As the DH season rolled into round three here in Quebec, both the men's and women's overall standings have been as fun to watch as the races themselves. Anne-Caroline Chausson (FRA, Volvo-Cannondale) has had to work her way back from a disappointing first round in Scotland to win two back-to-back races, finally wresting the jersey from the on-fire Sabrina Jonnier (FRA, Intense Cycles) - who had the leader's jersey before this week and finished second here this weekend.

CHAUSSON DOESN'T EVEN LIKE THIS COURSE:
Anne-Caroline Chausson (FRA, Volvo-Cannondale) showed that her crashing out of Scotland's first round was just a hiccup, as she beat the women's field in both qualifying and the finals, beating Sabrina Jonnier (FRA, Intense Cycles) by 1.82 seconds and 3rd place Tracy Moseley (GBR, Team Kona) by 11.04. Jonnier and Moseley are both world cup winners themselves, and pose the biggest threat to Chausson these days.

Chausson started out her day by winning the semi-final, earning 50 points toward the overall when she beat Sabrina Jonnier (FRA, Intense Cycles) and Tracy Moseley (GBR, Team Kona) by 5 seconds and 10 seconds respectively in the seeding run. Then she repeated the feat again in the afternoon finals, beating 2nd place Jonnier and 3rd place Moseley again - if by a smaller margin.

"This course is not the best for me - it's very technical and full of roots," said Chausson after coming to the finish line exhausted. "For me to do well in this situation is very good for me. I just wasn't very smooth today, but then I never feel that good on this Mont Sainte-Anne track."

Asked if she was therefore more satisfied to win here, she said "I practice so hard and we [the team] put in so much work, I'm even more happy when I can win here. I didn't have any problems today, but made a mistake on the first fast section in a chicane. And I was also too slow in the new wooded section, so I just tried to keep going as best as I could."

Jonnier was also happy with her run, as she continues to mature into a strong and more calm racer. "The difference this year has been my training, and I'm also more mature and confident," said Jonnier. "Plus I have a good team and a good bike."

"At the mid-point Anne was 3.5 seconds faster than me, but only 2 seconds faster at the finish," she added. "So that means I did the lower section faster."

3rd place Tracy Moseley was happy with her run as well, as she finished 11 seconds off the win - not bad considering all that happened to her. "I crashed and flew over the bars in the new wooded section, which slowed me down," she said. "I also crashed there in qualifying as well as practice. But otherwise I'm pleased; until I crashed I thought I had a brilliant run going."

Englishwoman Moseley, who won her career's first world cup in round one, knows that this season is a special one - and her speed on the bike attests to that. "I know I'm riding as fast as Sabrina and Anne-Caroline right now, so without a mistake [my final run] would have been good," she said.

Another British rider finished well when Fionn Griffiths (GBR, Ancillotti Zeal) took 4th place, while Marielle Saner (SUI, Team Global Racing) - nursing an injured eye - rounded out the podium in 5th place. Just a half-second off the podium was Marla Streb (USA, Luna Chix), in her first world cup race of the season.

— Ari Cheren, MountainZone.com Correspondent