Race Report – Race-report: DH Worldcup #9 Lake Placid 🇺🇸
Downhill race #9 of the 2025 Whoop UCI MTB World Series is one to remember! New (downhill) venue, fresh track and great results for AON Racing – Tourne Campervans! Weekend highlight is P19 for Reece on the elite men elite race, but as always there is so much more to the story!
In the world of sports, Lake Placid is one of the most iconic places out there, host of two winter Olympic games. Last year Mount Van Hoevenberg hosted XCC/XCO races, this year we are here with the double event, with DH racing taking place on Whiteface Mountain.
It’s always great to be on a new venue, especially when builders create such good tracks! It is tricky and demanding, but this is exactly the kind of challenge our athletes love. We have the whole team in North America, we also have Hattie with us doing line scouting while she recovers from her injury.
Here’re the highlights of our race week:
Monika – Steady Progress
Monika didn’t make it to the finals at the Whiteface Mountain, however it’s great to see her building confidence again after the big crash in Lenzerheide. The trend is going in the right direction, and we’re optimistic she’ll be close to 100% next week in Mont-Sainte-Anne. As always she saved the best for last, with Q1 riddled with mistakes and a strong performance in the Q2, finishing in 9th. Not enough for the finals, but enough to build some extra confidence heading into the last round.
Henry – Speed Is Back
Henry showed great pace throughout the weekend. He is riding prototype bike and putting a lot of good test runs into it, proving what is possible on the new rig. Henry unfortunately didn’t qualify, but the effort was great regardless. His race weekend ended in the second qualies, when he was on a track for a potential top-3 time. However, an off-track excursion at the end of his run cost him too much time. Still, the speed and confidence are absolutely there, and we’re excited to see what he can do in MSA.
Stan’s strong attack in the finals
The race on Whiteface Mountain wasn’t short of spectacular crashes, unfortunately Stan also made it on that list in the junior finals. Like so many others he crashed in the second sector of the track, on the upper technical part. He hit the ground hard, but got back on his bike as quickly as possible, but the time lost was just too big. He finished in 20th place.
The most important thing is that Stan is not injured, and will go to Canadian round with full throttle!
Best so far for Flying Scotsman
Reece had an amazing weekend and was getting better with each run. He saved the best for last and put in a fantastic final run that was getting faster with each of the track sections. Reece navigated technical top part with great precision, added couple of wild moves in there and then went to the finish line like a bullet. He stayed in the hot seat for a while and on the end finished in 19th place! Great result on its own, when you consider the season ending injury that happened just two month ago, this really makes the result stand out.
Reece Wilson: “I’ve always loved coming to race in the USA. The fans are some of the best in the world and for some reason I always seem to ride well here. This weekend was one of my best in a long time. The team had amazing energy and it showed on track! A solid qualifying performance got me into finals through Q2. To take time off and finish in the top-20 was a huge achievement after my mid season injuries. To have pace like this on such a challenging track is a huge compliment going into the last round at Mont-Saint-Anne.”
The fans!
It was great to see huge crowds on the first of the NA rounds, we have no doubt MSA will be the same. The team was placed just behind the finish arena, in the center of the venue, so that created a big exposure for our team. Also we are very deep in the prototyping stages with bikes, so that created bigger buzz than ever.
Great vibes that we’ll carry on to the next one!