Tahnee Seagrave admitted disqualification last time out spurred her on to glory after leading home a British one-two in the UCI Downhill Mountain Bike World Cup in Val di Sole.
The 23-year-old British rider finished ahead of compatriot Rachel Atherton to ensure the duo occupy the top two spots in the championships standings.
Seagrave sits in second place overall after her victory in Italy, with Atherton leading the standings after taking gold in the World Cup event in Leogang, Austria, last month.
While four-time world downhill champion Atherton was celebrating her first World Cup win of the season, Seagrave was disqualified after initially finishing the race in third.
And Seagrave said that disappointment made her more determined as she pipped her rival to the gold by just 0.123 seconds, with Slovakia’s Monika Hrastnik finishing third.
“I need something like that – not that I want to get disqualified again – to fuel the fire as I don’t like an easy task, not that it’s ever easy racing downhill,” she said.
“But I need something a little bit extra to make me work a lot harder.
“I was so tired but I knew that the bottom section has been really weak here so I just pushed and then with five seconds left I could hear that I was really close.
“I knew it would be Rachel so I just sprinted off and it was so tight in the end.”
Atherton stormed out of the blocks confidently and posted the fastest time of the day (4:26.547), more than five seconds ahead of previous leader – and home favourite – Veronika Widmann.
But despite initially finding herself behind Atherton’s pace, Seagrave made up half a second between splits three and four before sprinting across the line for a memorable triumph.
Meanwhile, in the men’s race, Laurie Greenland and Danny Hart almost secured another British one-two, but they had to settle for second and third, respectively, behind France’s Amaury Pierron.
Reece Wilson was one of 16 British cyclists to hit the Italian hills and occupied a place on the podium for some time following a fine run of 3:40.858.
However, on the track where he claimed World Championship silver in 2016, Greenland took the lead from France’s Thomas Estaque by almost two seconds, finishing in 3:37.312.
Then, in the penultimate ride of the day, Hart delivered one of the fastest first split times before falling 0.136 seconds short of Greenland’s time as he could only finish in second place.
And with the pressure on Pierron, who had recorded back-to-back wins in Fort William and Leogang, he produced a masterful 3:36.788 to spoil the British party at the death.
Elsewhere, in the UCI Cross Country Mountain Bike World Cup, Commonwealth silver medallist Evie Richards got her women’s under-23 challenge back on track with a second-placed finish.
Fellow Brit Annie Last, who won gold on the Gold Coast, was forced to battle back in the women’s elite race to secure 17th after being caught up in an early crash in Val di Sole.
The 27-year-old found herself back in 29th at the end of the first lap, but clawed her way into the top 20 to move up to 11th in the overall standings in the process. Photo credit: SWpix.com
Sportsbeat 2018