MTB cycling: The second run of the iXS European Downhill Cup in Schladming ended with a double success for the MS Mondraker team. More than 400 drivers from 30 nations fought for important points on the Planai. On the final day, Brit Danny Hart and French Emmeline Ragot prevailed.
After a three-year absence, Schladming has been the venue for international downhill races again since last year. The legendary and demanding course is extremely popular with drivers. The route offers 2500 meters of downhill fun over a length of 600 meters. After the weather was rather modest on Friday and Saturday, mostly dry weather awaited the participants on Sunday.
With a wafer-thin lead of just 3 tenths of a second, Danny Hart, who had already set the best time in qualifying, was able to hold his own in front of New Zealander George Brannigan (Trek World Racing) and Loic Bruni (Lapierre Gravity Republic) from France. Jacques Bouvet (Team Bulls) was the best German in 17th place. Last year's winner and two-time world champion Emmeline Ragot won the Elite Women class with a lead of two seconds over Brit Tahnée Seagrave (FMD Racing), who for her part won the qualification the day before had the best time. Third was Tracey Hannah (Polygon UR) from Australia.