Kuhn and Jewett lead Canadians into finals at Leogang World Cup

World Cup downhill racing is back in action after a brief break for the XC racers to wrap up their Olympic qualification in Nove Mesto. Saturday is all about qualifying for finals. Three Canadain juniors are through to Sunday’s racing while five Canadian elite men move on from qualifying to race Saturday’s semi-final. Three of them would advance on to Sunday’s elite finals, led by Bodhi Kuhn.

Elite qualifying

For the elites, Saturday started with qualifying but didn’t end there. For the riders that made it through that first round (60 men, 15 women), it was just the start. A quick break while the juniors raced qualifying and the elites had to head back up the hill for semi-finals.

Oisin O’Callaghan (YT Mob) fastest in men’s qualifying, but just 0.060 seconds ahead of Canyon’s Luca Shaw.

Finn Iles DNF’s, but moves through to semis on protected status. The Specialized racer crashed during practice. Due to the preculiarites of the UCI’s protected rider rules, all Iles had to do in the qualis and semis was drop out of the start hut. He did just that, and only that on Saturday. But hopefully that means he’s at least feeling healthy enough to race on Sunday.

That leaves Jakob Jewett (Pivot Factory Racing) as the fastest Canuck in qualifying, posting the 19th fastest time. Kirk McDowall (Norco Racing Division) moves through to semis in 39th, same with Bodhi Kuhn (Trek Factory Racing) in 41st and, just inside the 60-rider cut-off, Mark Wallace (We Are One Momentum Project). Seth Sherlock (Gwin Racing) misses out by 0.856, ending his weekend in 68th. Gabe Neron’s another second back in 83rd, Tegan Cruz (Kena NS) 90th, Henry Sherry 112th, Tristan Lemire (Evolve Racing) 122nd and Garrett McIntosh 146th.

Valentina Höll (YT Mob) dominated the elite women’s qualifying, finishing a full eight seconds ahead of the next fastest rider. That was the U.S.A.’s Anna Newkirk (Beyond Racing), who just edged out Myriam Nicole (Commencal MucOff) for the second position going into semi finals.

Gracey Hemstreet (Norco Race Division) led the Canadian women in qualifying in 28th. Charlotte Gaudreau followed in 31st. With the UCI’s err… overly strict 15-rider cut-off for women’s semi-finals, that ends the weekend for both riders.

Juniors qualifying

There are no semi-finals for the juniors, so they were fighting to move through directly to Sunday’s finals.

Asa Vermette (Frameworks Racing) led the junior men through qualifying, though the U.S….