Squamish's Jackson Goldstone and Whistlerite Finn Iles both found themselves in the top five overseas this week.
On June 17, Goldstone carved through the UCI World Cup downhill course in Leogang, Austria and finished third in a time of three minutes, 0.246 seconds. In so doing, he edged out fellow Sea to Sky contender Iles, who settled for fourth (3:00.786).
"Track was flat out today! Pulled an amazing run down all up until the last left-hand corner," said Goldstone on his Instagram account. "Happy birthday, Steve, let’s enjoy this one!"
Anticipation was running high in the home crowd when Andreas Kolb put down a heater of a run (2:59.335) and was duly rewarded with the hot seat. Kolb held on for the win as the only rider to break the three-minute mark on Saturday. Reigning UCI world champion Loic Bruni placed a close second (3:00.015). Bruni still leads the overall season standings, followed by Iles and Loris Vergier of France (who wound up seventh last weekend in Leogang).
Results roundup
Overnight rain did little to dampen the dust on course and even less to the spirit of the spectators who turned out in their droves to see hometown heroes Kolb and Valentina Holl. They were richly rewarded for their support as Holl took first place in qualification, first place in the semi-final and turned the clock green at every split on her way to a historic win (3:23.222) in front of friends and family.
Swiss rider Camille Balanche ended up with silver (3:27.525) and Rachel Atherton of Great Britain rounded out the top three (3:30.556). The Brit already has a victory in Lenzerheide, Switzerland to be proud of this season. Gracey Hemstreet from Sechelt crossed the line in seventh (3:31.958).
Balanche sits atop the women's rankings, with Atherton second and Holl third.
Over in the men's junior event, Frenchman Leo Abella earned gold (3:11.177) ahead of runner-up Bodhi Kuhn of Rossland, B.C. (3:13.624). Spaniard Daniel Castellanos Liberal went home with bronze (3:14.076) and Whistler's own Dylan Marino put together a career-best sixth-place effort (3:16.149).
No Canadians qualified for the women's junior final.
Full results are available online.
