The American, winner of last season’s overall World Cup title, ending the course in a time of 3 min 10.271sec.

He was followed by in-form South African Greg Minnaar, who posted the first time of the day, setting the mark at 3:12.519.

Australia’s Troy Brosnan and France’s Loic Bruni achieved impressive times, ending in 3:13.176 and 3:13.494 respectively.

The women’s competition did not feature Rachel Atherton, with the Briton having failed to recover quick enough from a dislocated shoulder to take part.

Her two-year unbeaten streak was ended last week at her home leg in Fort William, when a crash in qualifying forced her to withdraw from the competition.

Australia’s Tracey Hannah topped the qualification by finishing in a time of 3:40.314, backing up her Fort William success.

The British challenge looks set to remain strong, as Tahnee Seagrave and Manon Carpenter completed the top three.

Seagrave ended in 3:42.727, while Carpenter finished narrowly adrift of her team-mates time on 3:46.397.

The finals at the Bike Park Leogang in the Saalfelden Leogang region of Austria tomorrow.