Everything You Need To Know Ahead of Mont Sainte Anne | Up To Speed with Ben Cathro

Well, here we are, the last chance, the final dance in Canadian France to crown the champs of the series, per chance, yeah, it kind of worked, blame the jet lag and the tiny box they shipped me in that's crooked my neck. So anyway, please allow me, dear viewer, to bring you fully up to speed going into the seventh and final round of the Downhill World Cup Series taking place right here in Mont-Saint-Anne. There's an ice cream truck nearby. So I did mention that the series winners will be decided here, but actually, they've been really efficient this year and that's already been figured out and wrapped up for some categories at least. So how about the elite men? Well, like Bruni, already sorted that one out last round where there's now 311 point lead over Améry Pierron in the series. For those of you paying close attention, this might confuse you as each round there has been a maximum of 400 points up for grabs, 50 for winning qualifying, 100 for winning semifinals and 250 for winning the final. So how has Bruni secured the overall? Well, there's an interesting rule with the final round of the series where no points are awarded for qualifying or semifinal, I think. I've scoured the UCI rulebook and there's two conflicting points tables with one saying the series points are only awarded in the final and another table saying that the qualifying points are moved from the qualifying to the final for a bigger points haul in the last run of the season. I think the points table is there due to some sloppy admin as it was the rule prior to the WBD takeover. So it looks like a maximum of 250 points are available for the elites, which gives Bruni the championship. Sorry if that was complicated, I just wanted to cover my ass in case I was wrong. Now, looking more short term at potential elite male race winners for this weekend, we can delve into the archives for some data points. And according to what I can see here, local boy Finn Isles would be a pretty safe bet for the win this weekend. He's won here before, he's been riding really consistently this year and he's due another win. Maybe he should skip practice day again though? I mean, the stats don't lie and it clearly worked in Leogang, but boy, people got angry at that video. Knocked Finn off my ass, Ben! And I'd just like to be clear, there's too many variables to attribute a really good result to one thing, but it's really interesting to discuss. Oh, also, did you see the results from the American National at the weekend? No? I'm not here to crap on captain consistency in second, it was race winner Lockie Stephens McNabb that showed his raw speed once again while wiping the floor with a very incompetent competition. Lockie has shown several times that he can be the fastest rider on the planet. The issue has been the psychology of delivering that performance at a World Cup. It's just a race at the end of the day, but World Cups just do something different to your brain. It causes some people to lift their game and others to falter. There is no recipe for how to frame your thoughts and feelings to best deliver at the highest level of racing. Some seem to be born with it all figured out, while others have to experiment. Will Lockie find the correct mix this weekend? He just might. The elite women? Well, it's a similar story to the men, with Valentina Hull taking the win before the final round as she now has a 348 point gap to second place rider Tanni Seagrave. With no chance of catching Valli, Tanni only has to worry about fending off Marion Cabirou who is 140 points back in third, and the arguably more dangerous but almost out of sight, Miriam Nicole who is 246 points back in fourth. With the bigger points gaps, I don't think there will be much reshuffling going on at the top end of the overall this weekend, which means we should just see a lot of riders throwing caution to the wind and going all in for a standout result. With more than six months till the next race, the risk of cracking a clavicle doesn't seem so bad. Given the leaked document of the limit on teams allowed to register next year, riders further down the list will be desperate to prove their worth and at least grab some of those ever more valuable UCI Series points. It's going to be an exciting race. In terms of who's going to do the business this weekend, it's a hard one to call. It certainly won't be Camille Balanche as she is sitting this one out with a bust wrist after a tumble in Lunenville. You know who I think is going to do something this weekend? Elise Empi. She's flipped a switch this season and as long as the expectation doesn't get to her and she can embrace the pace she's found, I would not be surprised to see a podium from her this weekend. And a decent ride next year. But the promise of results is now not the most valuable aspect of a rider for a team. For teams to even exist next year, they need to have enough riders with points to get into the top 15 ranked teams to be guaranteed a place on the World Cups next year. Teams on the edge of the top 15 are frantically doing the maths to find and secure riders with enough points to secure the team as an elite team for 2025. Elise is one of those riders who would have been snapped up on the promised potential of race winning speed, but now riders like Louise Ferguson, who has been riding with excellent consistency around the top 10 mark all season, can have more value than a potential race winner. I'm going to dive more into this topic and some racing rumours in the future, so subscribe if you want to see what riders and teams might be forced out of racing. The junior racing is much simpler, as they are just children and can never comprehend the complexities of trying to add multiple numbers together in one go. They get no points for qualifying at any rounds and a maximum of 60 points for winning the final. That means the battle is still on between Max Alran, who is in the lead by 33 points over Asa Vermette. Even Luke Wayman, sitting in 3rd, still has a chance, sitting 54 points back in 3rd. That might seem like a long shot, but it doesn't take much for someone to blow up a wheel on the super fast and rough track of Mont-Saint-Anne. And, has anyone actually heard anything from Asa since his crash back in Luneville? He's been silent on social media, which traditionally means one of two things. He's in a rotten mood after crashing out in France and cannot be arsed with maintaining a social media presence, or he's actually injured and super bummed about the whole situation and is hiding from the public eye. Given that he missed the US National at the weekend, I'm going to go with option 2. And just before filming, we picked up on the news that he did actually compress a vertebrae in his crash in Luneville, and he will not be racing this weekend, because his back's broken. Gutted for the dude, but at least he claimed some rainbows this year, and we'll have them for life. So with Asa out, this weekend we might have a boring race on our hands, but let me dispel those thoughts by presenting another possibility. Do not discount Jon Moselle. The Canadian racer has shown furious pace several times this season with excellent fitness and strength, which is highly valued here in Mont-Saint-Anne. Jon will go well here, and might possibly give Max a run for his money with this being Jon's last ever junior race. You heard it here first. Then we've got the Junior Women's Series battle, which is the tightest of the four downhill championships and incredibly exciting. We've got the world champ Erich van Leeuwen sitting in the lead by 15 points over Heather Wilson. Then only five points behind is Eliana Hulsbosch, who sadly won't be racing this weekend after rupturing her pancreas while racing an IXS cup. She's still in high spirits though, and will get another crack at the Junior World Cup Series next year. When looking at potential performers at individual rounds, the easy pick is to find someone fast who lives in that country. The data is overwhelming that a home race brings out the best in the racers from that country. They've usually raced the track many times before. They're more comfortable. They feel safer. Things are more familiar. It's just easier to go fast. The surprising fact for the junior girls is that there have been no Canadian racers to score points at any of the other six rounds this year. That's wild. Who's going to do well this weekend? Your guess is as good as mine, but I think we'll see a few Canadian maple flags higher up in the results this weekend as there are four racing. In more general news, let's take a quick browse of the weather. Thank f*** it's not snowing. Really, that is just bloody excellent, honestly. What a relief. It's looking mostly dry for this week. Fingers crossed we at least get the nice orange leaves, which just looks absolutely stunning. With this being the final round of the year, this is the most important race to get your Pinkbike Fantasy team in order. I'm desperately trying to break into the top 100, but I've been absolutely embarrassed by my co-worker, Glenn Thompson, who is somehow sitting in fifth overall in the world. Come on. That means I've given up and tried to give Cath to his gamble of the week, and now it's Glenn's gamble, which even sounds better. Glenn, help the purviewers at home. Who are they picking? Okay. Nathan. Nathan's. You heard it here first. If he's wrong, then at least I'm going to have something I can say that he's not good at. Thank you very much for watching. Hope you're up to speed now and looking forward to the final race of the year. You've got to stay tuned for the preview, which is out tomorrow, then story of the race, which is out on the qualifying day, and then we'll do a lovely story at the end just to wrap it all up nicely for you. Now, I'm just going to hit my mic. I bet that sounded lovely, and I'm going to go play in the leaves. Ooh, frolic. Ooh.