The Big Picture | Pont-Château World Cup

Marianne Vos, Ceylon Carmen Alvarado and Anne-Marie Worst lead the race through the set up of planks at the top of the big hill on lap one.

Katie Compton in fourth position after the planks at the top of the big hill. Compton would take over the lead soon until her flat tire in the wooded section.

Katie Keough follows Christine Majerus up the short steep steps on lap two. Keough would go on to finish eleventh in the race.

Second place finisher Denise Betsema rolls over the launch ramp at the bottom of the wooded part of the course.

Katie Clouse on the “Belgian” stairs. Clouse, still a junior, opted to keep her number right-side up and finished in 35th place.

Carmen Alvarado and Worst about to tackle a short steep climb back up to the high, grassy part of the course.

Lap six. Sophie DeBoer on the short steep climb. DeBoer finished the race in 12th place.

Evita Muzic follows compatriot Marion Norbert Riberolle up the long grassy drag to pit 2.

Three riders including French champion Caroline Mani atop the grassy hill by the finish line. Eglise Saint-Guillome in the background.

Marianne Vos wins the penultimate round of the World Cup and cements her overall victory.

Wout Van Aert and Laurens Sweeck Chat on the start line. Van Aert started the race in second in the overall standings; Sweeck in sixth.

Thijs Aerts on the short steep stairs before the big climb to the highest point of the race.

Fan favorite Max Judelson launches. Judelson finished the race in 41st place.

Michael Vanthourenhout, Wout Van Aert and Toon Aert on the “Belgian” steps. Lars Van Der Haar stumbles just behind them.

Joris Nieuwenhuis checks out his bike after his trouble on the “Belgian” stairs. Nieuwenhuis would end up DNFing the race.

Yan Gras and Ismael Esteban on the “Belgian” stairs.

Steve Chainel dropping in. It’s a lot steeper than it looks.

Tim Merlier on the fast downhill section through the woods.

The French fans want to see some big air.

Dieter Vanthouenhout leads Curtis White over a short climb.

The pack descends off the hill top into the wooded section.

More pack racing on the last lap atop the hill just past the finish line. By now the crowd has moved up to the finish.

Van Aert takes the win and grabs the overall World Cup lead from Toon Aerts.

Washing the bikes. (Note the gearing on the bike in the stand)

Share

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.