The races

Downhill at the 2010 Worlds: Sam Hill, Tracy Moseley and a Canadian silver

The races · By the editors of Ligne de pente · Published 2026-11-04

Downhill closed the 2010 world championships. On Sunday 5 September, juniors and elites, men and women, came down Mont-Sainte-Anne one at a time against the clock, and the host crowd saw a Canadian on the elite podium and a Canadian junior world champion on the same afternoon.

How a downhill race works

A downhill is an individual time trial from the top of the mountain to the bottom. There is no mass start and no tactics in the usual sense: one rider, one run, one time. Championships are organised over several days. Riders first learn the track in practice sessions, then ride a timed session that sets the start order. In the final, the slowest qualifiers go first and the fastest go last, so the result often stays open until the final few riders. The winning margin at world level is commonly a second or less over runs of several minutes.

In 2010 the official timed session took place on Thursday 2 September, three days before the finals. That gap matters on a mountain like this one: weather can change the surface completely between qualifying and racing.

The Mont-Sainte-Anne track

The Québec course is one of the oldest on the international circuit. It drops through the main face of the ski area, mixing open sections where riders reach high speed with tight wooded passages full of roots and granite. Riders have long described it as physically draining: there are few places to rest, and the rock gardens punish any loss of line. The championships also bring juniors onto the same track. The junior women's winner needed just under six minutes for her run, which gives an idea of how long and demanding the descent is for riders still in their teens.

Elite results

Sam Hill added a third elite title to the ones he had won in 2006 and 2007. The silver of Steve Smith, a young rider from Vancouver Island, delighted the home crowd; Smith went on to win the World Cup overall in 2013 before his death in 2016. In the women's race Tracy Moseley took her only downhill world title, ahead of the two French riders who had dominated much of the season. Sabrina Jonnier had won the 2010 World Cup overall, so the result reversed the season's order.

Junior results

Lauren Rosser won by almost fourteen seconds, a large margin in downhill, and gave the host nation a world title on the final day. Troy Brosnan, who would become one of the most consistent World Cup riders of the following decade, won the junior men's race. A summary sheet of the junior women's final is available as a PDF.

The season around the Worlds

Six World Cup downhill rounds ran in 2010, from Maribor in May to Windham, New York, on 29 August, one week before the Worlds. Gee Atherton and Greg Minnaar won two rounds each and Atherton took the overall series. A world championship, however, is one race on one day, and the rainbow jersey regularly goes to a rider who did not lead the season. 2010 was no exception.

Equipment notes

Downhill bikes in 2010 were long-travel, 26-inch-wheeled machines with around 200 mm of suspension at each end and dual-crown forks. Larger wheels only spread through downhill racing several years later. Full-face helmets, body armour and goggles were already standard, and the UCI rules then as now made helmets compulsory in training and racing.