Mountain Bike World Cup

Höll starts the downhill season with victory

Vali Höll celebrated a victory at the start of the season.

(Bild: Bartek Wolinski / Red Bull Content Pool)

Downhill ace Vali Höll also won at the start of the new season. The 22-year-old was unbeatable in Fort William. The lead at the finish was extremely narrow.

There is no better way to start the new season. Mountain bike ace Valentina Höll took her first win of the season at the first World Cup stop in Fort William, Scotland. At the site of her World Championship triumph last year, the 22-year-old won by 0.56 seconds ahead of Germany's Nina Hoffmann, who was Höll's first congratulator in the finish area. "It's super cool that we girls respect each other so much." Tahnee Seagrave (Gb/+1.83) finished in third place. The downhill queen and reigning overall World Cup winner looks unbeatable in the new year.

Next stop at home
The team change in winter does not seem to have slowed the Pinzgau native down at all. As is well known, the 22-year-old switched from "Rockshox" back to her youth team "YT Industries". She also trained harder around the globe during her winter preparations than in previous years. "I've never spent so much time on the bike. My focus was on lots of runs so that I could get used to the new equipment as quickly as possible," the Saalbach native recently told the "Krone" newspaper.

The downhill team is now taking a month off. From June 7 to 9, the athletes will be racing on Höll's home track in Leogang, where the local heroine won her long-awaited home victory last year. Styrian Andreas Kolb won the men's race there in 2023, having only finished ninth in yesterday's opener.