We know from Loudenvielle, the general classification of the 2024 women’s and men’s downhill mountain bike world cup is complete: Vali Höll and Loic Bruni are the big winners! But what motivation can they find to participate in the last round of Mont Saint-Anne this weekend? Their answers, at a press conference, tell us more about the way in which the work of these champions is organized…
News, videos, live timing and results… Find everything you need to follow, day by day, the Mont Sainte-Anne 2024 DH & XC World Cup round, on our FullAttack live page: https://fullattack.cc/sujet/mont-sainte-anne-2024
It’s complete! Those of us who have diligently followed the MTB World Cup so far know this: for Vali Höll as for Loic Bruni, the outcome of the season is no longer in doubt. Mathematically, they can no longer be caught up in the rankings which award the titles of overall winners. For them, one might therefore think that this final at Mont Sainte-Anne counts for nothing. Listening to Loic Bruni during the inaugural press conference, this is the line of humor that the best French driver first tried to sketch. As a joke, he first moved forward that he didn’t want to come. Then, he talked about the few days spent on the Bromont spot, and the desire it gave him to go back there to have a good time…
But beyond the joke, it’s a completely different speech that is interesting to note. This is where the two champions clarify their motivations and one of the reasons for their presence. In addition to professional obligations and their competitive temperament, they also specified that This World Cup Final is already an opportunity for them to work on next season! Thus, Vali Höll confides that in general, it is finally shortly after the start of the season, around the month of June July, that the athletes and their coaches begin to have an idea of what worked or not during their winter preparation, and therefore of what they want to adjust, improve, work on, for the following season.
This observation, already, has all its interest, since put in the context and timing of a season, It’s interesting to note that discussions regarding partnerships, for the best, began at the same time! Logical in the end, when we have a project, objectives, and we are looking for corresponding means to put in place. If one partner, rather than another, can bring something valuable to this process, it is necessarily a very good thing to do. And even if the general public will not discover the realization of all this many months later, the following year, it is at that moment, already, that many things are at stake, in a certain way.
Same story with Loic Bruni, who explains the usefulness of this end-of-season race with less pressure. As for what is at stake, he can count on his staff to find some. As with the reigning world champion, Loic and his entourage took notes during the season. And the Specialized Gravity pilot confirms that it was before this World Cup final that his team met, to lay the foundations for the work that separates it from the start of the 2025 season: the material that partners are likely to provide is now more clearly identified. The way to integrate it into the team’s processes is becoming clearer…
And above all, it is one of the moments of the season when even a champion of the caliber of Loic Bruni can be told what he can still improve on. In this case, even if Loic finally won the Fort William round which had been denied him for so long, and we have seen his equipment adapt to the conditions of the moment several times – remember the front brake cover to keep the temperature – he confides that his staff identified progress still possible in adapting to changing climatic conditions. And for once, the Mont Sainte-Anne round can prove to be a very good opportunity to improve on this point. Just like playing on a track where Jackson Goldstone, the big absentee this year, signed a memorable run last year. The return of the Canadian prodigy in 2025, too, and in the spirit of Loic Bruni. In short, there could still be some spectacle this weekend… From these two, as from all the others!
