Chain Reaction Cycles/Paypal) managed to dislodge Hart for second, but was still 6.4 seconds back of Gwin. Neko Mulally (Gstaad-Scott), fourth from last to start, lost his rear tire in the rocks and abandoned. Great Britain's Josh Bryceland, the defending World Cup champion, had a poor first split and couldn't make up the difference lower down the course. Remi Thirion (Commencal/Vallnord), the second fastest qualifier, looked good on the top half of the course but flatted lower down.

Finally, there was only Bruni left. The French rider came through the first split two-tenths of a second faster than Gwin but lost momentum through the middle part of the course and was nearly 2.8 seconds back at Split 2. He held on for second place, but was still 3.995 seconds behind Gwin at the finish line.

"It's a rough track," agreed Gwin, "but I think it is awesome. It is super fast and wide open. There are a lot of holes and soft sand, but that's what I'm used to, so I was loving it. I just tried to put it [qualifying crash] behind me and focus on today. It always sucks when you don't get a qualifier because you don't really know where you stack up. But I felt good all week and just had to try and go for it. Sitting in the Hot Seat for so long ... I was more nervous than in my run."

With 50 points awarded for qualifying first and 160 points for second in the Final, Bruni takes a slim 10 point lead over Gwin in the standings, after Gwin did not score any points in qualifying. Jones is a distant third with 157 points.

In the Junior men's competition, Andrew Crimmins (Kona Factory) was the winner, three-tenths of a second ahead of Laurie Greenland (Trek World Racing), with Jackson Frew (Australia) third at 1.644 seconds."

2015 World Cup Round One Lourdes Junior Men Final Results

2015 World Cup Round One Lourdes Women Final Results

2015 World Cup Round One Lourdes Men Final Results

"Aaron Gwin was one of the early starters at Lourdes but smashed the course with a time that no one else could get anywhere near to take the win.

Our live coverage didn’t show the American’s run in full, due to his early start, but you can watch Aaron's full winning run below as we recap from the race that set the pace in Lourdes.

Lourdes slowly baked under a high early season sun as what would be an afternoon of unparalleled noise and drama unfurled in front of it. A capacity crowd packed the grandstands and hillsides of the natural amphitheater surrounding the finishing line.

It wasn't just the finish line that found itself mobbed with fans however; Madison Saracen's Sam Dale was incredulous; "They're lining the whole track!," he exclaimed during his lengthy sit on the box during the elite men's race.

Men's Race

After being disqualified from qualifying on Saturday, Aaron Gwin was for many, a potential danger man. Starting in 21st, he broke the beam under the three minute mark. Whoever wanted to beat him, was going to have to take it from him.

Old rivals Gee Atherton and Greg Minnaar each found themselves taping themselves to their bars with a broken wrist and injured thumb a piece.

Chain Reaction Cycles/Paypal young star Michael Jones looks more and more like his friend and teammate Sam Hill these days. Hill was relegated to the sidelines with a shoulder injury but the freshly tattooed Jones did him proud. His was an incredible run full of high stakes lines, natural talent and raw speed that echoed as much of Perth as it did of Abercregan.

Danny Hart too validated his new spot on MS Mondraker Racing with a lengthy sit in the sun. Hart's risk taking is now tempered with clinical speed carrying. Fourth today may have felt like a disappointment for Danny but Fort William looms...

Whilst all this was going on, the man they had all come here to see, Loic Bruni, was busy at the top of the course singing to himself. Fans near where he was warming up were playing the redbull.com/bike live feed on a phone and he didn't want to hear. He still heard about Gwin though.

Bruni laid down a run that on any other day would surely have seen him take to the top step (indeed it would, as the leader of the overall) but Gwin's magic, so beautifully weaved between the two splits, was too much.

The big news is then that the riders at the top of the UCI World Cup tree yet again have a quietly spoken American to be terrified of. Granted Gwin opened his account early in South Africa last season but the quiet swagger seems to have returned. He destroyed the field after a huge crash and without a qualifying run.

Bruni looks like the rider most up for the fight but between now and Fort William, there is time for bones and egos to heal.

Women's Race

In the women's race however the big question was how could the field react to and deal with Tracey Hannah's incredible six second drubbing of them on Saturday. The World Champion Manon Carpenter had no answers, nor had Rachel Atherton; the pairing who many predicted would again slug it out for the overall.

On home soil, on a new bike, Emmeline Ragot delivered the answers. The French woman won, the crowd went wild and the chainsaws roared. Hannah, crashing in her run, can take heart from a qualifying performance up there with her very best."