What a weekend! For the final two events, the World Cup moved overseas to North America. With a whole new course in Lake Placid for World Cup #9, teams, riders and spectators did not know what to expect.The constantly changing track kept riders on a constant lookout for new holes and ruts that had formed in the soft, sawdust-like dirt. The course also included a steep, technical section at the top and finished with a long, pedal-y section at the bottom, testing all the riders’ capabilities.

This course took no prisoners. We saw a glimpse of this early on in qualifiers when riders such as Gracey Hemstreet of Norco Race Division  and Ronan Dunne of Mondraker Factory Racing Downhill had unfortunate mishaps; as a result, they had to compete again in Qualifier 2 to have a shot at finals.

However, Luca Shaw of Canyon Collective and Ellie Hulsebosch of Santa Cruz Syndicate seemed to be unfazed by the ruthless course, taking first in Qualifier 1 in their respective categories.

In the Junior finals, we saw a fierce battle. Aletha Ostgaard of Canyon showed the crowd what America has, taking the win by over three seconds. Hulsebosch backed up her win in qualifiers with a respectable third place in the finals. The series leader, Rosa Zierl, finished fifth on the day. This puts Ostgaard only 50 points behind Zierl for the leadership.

Our Junior Men on the Yeti/Fox devo team finished third and fourth on the day, with Tyler Waite now sitting third overall in the series.

A series of unfortunate events was the story for our Women’s Elite, with Nina Hoffman of Santa Cruz Syndicate getting bucked off course and having to  restart. However, Camille Balanche of Yeti/Fox and Marine Cabirou of Canyon had near-flawless runs, finishing fourth and fifth respectively. While Gracey Hemstreet unfortunately went down in qualifying, she came back faster and finished tenth on the day, still holding on to that second overall in the series.

To finish the day, the Elite Men had a nail-biter  of a race. World Champ Jackson Goldstone of Santa Cruz Syndicate took the hotseat early on, anxiously watching his competitors’ time. Luckily, series leader Loic Bruni did not have perfect run and finished a rider behind Goldstone. They are now only 72 points apart going into the finale.

The story of underdog Luke Meier-Smith of Giant Factory Off Road Team was written at Lake Placid on Saturday. The 22-year-old Australian took his first-ever World Cup win on Saturday. The emotional win hit the hearts of many, including his brother and fellow racer Remy Meier-Smith, who was fined by the UCI for celebrating his brother’s win.

The Canyon teammates Luca Shaw and Henri Kiefer, also did not let the track dictate their speed, coming in hot to the finish. Shaw came in just 0.7 seconds shy of the win. To the crowd, however, seeing the American on the podium was a win. Kiefer rounded them off in third place, making it a Maxxis 1-4 podium sweep.