Racers in Vail awoke to bright sun and blue skies for the first day of elite racing Saturday, as the already-seeded downhillers donned their national jerseys in place of the usual trade team colors and took the scenic chairlift ride to the top of this year's championship course. Soon, in front of thousands of spectators and television cameras with the booming voice of Peter Graves below, they took the biggest run of their season on a super-fast and wild 1.43-mile course dubbed The American Flyer.

When it was over there were two French riders celebrating - as they have so many times in the past. They had put together methodical and near-perfect runs in the Autumn sunshine, whipping through yellow Aspen trees and over sharp dusty rocks at 30mph to continue nearly a decade of dominance.

The business of counting how many world championship rainbow jerseys Anne-Caroline Chausson (FRA, Volvo-Cannondale) and Nicolas Vouilloz (FRA, Vouilloz Racing Team) have earned has become a veritable pastime in the pressroom. Since the early '90s they have been so dominant at Worlds, the hardest part is figuring out in which years they didn't win.

So let's set the record straight. Chausson now has an astounding 10 rainbow jerseys in the downhill. That goes all the way back to when she was a 15-year-old junior racer who, just after winning the BMX worlds, took up mountain bike racing and has not lost a world's race since. Her total rainbow jersey tally (including BMX and dual) now stands at 13. We doubt you'll find another female athlete anywhere in the world who so dominates her sport.

Vouilloz meanwhile won his ninth jersey in 10 tries. He was beaten just once in a worlds competition when American Myles Rockwell (USA, Team Giant) took the win last year. But a lot changes in a year and his road to redemption was a rocky one.

Women:
Chausson qualified fastest on Thursday by eight seconds, then came down the mountain last to blow away this season's up-and-comer Fionn Griffiths (GBR, Ancillotti Zeal) by 4.28 seconds. Obviously confident in her skills on this course, she even found time to go out for a drink Thursday night (even if it meant winning by just four seconds come Saturday).

While Griffiths, one of this season's new stars, put together a great race to win the silver medal, just a half-second faster than bronze medal-winner Leigh Donovan (USA, Schwinn).

Chausson's biggest rival for the season was World Cup second-ranked Missy Giove (USA) riding for the successful new Global Racing Team. Giove won the '94 Worlds here in Vail (although on a different course) but twice knocked herself out in practice this year, and ended up racing the finals with both a concussion and an injured rotator cuff. Her qualifying runs went so poorly that she started second in the finals - as opposed to the top-seeded Chausson who raced last.

Nevertheless, Chausson was wary of Giove's skills and while waiting at the top of the mountain asked a staffer how her run was going. She learned that Giove crashed hard during the final seconds of her run, ragdolling down the steep Yahoo! face of the mountain, right in front of thousands of shocked fans.

"My foot unclipped," Giove said. "I was trying to go big, because I had crashed up top early in my run. I was trying to make up time on the last section and I crashed again." After staggering to her feet, she collapsed and was down for the count. Later taken to the hospital, Giove suffered bleeding on (but thankfully not in) her brain. She was released Monday morning.

Said Chausson, "During qualifying I was taking it easy and trying to have fun. Then during the finals I was at the top and asked what was Missy's time and heard she crashed. But then minutes later I heard that Leigh did a 4:15, and said 'oh shit.'"

"I've crashed in 10 of my 14 races this season," Donovan said after her run. "My only goal was to not crash. I rode aggressive and hard and fatigued, but I guess God was with me today."

It was now clear that Chausson's work was cut out for her, and after waiting for everyone else to try (unsuccessfully) to beat Leigh's time, she finally took her run.

"I was aiming to finish in 4:12," she later said. "But I did better and got a 4:10." And that was all she needed to beat out both Donovan and Griffiths, and 28 other women.

"Everyone thinks it's easy for me to win, but it's never easy," Chausson said. "Anything can happen and you have to go one hundred percent."

One-time World Cup winner Sabrina Jonnier (FRA, RSP Import Intense) finished 4th and out of the medals, while Kiwi up-and-comer Vanessa Quin (NZL, Intense) surprised even herself by finishing in a career's-best 5th place.

Men:
Nicolas Vouilloz (FRA, Vouilloz Racing Team) had a tough year. First he lost the 2000 World Championships to Rockwell in Spain last summer, then lost this season's World Cup overall title to 19-year-old "fresh prince of big air" Greg Minnaar (RSA, Global Racing Team). Nico crashed in several races and only won one round of the World Cup. Then in Thursday's seeding run he could only manage to qualify in 5th, though at least one racer said he could have done better.

"He stopped during qualifying for at least six seconds," Greg Minnaar (RSA, Global Racing Team), who qualified second-fastest behind Steve Peat (GBR, Team GT), told us the next day. "Peat took it easy, too."

And what about Greg? Did he go 100 percent in qualifying? "Naw," he said "I took it easy and had fun." So much for using semi-finals as a gauge.

As it turned out, Vouilloz had stopped for 10 seconds in his seeding run. In case it rained Saturday afternoon, he didn't want to come down the mountain last and be riding in more mud than those racers before him. There is more strategy in downhill than most realize, and Vouilloz wanted to come down the mountain with 10 riders remaining, but he was faster than he realized. Even after waiting ten seconds, he still qualified fifth fastest.

Fast forward to Saturday afternoon, and eight men had taken their turn in the hotseat up - actually a Honda motorcycle - before Vouilloz came down the mountain. Last year's World Champ Rockwell had spent a good amount of time in the lead with a 3 minute, 46 second run. He was displaced by Filip Polc of Slovakia who posted a 3:43, but then Vouilloz came barreling down the mountain, going so fast that the split-time mid-run was fully seven seconds faster than Polc. And he kept accelerating, posting an amazing 3:35 - eight seconds faster than his qualifying time.

"I made a few mistakes, it's a very physical course," said Vouilloz, nicknamed "Nico." "You have to pedal very hard." One of the smartest riders in the sport, Vouilloz actually knows just how fast he can go during a race. "I was hoping to get a 3:33," he said,"but the track was a bit slippery."

The remaining four riders, for various reasons, were unable to beat Nico's time. Fourth-seeded Mickael Pascal (FRA, Be-One Team) could only manage 6th place while third-seeded Chris Kovarik (AUS, Intense Cycles) finished in 4th. That left just Greg Minnaar and Steve Peat (GBR, Team GT).

Minnaar had a self-described perfect run, but paced himself too much and saved too much energy during his run. "I took it easy at the top of the course to save energy at this altitude, but I realized half way down that I wasn't going fast enough, and pedaled extra hard at the bottom," he said. "Now I realize I should have given it my all the whole way down."

He did go for it at the bottom, making a spectacular jump over the Bud Light Bailout, clearing a huge rock jump that even Vouilloz didn't attempt. But, just meters from the finish, disaster struck. "I was going for it at the finish and my foot slipped off the pedal and I lost it," said Greg. He flew across the finish hands first and careened into the barriers - fracturing his wrist, lacerating his hands and banging his knee. Yet he still finished 3rd.

And what of top-seeded Steve Peat? "I just wasn't carrying enough speed," he said dejectedly after missing Nico's time by just 2.35 seconds. Good enough for a silver medal, but not good enough for Peat. "I don't know what was wrong, but I could tell mid-run that I wasn't going fast enough."

And so Nico got to watch four of the top-seeded men try and fail to beat his time as he earned his 9th rainbow jersey.

— Ari Cheren