Spicak, a well-known, difficult downhill race course that has been part of the iXS circuit for many years, hosted the second-to-last round of this year's iXS European Downhill Cup. With World Champs in two weeks, we saw a few European riders preparing and building confidence for Mont-Sainte-Anne this weekend. The elite field saw great battles and huge moments. Erik Irmisch took everyone by surprise in qualis as he beat the rest of the field by two seconds on a fairly short course. Andreas Kolb and Johannes Fischbach, who seeded in 2nd and 3rd, had major issues in their race run and were out of contention in finals. With Luka Berginc clinching the hotseat early and with the win in sight, Irmisch went on track. He was 0.5 seconds up at the split time but lost towards the bottom and finished 4th. Berginc took the well-deserved win he was hunting for so long.
Alessia Missiaggia from Italy kept it all together. The women's racing was as close as its gets as Missiaggia, Rutz and Bartova were seperated by just 0.7 of a second. It is Alessia's first elite year and is already snagging wins.
View the race results on the iXS DH Cup site
Tristan Botteram pictured above squeezing sideways between some rocks and a hard place.
