Qualifying Analysis from the Snowshoe DH World Cup 2023

With qualifying all wrapped up riders now await the packed schedule of semi-finals and finals in Snowshoe on Saturday. The course is brutal this year as the rocks and trees are battering bikes and bodies. Riders will have a tough challenge with both semi-final and finals upping the already rapid pace established in qualifying.

As riders prepare for a big day of racing on Saturday, let's get into the results and stats from Qualifying.

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Qualifying Results

Overall:




Full results, here.

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Sector by Sector Results

Overall Split Positions

Split Rankings

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Sector Breakdown

Sector 1

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The first split on the Snowshoe course kicks things off with a flat-out 30 seconds where Nina Hoffmann was able to find a gap of around 0.8 seconds against Tahnee Seagraveas she also took a huge margin of 3.363 seconds off eventual qualifying winner Vali Höll. From a post on social media, it looks like Vali Höll slid out somewhere during her run which could explain the large amounts of time lost in the top two sectors. For the men, it was the UK's Matt Walker who came out on top as he put 0.04 seconds into his old teammate Danny Hart. Rémi Thirion also had a great split and was the only other rider with 0.38 seconds of Matt.

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Sector 2

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Sector two saw another big win for Nina Hoffmann as she pushed ahead of the rest of the elite women's field by 1.3 seconds. Marine Cabirou secured the second-fastest time here with Eleonora Farina sitting in third before a fourth-placed Monika Hrastnik broke the timing beam over three seconds back. Vali Höll had another slow split here as she was 4.066 seconds behind Nina. The men's racing was slightly closer as Laurie Greenland led another UK top two as he was followed by Bernard Kerr 0.3 seconds back. The fastest qualifier Loic Bruni took fourth, almost 0.8 behind Laurie.

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Sector 3

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After a difficult start to her qualifying run Vali Höll came back with a vengeance in sector three pushing past Nina Hoffmann going fastest by 1.734 seconds. Sector three would kick off a dominant showing from Vali as she would go on to be the fastest in all the remaining splits. Marine Cabirou had another solid split to take third, 3.593 behind Vali. Loic Bruni would also come into his own in the middle part of the track as he took the biggest winning split margin for the men across all five sectors. Loic led Luca Shaw by 1.651 seconds with Laurie Greenland just over two seconds back.

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Sector 4

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Vali Höll would really put the hurt on Nina Hoffmann in the fourth split as she managed to find 7.457 seconds against her closest rival in the overall standings. It appears Nina Hoffmann got caught out in the final rock garden leading to a significant loss of time. Sian A'Hern however put in a great performance here as she was the only rider to come within two seconds of the flying Vali Höll. Bernard Kerr also showed his prowess through the lower rocks pulling ahead of Jackson Goldstone by 0.5 seconds. Crucially Bernard was able to take 2.316 seconds out of Loic Bruni and just under 0.9 from Laurie Greenland.

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Sector 5

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The final split saw another big win for Vali Höll as she speeded over the line 0.907 seconds ahead of Nina Hoffmann. It's interesting to see both riders make mistakes during their runs and we will be in for a great day of racing tomorrow as both riders are looking strong on course when they stay upright. In the men's final sector, Harry Molloy disrupted the top riders as he managed to beat Loic Bruni by 0.02 seconds. Dakotah Norton who is looking for another big result this year took third 0.11 seconds behind Harry. The final split was a vital one for Loic Bruni as he managed to find 0.929 seconds on Laurie Greenland to pull back into the lead and take the qualifying victory.

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Story of the Session

Elite Women

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Elite Men

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Battle for the Podium

Elite Women

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Elite Men

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Stats Breakdown

The top 15 qualifying margins were plotted before including results at positions 20 and 24.

The top 15 qualifying margins were plotted before including results at positions 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 84.

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Racing and Events DH Racing Nerding Out World Cup DH Race Analysis Snowshoe World Cup Dh 2023