Your Essential Guide to the Vallnord DH World Cup 2016

Is it over already? Almost. For the seventh and final stop of the 2016 UCI Mountain Biking Downhill World Cup series, we're heading to Vallnord in the principality of Andorra. Nestled in the Pyrenean mountains, the town of La Massana will be hosting what will be a victory parade for Rachel Atherton and a nail-biting race to the finish for Aaron Gwin and Danny Hart.

First visited by the UCI World Cup Downhill circus in 2008 and then again in 2009 and 2013. Vallnord took a break from the World Cup and instead hosted the World Championships last year; a race weekend that went down in the history books as one of the most thrilling races we've seen in a long while. We're now back in the home nation of Cedric Gracia and Commençal for 2016, a venue we'll be returning to in 2017 and 2018 as well.

The trail team in Vallnord has been busy making adjustments to the track since the World Champs last year and have promised some modifications, including those to a few jumps, as well as improved spectator access. We can't wait to see what's in store but in the meantime, here's all you need to know about the history and riders who have shaped this old-school/new-school race track.

To get their view on the Vallnord track, we asked a few riders. Here's what they said:

For those who love the numbers, to recap on what points are on offer, they are: 1st = 200 (50), 2nd = 160 (40), 3rd = 140 (30), 4th = 125 (25), 5th = 110 (22) (points for qualifying in brackets).

With that in mind, it's going to be a tense fight for those final valuable points for the last round of the season for the Elite Men. Danny Hart will have to push the boat out and secure maximum points in qualifying and finals to allow him to even contemplate taking the overall win, but it is statistically possible. Meanwhile, Gwin will have to have a bad day in the forest to allow that to happen. Stranger things have happened, but Gwin has the experience of making it count on the final day of the season. One thing's for sure, it's going to be an amazing season finale.

With Rachel's domination all year, she bagged the series win well before the final race. However, the remaining places are still up for grabs. Could Tahnée knock Tracey out of the third spot and make it a 1-2-3 Great Britain lock-out?

Cameramen in the corral, be warned! When you've got a Swede with failed breaks coming towards you, the best thing to do is to not be in his way. Easier said than done of course. Vallnord is famous for just such an incident when (in 2009), Robin Wallner went sideways into the broadcast cameraman. Both men came away with just a few grazes but the expensive broadcast camera lens was toast.

Back in 2008, the Athertons secured a hat-trick of wins in the inaugural UCI World Cup weekend in Andorra, with Dan winning the 4X, Rachel winning the Elite Women and Gee winning in the Elite Men.

Take a time warp to 2009 and relive the full two and a bit hour experience of the Elite Men's competition from Vallnord, thanks to the Freecaster/Extreme.com archives. With Cedric Gracia out injured, the broadcasters thought it was a good idea to put him in the commentary booth with Rob Warner. Cue a torrent of Warnerisms and a very croaky CG.

With Steve Peat laying down a blistering time, his teammate Greg Minnaar could only come in third fastest behind Gee Atherton who himself missed out on the top step by 0.02 seconds. Sam Hill was the last man down the track and was on to a flyer. However, bad luck struck when he scrubbed the step-down jump and managed to crash on landing (into the snow) but then instantly got back on his bike. Below is some amateur trackside footage of the crash. Back in the finish corral, everyone waited to see where Sam was...he crossed the line in 31st after losing seven seconds in the crash. Sam's loss was Peaty's gain and with that win, the Yorkshireman took his 17th World Cup win, beating the previous record for the most World Cup wins taken by a rider in the Elite Men category.

It goes without saying that Vallnord must be a pretty special place for Loïc Bruni, given it was the venue of his first World Championship win in 2015. Finally, the Frenchman managed to secure a clean run, despite a season of being so close to taking a World Cup win. We all knew it was on the cards but Loïc left it to the last race of the international calendar to make it happen. Neither Brosnan or Gwin could beat Loïc; Aaron was the last man down the mountain but a mistake and a crash off-camera meant he wasn't able to prevent the Frenchman from fulfilling what his fans had been hoping for all season long.

Without a doubt, 2016 has been a bleak year for our community, and with the sudden passing of Zarja Černilogar last week, we again mourn another rider lost. Although Zarja had been out of the World Cup circuit for most of the 2016 season, the five-time Slovenian national champion was planning to return at the World Champs. Back in 2013, Zarja was her own mechanic and secured 9th spot in qualifying at Vallnord, although sadly a crash saw her finish 18th. With several top 20 finishes subsequent to that, we were all waiting to see when, not if, she would grab her first World Cup podium spot.

You'll be missed Zarja.

The finals take place on Saturday, the 3rd of September, with the live broadcast commencing at 14:30 local/Andorra time (13:30 BST).

Stay tuned to Pinkbike.com throughout the weekend for all the latest news from the seventh and final round of the UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Cup 2016, including live timing from timed training and qualifiers, as well as photo stories and tech content.