Seagrave and Bruni back on top with second World Cup wins of season in Andorra
Opening round winners Loïc Bruni and Tahnée Seagrave both returned to the top step of the UCI Downhill Mountain Bike World Cup podium at Round 6 of the series with dominant victories over their title rivals in Pal Arinsal, Andorra.
A week after Canada’s Jackson Goldstone secured a fourth straight World Cup win in La Thuile, Italy, Bruni delivered a faultless finals run on the fast, dry and very rough Pal Arinsal course to stop the overall World Cup leader’s win-streak. After qualifying fifth, Goldstone beat long-time hotseat occupant Loris Vergier’s time and put himself in position for a record fifth consecutive victory.
With New Zealand’s Lachland Stevens-McNab and Britain’s Jordan Williams both unable to match Goldstone’s time, but second fastest qualifier Bruni flew out of the start hut and was faster than Goldstone by almost 1.5 seconds at the first timing split. From there, the French five-time world champion rode a near-perfect race to cross the finish in a time of 2m 34.367s, beating Goldstone’s time by a sizeable 1.279s. First-time fastest qualifier Juan Fernando Muñoz was the only rider who could topple Bruni, but a crash in the first sector ended the Colombian riders hopes and sealed the Specialized Factory Racing rider’s victory over Goldstone and Vergier, his first win since the opening race of the series in Poland.
It means a lot. Battling with Jackson this season and having to let him be better pushed me to come here with so much motivation.I really wanted this one. The track was difficult and fully flat out, not much to do but open the gas. A lot of guys were incredibly fast today and I’m so happy I could be a bit looser and crazier than everybody.”
Loic Bruni
Victory allowed Bruni to close the points gap to overall World Cup leader Goldstone ahead of the six-week summer break until Round 7 at Les Gets, France, on August 31. The Canadian leads on 1406 points, with Bruni now following on 1269.
Earlier in the day, Britain’s Tahnée Seagrave also scored her first win since the Polish season-opener over Austrian Valentina Höll and Norway’s Millie Johnset.
Battling illness all weekend, fourth-fastest qualifier Höll was the first rider to break the three-minute barrier in finals, stopping the clock in 2m 58.651s. It was a time that next rider Johnset missed by just 100-hundreths of a second. Like Bruni in the men’s race, second-fastest qualifier Seagrave charged out of the gate to set easily the fastest first two split times to open up a good advantage over Höll and extended it all the way to the finish to stop the clock in 2m 56.835s, beating Höll’s time by an impressive 1.816s.
Fastest qualifier Gracey Hemstreet looked set to beat Seagrave’s time and claim her third win of the 2025 season, but the young Canadian crashed within sight of the finish line, handing the Orbea FMD Racing rider victory and dropping her to fifth behind New Zealand’s Jess Blewitt. With podium finishes at every race of the World Cup to date, Höll continues to lead the overall points standings on 1344 points, while Hemstreet and Seagrave follow close behind on 1225 and 1152 points respectively.
I’m happy with my performance today. I wasn’t as committed as some of the other girls in the rock garden, so I knew I had to do as much damage as I could where I was good. This season has been a bit frustrating, but I feel like during such a long season you have to sacrifice a few races here and there. Hopefully mine are done,”
Tahnee Seagrave