Sacha Earnest is getting faster and faster as the DH season rolls on
Sacha Earnest rocketed into the hot seat in La Thuile and held on to finish third and earn the second elite podium of her career. She laid down a blisteringly fast last two sectors on the steepest track of the 2026 World Cup circuit, finishing just .473 seconds behind the winning time of Vali Höll, who has now won four out of five World Cup races this year.
Earnest is having a strong and consistent sophomore elite season, but she had been missing an impact performance like her breakthrough podium in Lake Placid last year. She has now definitely made her mark on 2026, with four more World Cup races to go.
Sacha was on a heater in the final two sectors.
And she did it with a bum right finger. A hand injury made it difficult to work her front brakes, but no matter: Earnest rode accordingly and powered through the pain.
“I guess who needs a front brake anyway,” Earnest said after the race. “It was a lot more unexpected than I think a lot of people realized. Like I was riding good all weekend, but just this morning it kind of clicked, and I think I peaked in the right moment. I just didn’t want to override or be too safe, so I think I found a good in-between.”
On the podium at last.
Earnest her podium at the very end of her run. She was seventh-fastest through three sectors, and fourth-fastest by nearly a full second behind Nina Hoffmann at the final split before the finish line. Thirty seconds later, her final time came in at more than a second faster than Hoffmann’s.
“The bottom was just kind of my style: a bit more hoppy, a bit flatter, a bit rootier, a bit rougher,” Earnest said. “But honestly, I’m happy with what my splits were at the top. I was struggling all week, and it was the best I could have ever done.”
There's gonna be a lot of celebrating in the team tonight.
Earnest is now ninth in a tight battle for the podium in the elite women’s overall standings. She has finished Top 10 in every World Cup race she has entered (she missed Round 3 in Leogang due to injury), and seems to be building speed as the season goes on. Two weeks ago, she took fifth in Lenzerheide.
We won’t have to wait long to see what Earnest does next. The Trek-Unbroken DH squad heads to Andorra for Round 6 next weekend before a month-long break. On a mean track, Earnest is poised to turn even more heads.
