The French rider from the Commencal/Muc-Off team won the Elite Men’s Downhill final despite not being 100% at his best and took over as the provisional leader of the overall standings for the UCI DH 2021 World Cup.
It was a thrilling experience for everyone at the UCI MTB World Cup in Les Gets (France) where the changes in the weather left their mark on the weekend and the rain made its presence felt in the Downhill and Cross-Country finals.
In the Downhill event, there was a spectacular victory by Thibuat Daprela (Commencal/Muc-Off) who put together an excellent downhill race, although he enjoyed better conditions than some of his rivals, who were affected by the rain that began to fall during the final stretch of the race. Daprela, who came to Les Gets after a recent face injury, clocked a time of 3:33 in the final, two seconds better than the runner-up with his Commencal prototype Supreme DH 29”, also equipped with the experimental GALFER Bike DBP21007I ø223×2.0 mm brake discs. This meant the young French rider, at only 20 years of age, notched up his first victory in a UCI DH World Cup in the Elite Men’s category, the second in history for a GALFER Bike representative. Thibaut Daprela is also now the leader of the world’s premier downhill category, thanks to one victory and one podium finish in the two races run this season.
In the Elite Women’s category, Myriam Nicole (Commencal/Muc-Off) achieved a creditable second position, only 0.2 seconds behind the winner. Nicole managed to set the fastest time in qualifying on Saturday but suffered a minor crash in Sunday’s race which cost her some valuable time.
The Commencal/Muc-Off team was thus proclaimed the winner at Les Gets, its second consecutive race win this year, despite the absence of Amaury Pierron in this race.
And in the Junior categories there were three top ten positions achieved by GALFER Bike riders: Aina González (IJ Racing) 6th and Siel Van der Velden (Commencal/NOBL) 7th in the Junior Female category and Tristan Lemire (Commencal/Muc-Off) 10th in the Junior Male category.
In the Cross-Country section, it was a modest and rather luckless weekend for GALFER Bike riders due to the difficult weather conditions in the races on Sunday, where there was a lot of mud.
In the Elite Men’s category, Dutchman Milan Vader (KMC-Orbea) managed to climb to 11th place, while David Valero (BH Tempo Cafés) was 19th. Victor Koretzky (KMC-Orbea) was unlucky to suffer a technical problem when he was among the leading riders, eventually finishing 22nd.
In the Elite women’s category, the Spanish rider Rocío del Alba (BH Tempo Cafés) achieved a meritorious 13th position, while Malene Degn (KMC-Orbea) came in 24th.
Now the Cross-Country riders will set the World Cup aside for a while to focus on the most important goal of the season: the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the end of July 2021. GALFER Bike will have up to 5 representatives in this special event: Victor Koretzky (FRA), Milan Vader (NED), David Valero (SPA), Rocío del Alba (SPA) and Malene Degn (DEN).
As for the Downhill riders, they will have their next World Cup appointment in Maribor (Slovenia) from 13 to 15 August.
