The Wildest Downhill Season Finales From The Past Five Years: Racing Rewind

Mont-Saint-Anne is cherished as an old-school venue that still delivers the goods in modern World Cup racing. It blends heyday ski-piece bashing with modern natural terrain and bike park features. So, with the race this weekend, we thought it would be fun to look back at the last five years and rank the season's final race in order of excitement. The 2020 season was a game of two halves, almost quite literally. There were just two venues and two double-headers. Now, Loris Vergier picked up a total of 450 points out of a possible 500 at the Slovenian rounds, the opening two rounds of the season, before picking up just a little over 100 at the final two rounds. So, he came in very much in the hot seat, but he wasn't to leave with that overall title. Once the race did get to Lusa, it was actually Menard and Bruni that picked up the most points over that double-header, but British rider Matt Walker, who's only a couple of years out of junior, managed to take the overall title by a measly 10 points, thanks to his supreme consistency and constant podium finishes across the duration of the season, even though he never actually won a race. All of that said, when it came to race day, it maybe lacked a little excitement. That's because when Matt Walker came down into the hot seat, no matter what Bruni or Menard did, he was guaranteed the overall title. Now, very exciting for him, I'm sure, but as a viewer, it felt just a little bit lacklustre. The women's race was a little bit more exciting, with the penultimate rider down the hill, Maureen Caveroux, taking the win and the overall title. That said, her rival in that campaign, Miriam Nicole, wasn't really operating at her best that weekend and subsequently, it didn't really feel like a high-tension release and felt more just a matter of events folding out as they may. The 2023 season was, well, it was a year of change, both in terms of regulation and format. Now, however you think about those changes, and it's not something I really want to get into, you have to admit, the racing really, really delivered. Now, it was an interesting year in some ways, because coming into the final round, there'd been a different winner at every single race, until that was Jackson Goldstone, won in the final round in Canada, to repeat the feat of his fellow Canadians, Finn Arles the year before, as well as Stevie Smith a decade earlier. That said, when it comes to maximum excitement for the overall campaign, there have been better years, and in something that is, of course, a bit of a theme, in the female category, Valley Hall had already wrapped up the title before the final round. In the men's category, though, it was a little bit more exciting. Loic Bruni came into the final round with a 60-point lead over his great French rival, Loris Vergier. But he'd had a big crash the week before, and definitely wasn't running at 100%. Then there was the Canadian duo of Jackson Goldstone and Finn Arles in third and fourth, and theoretically, any of that top four could take home the overall title. The race, however, did feel a little bit strange. Jackson Goldstone put down an amazing heater of a run in his semi-finals, in quite greasy, treacherous conditions, only to then, of course, have to go do the same thing again. He ended up winning, but that wasn't enough to dethrone Loic Bruni, who, with a third-place finish, took the overall title. Loris Vergier, again, didn't quite manage to deliver in the final round of the season, as he came home in tenth. It would be unfair to call that final round anything other than exciting and good racing. However, it did feel more special because it was about Jackson Goldstone winning on home turf, more than it was about the tension and the release of finding out who was going to win the overall title. The 2022 season finale in Val d'Isole was, to be fair in the men's category, a little bit underwhelming. Henri Piron won the overall title whilst having a weekend far from his best, and that's because the other rival in the campaign, Finn Arles, was actually sitting out that round due to a concussion. Then there was the fact that Loris Vergier had had a huge crash and missed Snowshoot the round prior, and so it meant that, yes, we got a very worthy winner for that overall title, but it did so without the tension. That said, in the female category, sparks were flying. Camille Balanche came into the final race of the season with an overall lead of around 120 points, but it could have been very different. You see, in the race prior, in Canada, she had broken her collarbone just weeks before the season finale. Now what this meant is her lead in the overall came down from 230 points over Miriam Nicole and around 370 over Valley Hall, and it was whittled right down. And it made for an excruciating end to the season as we wondered whether she could fight through the pain and cling on to that overall title. Valley Hall then was coming into the weekend with some real momentum and she has shown herself to be a cold-blooded winner. Now, if Valley Hall had won, she would have taken the overall title despite Camille Balanche riding to a very respectable fifth place with that injured collarbone via solitary and single one point. Now, as it couldn't quite do it and she ended up coming in third place, meaning there was something for everyone. Miriam Nicole won the race, Camille Balanche won the overall and of course Valley Hall had won the Rainbow Stripes a week or two earlier. But it was great racing, although it might not have been as tantalising as it could have been had Valley Hall won that title. There is something about snowshoe in the US of A that delivers quite amazing World Cup racing, seemingly year on year. Now, coming into the women's race, Valley Hall was a fair chunk behind Miriam Nicole in the oval, but this year was a doubleheader with a theoretical 500 points available should you win qualifying and the race of the first event, and then claiming all 250 points in the final round by winning the race. But Miriam Nicole was pretty much a shoe-in, surely. It was there on a plate. But she crashed in both race runs, meaning she was well off the pace, especially in the last one, I think about five or 10 seconds. Valley Hall, however, claimed the maximum 500 points to be a surprise winner and win her first overall title. It was quite amazing and it gave Miriam Nicole something to lament. In fact, lamenting was going to be a theme for that Commencal Mokoff team as they had a weekend to forget. Thibaut Diprele had had a really strong start to the season and coming into the final round, that doubleheader was odds on favourite to take the overall title. However, he had that quite infamous mechanical in race one and then crashed before the second race, meaning suddenly when it came to that final Sunday, the overall was wide open. And Loris Vergier looked to be the presumed favourite. However, there seemed to be a little bit of anxiety on the Frenchman's behalf and he didn't necessarily cope with this new position he was thrust into. And it was Loic Bruni who became the surprise winner of that overall title, seemingly coming from out of nowhere, even a week prior, to claim the World Cup overall. The manner in which Bruni won was quite remarkable and he showed why he's known as one of the best riders at dealing with pressure. He deprived Australian racer, Troy Brosnan, of what would have been a very popular win. Now, coming into those final two rounds, Bruni was around 300 points behind Diprele and 110 behind Vergier, but he left the weekend when all was said and done with an overall lead of 100 points to claim the title. I mean, that is really quite amazing. So, the one you've all been waiting for, Snowshoe 2019. Now this, to my mind, was probably the most exciting season finale that I've personally ever seen. In the women's category, Tracey Hanna could secure the title with a good which she did. Hanna had seeded fastest and was fastest at the first split before it all looked to start coming undone. Now, we didn't know if it was nerves or some kind of mechanical, but she was tumbling down the order. Now, when it comes to the final race of the season, you don't get the 50 points for winning qualifying and the end result is bolstered to 250 to reflect that. So, it could have been a little bit less nervy for Tracey Hanna, had she already had that 50 points in the bag, and she only ended up taking the oval title by a measly 30 points, as Marine Cabreau claimed the win and the full 250. In the men's race, it was even more dramatic, with Lloyd Bruni at the Henry Pierron going head to head. Now, in that 2019 season, the Commencal bike, the Supreme V4, was an absolute monster truck using full 29 and seemed to just carry so much speed through the rough stuff. Coupled that with Pierron's intense and quite incredible bravery, he seemed to be able to let it run like no one else really could, at some point almost bouncing off trees as he made his way down the course. Once he got to the bottom, he was around five seconds up and went into the hot seat as the fastest rider. But things were about to get tense, not least because of Lloyd Bruni, who was the second to last man down the hill, but also because of Danny Hart playing Kingmaker. When Bruni dropped in, he knew that if he finished third, he would win the oval title, no matter what. Now, at this point in his career, he was a multiple world champion, but he'd never actually won the oval title, so there was still a lingering question mark about whether he could deliver it over the duration of a full campaign. So, at split number three, he was down in fourth, but he managed to climb his way back up into third position overall, and theoretically enough to take the oval title with one rider left. Danny Hart pinballed around the rankings. At the first split, he was sixth, advantage Bruni, before climbing to second, advantage Pierron. Now, it was looking really, really touch and go, and there's an amazing shot where you can see Bruni basically kind of concedes the title, and there's a moment of the two French riders kind of holding themselves together, before Danny Hart pulled back two seconds in the final split to take the win, sending the title back to Bruni. It's some of the most amazing riding or racing in the context of an overall campaign, and to my mind, is the most exciting season finale by a long shot. So, that's my ranking of the last five season finales. Did I get them right? Did I get them wrong? And what do you think was the most exciting downhill race you've ever watched live? Thank you for watching, and we will catch you next time.