Written by Simon de Montfort of
  AnnoDomini
  
  
  This time we will go straight into the action and begin this issue with race reports.
  
  Day 63 Rio Pico – Gas Nac
  The breakaway succeeded in the 43rd edition of Rio Pico and only one rider on podium was a downhiller. Failry unknown riders Grant Kitterman and Tiago Quintino came first and second with Abdul-Jalil Umarah taking 3rd spot and saving the donwhillers honour. The favorites McPherson, Kravtchenko and Haidegger arrived only a few minutes later together with the peloton.
  
  Day 65 Gorj – Vilcea
  Tor Overland finally wins his first race this season and adds this result to previous 3. Gregory Hebert took 2nd place and 3rd was Hlynur Ismaelsson, just ahead of Halvard Antonsen, who misses out on a podium.
  
  Day 68 Bielsko Biala - Zakopane
  In Poland the race ends with a technical descent and the rider who best managed the difficult road this time was Colin Tomhave. This is his 3rd win this season in DH races – well done Colin! Aurel Kravtchenko comes 2nd adding a 3rd result to his palmares, while the 34yo Elias Cuello finishes 3rd.
  
  Day 68 Classic Oslo
  In the Downhill Classic the climbs were much more difficult than the descends this time and it

was a climber who won it – top form Lolo Sita. Fortunately downhillers came right after him and it was Heiko Van Veen who finished 2nd with Arnold Urbanowski in 3rd place.
  
  Day 68 Cycling Health
  In Div 3 we also had a climber winning the Dh race – Nae Anamia stole the win from Lovro Kerec and Spiridon Ekel, for whom it was 4th Dh result this season.
  
  Day 72 Kanchanaburi – Bangkok
  Div 2 race saw another unexpected winner as Filip Dobrau took the top spot, but the favorites were right after him. Halvard Antonsen finished 2nd and Helmut Gott got 3rd. Ethan Bird missed out on the podium by just a few inches.
  
  Day 78 Whistler – Vancouver
  In the top div classic it was Tikhon Rykov who finally delivered and managed to win his first ever top div DH race. 2nd was Brent Meijerigh and 3rd place went to Genc Atacan, a Turkish rider who wants to follow Yanik Arda’s footsteps.
  
  
  Now lets see – we have a little less than 2 weeks of racing left in this season, so we should slowly be getting ready to select the best Dhers. We have had quite a few unexpected results this season with successful breakaways and some less skilled riders hitting top form and stealing a result or two from the favorites, so let us review who is having a decent season and might be a potential

candidate to the award – and my definition of a decent season is at least 3 results ?. For now in a random order:
  
  Dominic Haidegger – 3 results in 3 important top div races, but no win. If he grabs a win somewhere he can be sure to get a nomination.
  Colin Tomhave – 3 wins in divs 2, 3 and 4. His best season ever. Nice!
  Drake Garcia – 2 wins and 3 results in Div 4. Very consistent.
  Galtem Delduca – 1 win in div 4 and 2 results divs 4 and 5. Fairly new name in the community doing well.
  Brent Meijerigh – 2 wins and 2 results in 4 top div Dh races. Again! No comments needed here.
  Heiko Van Veen – 1 win and 3 results in div 4. Very good season from the 25yo.
  Abdul-Jalil Umarah – 1 win and 2 results in div 2. Syrian champion getting more results than in his entire career so far.
  Spiridon Ekel – 4 results in div 3 and 4. Always somewhere near the top, but never on top.
  Aurel Kravtchenko – 3 results. Nice for a 23yo.
  Tor Overland – 1 win and 2 results in div 3. Decent ride.
  
  Please let us know your thoughts in the comments section who do you think should be getting a nomination at this stage. Of course we still have a few races ahead and things may change, but lets be honest – they wont change too much…