Photo Epic: 5 Years of Wild Racing from Lenzerheide DH World Cups

Greg Minnaar had a strong race today to finish just over 2 seconds out of the medals.

Lenzerheide has featured on the World Cup calendar every year for the past five seasons and every year it manages to provide some of the most exciting racing. Although it may be on the Bike Park side of the scale there are still plenty of challenging features and the high speeds make this a tough challenge for the riders. With no Swiss round on the calendar, this year after the cancellation of the event take a look back at some of the great moments from the past five years of racing in Switzerland.

2015

After a mix of massive crashes and bad luck at the last two rounds Manon Carpenter finally had the run everyone knows she is capable of.

Rachel Atherton makes it a hat trick, taking her third win in a row

Rachel Atherton has full command of the season so far. She was five seconds up on second place Manon Carpenter.

Emmeline Ragot was charging hard, but in the end, it was a bit too hard

Congratualtions to Morgan Charre riding strong all week to find her way back to the podium after a long time away.

Casey Brown smashed it and just missed out on the podium

Mike Jones had a wild ride

Brooke MacDonald fully committed through the roots and stumps to round out the top 10

Brook Macdonald, fully committed through the roots and stumps to round out the top 10

Connor Fearon qualified third but was down at the top splits before having a massive crash in the bottom woods. He would pick himself up and limp down to 77th

Eddie Masters was oh so close to that elusive top ten today finishing just .60 back in 11th

Loris Vergier s run of horrible luck came to an end today as he pipped fellow Frenchman Amaury Pierron to red hot 13th place. All that after a top split way back in 39th.

Loris Vergier's run of horrible luck came to an end today as he pipped fellow Frenchman Amaury Pierron to 13th place

The champion s curse struck again for Ratboy this morning as he took a massive crash in the top rocks during practice. He went and sent it to 10th with a broken finger anyway. Nothing can stop a rat attack...

The champion's curse struck again for Ratboy this morning as he took a massive crash in the top rocks during practice. He went and sent it to 12th with a broken finger anyway

Loic Bruni almost lost it in the second to last turn, giving the flat grass corner a solid thrashing

With a record breaking 18 World Cup wins and countless podium finishes Greg Minnaar knows the proper etiquette for welcoming a first timer onto the box. Drink up Dean Lucas

2016

Finn Iles once again backed up his first in qualifying with a win in the final. His third out of four starts this year.

Finn Iles racks up his third out of four wins

El Salvador s Mariana Salazar boosting her way to a top ten finish

Emilie Siebenthaler also had a massive crash just a day ago but put it all behind her to grab the last spot on the podium.

Rachel Atherton; number one for the 11th time in a row

Fastest qualifier Tahnee Seagrave was close at every split and came just 0.70 away from ending Atherton's winning streak

Tahnee Seagrave had a banger of a run today finishing just .7 seconds off Rachel.

Greg Minnaar and Loris Vergier chat about lines at the close of practice.

Greg Minnaar and Loris Vergier swap notes on the last run before the race

Laurie Greenland couldn t match his 5th in qualifying and would end the day 13th after a few close calls in his race run.

Aaron Gwin had the four fastest splits but it wasn t enough at the end of the day.

Ratboy hammering down the last drop

Gas to flat for Adam Brayton who would end the day in 12th.

Last years winner Greg Minnaar knows how to perform when it counts and pushed hard for 3rd just 1.60 back from Danny Hart.

Danny Hart on had no problems on the steep track here in Lenzerheide.

2017

Finn Iles drops into the finish arena with the fastest time of the day in Juniors

Vaea Verbeeck scroed her best ever WC result hucking into 7th.

Vaea Verbeeck scored her best-ever World Cup result, hucking into seventh

Tahnee Seagrave never seemed to find her grove this weekend and a big mistake near the bottom of the track pushed her back to 5th.

Tracey Hannah struggled here in Switzerland and it cost her the leaders jersey. Lucky this is a fight that s not over yet.

Myriam Nicole has the momentum in the bid for the overall she ll relish the two classic tracks coming up next. Mont Sainte Anne and Val di Sole.

Rachel Atherton guiding it through the top Lenzerheide rock garden in 2017.

Rachel Atherton has made a remarkable return from injury to take 2nd on the day and only half a second back from the win.

Rachel Atherton has made a remarkable return from injury to take second on the day

Atherton feeling beat at the end of her working day.

After waiting so long for her second WC win the third followed in quick succession.

The ladies cool down the crowd with a shower of their week earned champagne.

Straight back from injury and straight back into the top ten for Flo Payet.

A big slide out in this high speed corner before the step-up would scrub all of Loic Bruni s speed and with it his hopes of a top result.

Jack Moir drops into the finish to the delight of the biggest crowd we have seen all year.

Laurie Greenland has been flying under the radar a bit behind teammate Danny Hart but this weekend there was no mistaking his speed on track. He held it together to lay down a scorcher of a final run to take 4th.

Full gas and onto the podium with three other Brit s for Danny Hart.

Full gas and onto the podium for Danny Hart, with three other Brit's

Last weeks winner Troy Brosnan was on a charge this week in Lenzerheide and with his 2nd place finish he now sit s 2nd in the overall behind Greg Minnaar.

The GOAT making quick work of the rock garden up top. With his second win of the season and 22nd win of all time Greg Minnaar continues to add to his legacy week after week.

Aaron Gwin looked to be on an untouchable run before disaster struck within sight of the finish line

Number one in the series and stretching his lead to 172 points is Greg Minnaar.

2018 - World Championships

All the style and today all the speed to take gold in juniors for Kade Edwards.

It wasn t to be for Thibaut Daprela. The near dominant junior just couldn t put it together today.

Millie Johnset sending it into the medals despite a brush with the ground.

Pure focus from Vali Holl who took a clean sweep this season winning every World Cup and wrapping it up with the gold at World Champs.

Pure focus from Vali Holl who took a clean sweep in 2018 winning every World Cup and wrapping it up with the gold at World Champs

Kye A Hern was digging for gold and ended up striking in silver in juniors.

Valle Holl Anna Newkirk and Mille Johnset celebrate gold silver and bronze in Junior women.

It s easy to forget those outside of the medal positions. 4th is a great result for Marine Cabirou.

This is how Cecile Ravanel s day ended up.

This wasn't the result Cecile Ravanel was hoping for

Myriam Nicole had a disrupted season after her Val di Sole crash. She ended up in 3rd albeit less than a second from 2nd placed Tahnee Seagrave.

A painful day for Tahnee Seagrave with a near 10 second deficit to the gold medal.

A painful day for Tahnee Seagrave with a nearly 10-second deficit to the gold medal

Atherton tackling the biggest heachache for most riders this week Today she rode all guns blazing today and the clock showed it.

Your top 3 elite women from left to right. Tahnee Seagrave Rachel Atherton and Myriam Nicole.

Alex Marin might just have taken the unofficial scrub-off World Champs this year...

Laurie Greenland climbed his way back up the splits after mistakes up top to claw his way into 7th place.

FinnIles wraps up his first year as an elite with some strong results and will have lots of motivation to this off season to build on what he s accomplished.

Just how Charlie Harrison defying a bit of physics on a straight line to the Redbull drop.

Unlucky 13th for Jack Moir today but still hanging with the big dogs after a tough season thwarted by injury.

Aaron Gwin rails the final turn with the finish line drop in his sights

Number 1 for another year

Ahead at the splits and pinned into the finish Loic Bruni would go fastest to take his third World Championship.

Loic knew he was on a good one the moment he crossed the line.

Brook was going for rainbow stripes today but unfortunately pushed a bit to hard and a crash would end his hopes half way down the track.

Brook was going for rainbow stripes today but unfortunately pushed a bit too hard, and a crash would end his hopes halfway down the track

A muddied MacDonald scrubs the drop down to the finish arch.

2019

Riders didn t have long to adapt to their new found conditions this morning.

A flat for Daprela

Anna Newkirk marching on towards yet another podium

Tuhoto-Ariki Pene keen to show Val Di Sole was no fluke

Vali H ll decimates the opposition on her way to the fastest time of the day.

Vali Höll decimates the opposition on her way to the fastest time of the day

Tracy Hannah came painfully close to besting Cabirou s imperfect run but that tiny 0.2second margin won t show in the standings and valuable points have been lost to her French rival.

Not the weekend for Dakota Norton who will surely be extremely frustrated to waste an otherwise solid visit to Switzerland sliding out on the final turn.

Kate Weatherly struck back with her first podium since Leogang on the slippery Swiss roots

Amaury Pierron rips his own line on the steeps this morning

Win number 2 in as many weeks for Marine Cabirou.

Dakotah Norton 30th with a crash. He was running on the fringes of the top 10.

Before you say it... this wasn't so much the French line as it was the 'international line'. The hop was fastest and apparently, it was fully legit

Gee Atherton rampaging towards the finish arena

A step in the right direction for Luca Shaw in 11th.

Last weeks winner Laurie Greenland just missed out on the podium steps in 6th.

Amaury Pierron flying into the finish area and roaring straight into the hotseat.

Reece Wilson shaving centimetres off the track on his way to 9th.

Greg Minnaar ran Pierron close but ended up just under a second back

Determined as always Loic Bruni pushed hard and this time around some small mistakes added up. It wasn t the repeat performance from last year s World Champs but a close third.

It quickly became apparent who the victor would be with Danny Hart falling further back at each split.

Three of the heaviest hitters in the game.

This time she was prepared... Cabirou sees off Hannah champagne offering with clear vision.

Your top 5 elite women. 1st Marine Cabirou 2nd Tracey Hannah 3rd Emilie Siegenthaler 4th Kate Weatherly 5th Camille Balanche

It s getting repetitive at the top at this point but you wouldn t want to swap out legends and legends in the making like this for any old racer.

Posted In:
Racing and Events DH Racing Photo Epics World Cup DH

Author Info:

edspratt
Member since Mar 16, 2017
3,063 articles

11 Comments

fedfox (Aug 15, 2020 at 11:02)

That picture of Minnaar and Loris Talking on the track seems like history in the making... So loris did you sign a new contract yet????

Jaib06 FL (Aug 15, 2020 at 9:34)

Love this style of article, keep up the good work and great photos to the photographers!

fiftypercentsure (Aug 15, 2020 at 10:49)

Maybe it's because it's been a while, but man the style and composure of the riders and the way it's captured here is mind blowing.

50percentsure (Aug 15, 2020 at 11:06)

So many bangers. Ratboy hammering down the last drop, 6'6" Flo Payet's butt-buzz pushed out drop on that XXXL Mondaker, Kade Edwards crossed up drop & Amaury mach-chicken same drop, Loic every shot somehow...

trumbullhucker55 (Aug 15, 2020 at 18:45)

Whats up with the photo of remi and gwin on the same podium? BTW.. awesome article. These photos deliver the stoke

Emu-Jon (Aug 15, 2020 at 15:14)

It's been said before. Thankyou to all the people involved in bring DH racing to us. I love these photos.

iiman FL (Aug 16, 2020 at 0:37)

so we can conclude 2018 was the year everyone sto pped using shorts

neimbc (Aug 16, 2020 at 4:40)

That flat as can be table top whip is as perfect as they get.

vinigabrielli FL (Aug 17, 2020 at 3:51)

The biggest change: they abandoned their shorts

Skiskateshane (Aug 17, 2020 at 6:58)

Is that a race run photo of Dakota in 2019? Wild!

hubertje-ryu (Aug 16, 2020 at 0:58)

Lenzerdheide?