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It's All to Ride for in the Meribel Downhill World Cup

2014 has been a dramatic year for DH racing, what will Meribel bring??

featured in News & reviews Author Pam Williamson, Meribel Editor Updated

After a thrilling weekend of racing in the World Cup Series at Windham in the USA, there is all to play for in the series final right here in Meribel, France in just under 2 weeks time.

Sam Hill's famous return to the top of the sport in the Candian World Cup at Mont Sainte Anne just a few weeks ago had people on tenterhooks for the race in Windham USA - would he be able to pull out another win or would one of the young guns, Troy Brosnan or Josh Bryceland be able to build on their 2014 performances and snatch the glory...

Well, after a fantastic race the Ratboy, Josh Bryceland, put in the run of his life and took the win by 2 seconds over American champion Aaron Gwin, with the 20 year old Troy Brosnan in third place. With no real results consistency at the top of the rankings this year this result leaves the Men's DH World Cup Series wide open with the top 2 separated by only 43 points. The results in Meribel could dramatically effect the top standings and I know who I will be cheering for...but it might be a case of crossing all fingers and toes and hoping for no technical faults, crashes or punctures!

Men's Current World Cup DH Standings

1. Josh Bryceland – 1007
2. Troy Brosnan – 964
3. Aaron Gwin – 925
4. Sam Hill – 802
5. Gee Atherton – 688

With similar drama in this years women's World Cup Series we go in to the sixth and final round in Meribel with a mere 70 points separating the youngster Manon Carpenter and French hope Emmeline Ragot. And after a hard start to the season with illness, defending World Cup winner Rachel Atherton has made her way up the ranks to third place and is definitely in contention for the win again in 2014.

At Windham USA 2014 Emmeline Ragot was on fire and stormed down to take her second win of the series with a near 3 second lead over Rachel Atherton in second and a massive 7 seconds over third placed Tracey Hannah. A French women's winner on home soil in Meribel would be an amazing end to the series and a huge boost to women's downhill racing here in France, so without wanting to tempt fate (touch wood!) I have my heart set on Ragot taking the win at Meribel and overall!

Women's Current World Cup DH Standings

1. Manon Carpenter – 1180
2. Emmeline Ragot – 1110
3. Rachel Atherton – 1060
4. Tracey Hannah – 792
5. Myriam Nicole – 662

And it seems the same can be said for XC (Cross Country) World Cup Series! A close race all round but here are the results for the Women's race: Canadian Catharine Pendrel taking the win in Windham by 29 seconds over Tanja Zakelj of Slovenia which brings them both up in the overall rankings to second and third place respectively behind Swiss athlete Jolanda Neff who has a convincing lead right now to take the series victory in Meribel. And no less drama in the Men's race with current World Champion Nino Schurter finshing a mere 6 seconds ahead of World Cup series leader Julien Absalon. So it looks like Swiss rider Schurter (1080 points) and the Frenchman Absalon (1290 Points) will be battling it out in Meribel!

So all that we have to do now is sit back and wait for them all to arrive in Meribel and the 3 Valleys area and get ready to cheer, shout and enjoy a weekend of racing for the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup series 2014. Watch it live on RedBull TV or come and join us in Meribel for all the action!

...Oh...and of course we can enjoy the course preview in advance of the race courtesy of the fantastic and charismatic Claudio Caluori!