Finn Iles walked away from a very wild day of racing in Andorra with a podium finish. The fantastic result, earned after a roller coaster of a day on the mountain, preserves the Whistler racer’s chances of capturing the World Cup overall title. In fact, it moves the Specialized Gravity Racer ahead of fellow Canuck, Jackson Goldstone, and into the leader’s jersey. But, with the threat of weather delays cancelling semi-finals, Vallnord race weekend almost had the opposite effect for Iles.
Canceled semis and delayed finals
The Andorra venue sits high up in the mountains and with extreme elevation, comes extreme weather. After hot sun and hail during training, racers finished qualifying on Friday only to be greeted by a forecast of extreme winds approaching 90 km/h and possible lightning. Not ideal for downhill’s combination of gondolas and big air jumps on course. Example: past world champion Camille Balanche was blown off track as she flew over a road gap during practice on Friday taking her out of the race.
The new World Cup format sees downhill semi-finals and finals both run on Saturday. With weather looming, Saturday racing was initially moved forward with a modified course, then postponed, then semi-finals were cancelled. Finals were postponed for about six hours and, with the forecast not looking great, likely to be cancelled. That would have pushed Iles, who qualified 10th, further behind Goldstone (who qualified third).
The UCI and organizers eventually made the call to run finals in the afternoon, with semi-finals remaining cancelled.
Iles finds speed at the perfect time
While Iles’ qualification run may have been a little shaky, his finals run was anything but. The Specialized racer absolutely flew down the brutally rough Andorra track to take third. French powerhouse Thibault Daprela (Commencal Muc-Off) was unstoppable, though, putting down a 2:46.455 to take the win. Iles would finish 2.316 seconds back, with veteran Syndicate racer Greg Minnaar narrowly losing out to Daprela, by just 0.121 seconds, to take silver.
Mark Wallace (Norco Factory Team) was the next across the line in 13th, his best result of the 2023 season.
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