Ronan Dunne (Mondraker Factory Racing DH) has said winning his second World Cup, and becoming the only Irish rider to double up at this level, was such a high he was lost for words.
The 23-year-old from Ballyorney, Co Wicklow, was best in the 30-rider final - from an initial startlist of 106 - in mucky conditions at the UCI Downhill World Cup round in Les Gets, France, at the weekend.
Ireland's former world junior champion in the downhill discipline, Oisin O'Callaghan (YT Mob), also made the final and finished in 29th, after suffering two crashes and saying he never found his rhythm at the venue.
For Dunne, this latest victory follows his first UCI Downhill World Cup win in Bielsko-Biała, Poland, last year, as well as having claimed Red Bull Hardline wins in Tasmania and Wales.
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“Words can’t describe how this feels," he said of his latest victory in France. "It’s been such a rough season and all I’ve been thinking about for the past weeks has been doing well at this race and showing everyone I can still win a race,” Dunne said.
“I go by the motto ‘helicopter or win’, or ‘helicopter or podium’ and I lived up to the name in La Thuile, and here we took a win.”
Dunne clocked a time of 3:56.586, beating Belgian runner-up Martin Maes (Orbea FMD Racing) by 2.821 seconds, a huge margin at this level. Austrian Andreas Kolb (YT Mob) was 3rd at 2.931 seconds.
