Rachel Atherton added another gold medal to her bulging trophy cabinet after a lightning performance saw her celebrate victory in the latest UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Leogang.
Atherton, a four-time world downhill champion, tore down the Austrian hills in a time of 3:41.141 to claim the maximum 200 points – her first World Cup win of the season.
It was all the more impressive from Atherton, who crashed in Saturday’s qualifying round and was on the back of an unlucky showing in Fort William last weekend, despite a third-place finish there.
French rider Miriam Nicole clocked 3:41.779 to take the silver medal and 160 points as runner-up, while Australian Tracey Hannah claimed bronze and 140 points.
Atherton’s fellow Brit Katie Curd was seventh, while Tahnee Seagrave, who scored a memorable first World Cup victory in Fort William last week, looked set to make it two podium finishes in two weeks.
However, despite initially being ruled as finishing third, she was later disqualified for re-entering the course on the wrong side of the course marker after over-cooking a jump.
Elsewhere, Laurie Greenland secured an historic podium finish as he claimed bronze in the men’s race with a time of 3:12.146.
Two seconds behind pacesetter Luca Shaw in qualifying, the young Brit knocked five seconds off that time in the final to claim third.
Amaury Pierron of France sealed the victory in a time of 3:10.992, with American Aaron Gwin, riding with an injured thumb, netting the runner-up spot in 3:11.499.
Sportsbeat 2018