What a race! There's certainly an argument for it being called one of the best ever with the titles up in the air all the way down to the finish line for the final rider. Snowshoe delivered a short, tight course that kept ties tight and spectators guessing the whole way down. It's a shame it's not penciled in again for the time being.
Let's waste no time getting stuck into the splits to see where the titles and the race was won.
At a GlanceSector Times
Men
Sector 1
1. Amaury Pierron - 1:06.633
2. Greg Minnaar +0.070
3. Troy Brosnan +0.124
4. Connor Fearon +0.444
5. Loic Bruni +0.806
Sector 2
1. Charlie Harrison - 23.953
2. Dakotah Norton +0.039
3. Loic Bruni +0.062
4. Dean Lucas +0.148
5. Luca Shaw +0.152
Sector 3
1. Charlie Harrison - 38.355
2. Amaury Pierron +0.083
3. Danny Hart +0.192
4. Greg Williamson +0.352
5. Loic Bruni +1.278
Sector 4
1. Danny Hart - 29.524
2. Charlie Harrison +0.734
3. Greg Minnaar +1.195
4. Loic Bruni +1.234
5. Mark Wallace +1.253
Sector 5
1. Dakotah Norton - 23.368
2. Greg Williamson +0.093
3. Amaury Pierron +0.223
4. Danny Hart +0.269
5. Charlie Harrison +0.408
Perfect Lap
3:01.833
Fastest Run
3:03.627
Women
Sector 1
1. Tahnee Seagrave - 1:16.718
2. Tracey Hannah +0.954
3. Marine Cabirou +1.125
4. Myriam Nicole +3.281
5. Veronika Widmann +3.772
Sector 2
1. Sian A'Hern - 27.097
2. Mariana Salazar +0.067
3. Myriam Nicole +0.145
4. Tahnee Seagrave +0.305
5. Veronika Widmann +0.415
Sector 3
1. Myriam Nicole - 49.528
2. Marine Cabirou +0.788
3. Veronika Widmann +0.831
4. Tahnee Seagrave +2.284
5. Sian A'Hern +2.503
Sector 4
1. Myriam Nicole - 38.855
2. Veronika Widmann +0.731
3. Marine Cabirou +1.079
4. Sian A'Hern +1.290
5. Sandra Rubesam +1.637
Sector 5
1. Marine Cabirou - 27.212
2. Monika Hrastnik +0.851
3. Tracey Hannah +0.891
4. Sian A'Hern +1.070
5. Sandra Rubesam +1.175
Perfect Lap
3:39.409
Fastest Run
3:43.032
The Story of the RaceIn DepthThe SectorsSector 1 From the start gate, over the big double and road gap, down the ski piste and over the rock sender.
Men ≈ 67 seconds, Women ≈ 77 secondsSector 2 A flatter woods section with plenty of line options and some sharp berms.
Men ≈ 24 seconds, Women ≈ 27 secondsSector 3 Down the double drop and the steep straight section to the entrance of the rock garden.
Men ≈ 38 seconds, Women ≈ 50 secondsSector 4 The main rock garden section. Ends with riders sprinting down a flat fireroad.
Men ≈ 30 seconds, Women ≈ 40 secondsSector 5 Through the rhythm section in the woods, over the container drops and across the line.
Men ≈ 23 seconds, Women ≈ 28 secondsTotal Length: 2.1km / 1.3 miles
Total Drop: 474 metres / 1555 ft
Men2013 - Atherton vs Smith, 2017 - Gwin vs Minnaar, we've been treated to some intense season finales this decade and Snowshoe provided yet another. In the end, Loic took the title by just 40 points and had he lost another 0.8 seconds he would have handed the title to Pierron. Still, it was an incredible display of composure under immense pressure as he rode just fast enough to get the position he needed while ensuring disaster didn't strike.
Danny Hart has podiumed at every round apart from Les Gets this year and was rewarded with a win, his first for 3 years. He didn't have the strongest top half of the race but was sublime through the techy rocks and pulled back enough time to end up on top.
Let's take a look through all the numbers to find out where the time was made and lost for the top racers:
Sector 1From the start gate, over the big double and road gap, down the ski piste and over the rock sender.The first sector was the longest of the race but with most of it being flat out, open piste terrain, there wasn't too much opportunity to pull out time. Pierron once again showed his prowess when it comes to holding the throttle open on grassy turns as he shot into an early lead. He could only pull out 0.07 on Greg Minnaar though and Troy Brosnan was also in the mix just 0.124 back.
Connor Fearon made a great start but Bruni was in fifth at this point with work to do if he was to take the overall title. Eventual winner Danny Hart started with 6th place, more than a second back. He had plenty of stops to pull out before the end of the track though. The final podium rider, Charlie Harrison, also left himself plenty to do after split 1 as he was treading water down in 10th. The greatest comeback came from Dakotah Norton though. His strange outside line over the jump saw him end the sector back in 49th, but he would pull it back to 9th by the finish line.
Sector 2A flatter woods section with plenty of line options and some sharp berms.Sector 2 went to Charlie Harrison, who was easily the fastest rider through the middle section of this track. It was clearly a split for the Americans to enjoy as just behind him was Dakotah Norton, who was already making up for a weak first sector. Bruni also got within 0.1 of the fastest time here.
On the whole, this was a really tight sector with just 0.6 separating the entier top top 20 but Amaury Pierron struggled here and was nearly 0.5 back in 11th.
If we combine splits 1 and 2, then Greg Minnaar was the leader of the race at this point. He was the only rider who put in two consistent sectors and was rewarded with a lead of 0.262 seconds. Amaury Pierron was 2nd with Troy Brosnan 3rd, Bruni was still on track to lose the title at this point too. Danny Hart was back in 6th but his favourite part of the track was still to come.
Sector 3Down the double drop and the steep straight section to the entrance of the rock garden.Charlie Harrison took another win in sector 3 but once again it was by a super-tight margin, this time by 0.83. Amaury Pierron recovered from a difficult sector 2 to be right on Harrison's tail. Hart started to get into gear as well and was just 0.192 back.
Bruni went 5th fastest again, keeping up his consistent run from the first half of the track. Greg Minnaar, who was leading up until this sector, lost 1.996 seconds and ended up back in 10th.
Greg Minnaar lost the lead and fell back out of the podium positions into 6th, allowing Amaury Pierron to take over the provisional lead. Danny Hart made the jump up to 2nd and Charlie Harrison was rewarded for his two fastest sectors with 3rd place in the standings. Bruni was still back in 5th at this point and behind where he needed to be for the all-important overall points.
Sector 4The main rock garden section. Ends with riders sprinting down a flat fireroad.A Danny Hart demolition. In the most technical part of the track, the Redcar Rocket blasted clear. In just 30 seconds of track, Hart put 0.7 into the flying Charlie Harrison and more than a second into every other rider on the track. Pierron, who was leading up until this point, loses 1.6 to Hart and 0.4 to Bruni.
With that incredible display of technical riding, Hart shot into the lead with just the flatout bottom section to go. He developed a lead of 0.7 over Pierron after bing 0.9 back before this sector. Charlie Harrison's 3 consecutively strong sectors saw him hold onto third with a gap of more than a second back to Bruni. As Hart moved into the lead, Bruni was in a position where he could win the overall for the first time in the race.
Sector 5Through the rhythm section in the woods, over the container drops and across the line.Dakotah Norton took the final sprint to the line but again, there wasn't a great deal of time to be made. Greg Williamson completed his best run of the year with a 2nd place through this sector while Pierron went third. The Frenchman did pull some time back on Hart but it wasn't enough to steal a victory.
Bruni went eighth fastest here but crucially beat Minnaar, who was the only rider that could have prevented him from winning the title.
Hart took his first win since 2016 but it unfortunately avoided the limelight as he won the title for Bruni in the process. Loic ended up more than 2 seconds off the win but actually ended up being pretty comfortable in his title. If Amaury won, Bruni would have had to have finished in the top 3 but with Pierron ending up second, Bruni could have dropped to sixth, a further 0.8 back and still won the title.
WomenCabirou picked up her third win of the year but it wasn't enough to beat Hannah to the title. Hannah has played a canny game in the last three World Cups, ensuring a solid finish to the year and her first-ever Elite World Cup overall title. In the end, just 30 points separated Marine Cabirou and Tracey Hannah as the Aussie finished fifth to secure the title. This is the closest women’s series since 2005, when Sabrina Jonnier edged out Tracy Moseley by 23 points.
Let's take a look through the splits to see who was going fast and where:
Sector 1From the start gate, over the big double and road gap, down the ski piste and over the rock sender.Tahnee went fastest through split 1 and pulled out nearly a second over Tracey Hannah in second. Of course, the real battle here was between Cabirou and Hannah, as it was all season, and Hannah took it by 0.25 in this sector.
Sector 2A flatter woods section with plenty of line options and some sharp berms.There were 2 suprise names at the top of the timesheet in sector 2 as Sian A'Hern and Mariana Salazar went fastest. As in the men's race, times were tight here with the top 7 back to Marine Cabirou all separated by about 0.5 seconds. Cabirou was beaten by Hannah again but by less than 0.1 in this sector.
Tahnee had extended her lead to more than a second at split 2 with Hannah and Cabirou still in 2nd and 3rd respectively. Myriam Nicole was now more than 3 seconds in arrears, just ahead of Widmann and Salazar. Despite winning sector 2, A'Hern only climbed 1 position to 8th
Sector 3Down the double drop and the steep straight section to the entrance of the rock garden.As the track got techy, Myriam Nicole took her turn to win the sector after a steady start. Cabirou and Widmann weren't too far behind but Seagrave and Hannah lost decent chunks of time. Sian A'Hern had another strong sector in 5th.
It was all change at the halfway point in the race. Marine Cabirou fired herself into 1st, just ahead of Tahnee Seagrave. Myriam Nicole also took a big stride forward up to 3rd. Tracey Hannah dropped back to 4th with Widmann just behind her. A'Hern gained some more positions but was still 4 seconds off the podium.
Sector 4The main rock garden section. Ends with riders sprinting down a flat fire road.Myriam Nicole won her second sector through the rocks with Widmann also going super fast. Cabirou and A'Hern had good sectors again but look at the back of the timesheet, Hannah and Seagrave both made mistakes and lose a lot of time in this short sector.
Myriam Nicole stole the lead from Cabriou by the time the race reached split 4 but there's not much to pick between them. Widmann moved up to third as Seagrave and Hannah lost serious time. A'Hern stays sixth but is getting closer to a podium spot.
Sector 5Through the rhythm section in the woods, over the container drops and across the line.Just like in the men's race, it's very clear where the race was won and in the women's race it was in the rhythm section in the last woods section. Marine Cabirou was the only woman to link up the transitions and was visibly the fastest through this sector. Hrastnik and Hannah were also fast. Much like in the sector before, Seagrave lost a large chunk of time, but not as much as Nicole who could only manage 11th.
Cabirou powered back into the lead on the line and picked up her third World Cup win of the year. In the end, she pulled out two seconds on Myriam Nicole who faded near the line, similar to Mont-Sainte-Anne. Veronika Widmann held third for her best-ever World Cup finish. Tracey Hannah went fifth fastest, which secured her the title by 30 points.
A suggestion though: Maybe in the 'Story of the Race' section it would be better to have the X axis as 'distance down the track' than 'split'. The shorter splits make it look like some people were ahead for longer than they actually were. Just my 2p.
Dak ties sector 1 with Pierron = ends up +2.03 off Hart in 4th place
Dak ties sector 1 with Hart (+1.025) = ends up +3.055 off Hart in 7th place
Dak does sector 1 at +2 (like a lot of riders) = ends up +4.03 off in 8th place
It probably would have taken more than a better line choice up top to put him on the podium, unless he had a sublime sector 1.