Top: Fabien Barel attempts to avoid an errant bicyle; Bottom: Greg Minnaar takes the win (Pics: Yorick Carroux)

The eliminator downhill format is something of a rarity, but the Kona Top To Bottom Eliminator in Leogang, Austria has been running for a fair while and attracts some proper big names. The Eliminator is run as part of Leogang’s Out of Bounds bike festival, and over fifty riders turned out to do battle in the 4X-meets-DH multiple-rider mayhem.

World Champion Fabien Barel had the fastest qualifying run, and then it was into the Eliminator proper. It took 90 minutes to whittle the riders down to the final four, which turned out to be a team-on-team head-to-head between Kona/Les Gets (Fabien Barel and Kamil Tartakovic) and G-Cross Honda (Greg Minnaar and Matti Lehikonen.

Minnaar got the holeshot from the start, while Lehikonen’s attempt to pass Barel resulted in the Finn crashing off the course. Neither of the Kona riders could catch Minnaar, who took top spot. Quick mention for Britain’s Neil Donoghue, who made it into the top eight.

Better news for the Kona team in the women’s race, though – World Cup leader Tracy Moseley won that one.