They might not have managed to pull it off for the home crowds at Fort William, but UK DH front runners Steve Peat and Tracy Moseley made up for it with victories at round two at Les Deux Alpes, France.

The already wide-open men’s event was broadened out even further by the non-appearance of first round winner Greg Minnaar (he raced a US NORBA round instead), and qualifying over the fast 1.68 mile course was tight. Fabien Barel (Kona-Clarks) set the fastest time in the semis, with Peat a second and a half down. With half a dozen UK riders in the top fifteen qualifiers – Peat, Dan and Gee Atherton, Marc Beaumont, Dave Wardell and Neil Donoghue – things were looking good for Britain. Come the final, Peat showed what he’s made of by blitzing hot-seat holder Cedric Gracia’s time by nearly six seconds, and his own qualifying time by four. His 3:08.52 (an average of 32.04mph) was out of the reach of Barel, giving Steve the win ahead of Gracia and Michael Pascal. Rounding off the podium were Sam Hill and Britain’s Gee Atherton.

The rest of the Brits didn’t quite live up to their qualifying promise, but there were notable performances from Neil Donoghue (equal ninth with Kirt Voreis) and Will Longden in 15th. In the overall standings it’s Peat on top with 415 points, followed by Gracia, Pascal, Sam Hill and Gee Atherton.

Over in the women’s event it looked like business as usual for Anne-Caroline Chausson, who qualified 2.5 seconds clear of Sabrina Jonnie and Tracy Moseley. Nothing is for certain in DH racing, though, and Moseley rose to the challenge. While Chausson and Jonnier’s race times were both slightly slower than the qualifiers, Moseley shaved half a second off hers to beat Chausson by just 0.14seconds. Jonnier was third, with Marielle Saner and Vanessa Quin occupying the other podium slots.

Other strong British performances came from Helen Gaskell (7th), Fionn Griffiths (9th), Anja Rees-Jones (14th) and newcomer Maria Conway (18th). Chausson still leads in the overall standings, and her 460 points puts her 103 ahead of Sabrina Jonnier. Moseley’s in third spot, Celine Gros in fourth and Helen Gaskell fifth.

The super-tight calendar sees the World Cup circus roll in to Schladming, Austria next weekend.