Finn Iles came through the Val di Sole finish line in one piece.
The Whistler rider has struggled to put down a complete run in recent Mercedes-Benz UCI Downhill World Cup events, but placed 17th in the men's elite category, 10.93 seconds back of winner Laurie Greenland on Aug. 3.
"Well hey, I finally finished a race! 17th isn't where I wanted to finish, but I'm now 15th overall and excited to be able to build off this into next race," Iles posted to Instagram after the race.
Forrest Riesco was the only higher-placing Canadian, taking 15th.
In the junior men's event, Pemberton's Lucas Cruz struggled to a 16th-place finish. Cruz ended up 20.19 seconds back of winner Tuhoto-Ariki Pene of New Zealand.
Alongside a photo of himself after a crash, Cruz posted to Instagram; "Thankful to have finished my run after this and walked away with a positive attitude and some bruises."
The World Cup season continues this weekend in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.
Hill misses cut in Lethbridge
Whistler golfer Kaitlyn Hill narrowly missed the cut at the Canadian Junior Girls Championship in Lethbridge, Alta. last week.
Competing at the Lethbridge Country Club, Hill shot a seven-over-par 79 and then a 13-over-par 85 to finish at 20-over-par after the first two rounds. The cut was at 18-over-par, so Hill did not continue into rounds 3 and 4.
Emily Zhu of Richmond Hill, Ont. won the tournament by five strokes over Vancouver's YanJun Liu and Celeste Dao of Notre-Dame-de-lle-Perrot, Que.
Sky Fest coming to Squamish
A three-day running festival is set to descend on Squamish this weekend.
Sky Fest fun will start on Friday night with ultrarunner Eric Carter presenting at Escape Route Squamish at 7:30 p.m. (Tickets are free.)
Saturday's clinics include: first steps to ultra running, running photography, climbing skills for ultra running and a 20-kilometre alpine group run hosted by We Run Whistler.
The Sea to Sky Photo Expo will be held at The Common starting at 7 p.m. Admission is $10.
On Sunday, clinics are: race tactics, navigation skills for running, women's alpine running skills, scrambling skills for running, and a 20-km alpine group run hosted by Escape Route.
For more information or to register, visit www.sky-fest.ca.
