Wet rock gardens, slippery crossings, stumbling favourites and a convincing performance by the Swiss mountain bikers: At the Olympic women's mountain bike race in Tokyo On Tuesday morning, the Izu MTB course awaited the world's fastest cross-country riders with completely different conditions. It had rained overnight, so the rock gardens were wet and the loose surface on the steep ramps was slippery and slippery. Not an easy task for the women, who had always found dry, dusty conditions in training. The 38 women from 29 nations had to complete five laps of 3.85 kilometres plus a start lap in the battle for the Olympic medals.
Neff takes advantage of the French riders' slip and attacks
Already on the first lap, Jolanda Neff had a scary moment at the drop where Mathieu van der Poel crashed in the men's race. She arrived at the jump with significantly more momentum than the rider in front of her, had to leave the racing line and jump past her to avoid crashing. But it worked and a little later Neff launched the race-deciding attack: when the two French riders Loana Lecomte and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot stumbled in a technical passage and had to put their foot down, the Swiss rider jumped past and set off on her own. Ferrand-Prévot was initially able to catch up, but she slipped away in a rocky uphill, lost a lot of time and dropped back. This left Neff alone at the front. The 28-year-old Swiss rider, who had also won the test race in Tokyo in 2019, extended her lead lap after lap, made no mistakes and showed off her first-class riding technique on the technical uphills. The Trek rider's convincing performance was rewarded with an outstanding Olympic victory with a lead of 1:11 minutes.
After Neff's attack, a chasing group formed, in which the British rider Evie Richards set the pace. Among them: the two Swiss riders Sina Frei and Linda Indergand as well as Anne Terpstra (NED). Behind them, World Cup dominator Lecomte and world champion Ferrand-Prévot fought to catch up.
Lecomte drops the chain, Ferrand-Prévot overtakes
While Neff extended her lead to 45 seconds on the second lap, Ferrand-Prévot invested a lot of energy to get back to the front. At the same time, Loana Lecomte's chain fell off, which set her back a little. Ferrand-Prévot was penalised for her chase and high pace on the third lap. She was relegated to seventh place and a slip cost her additional time. At the same time, Sina Frei and her compatriot Linda Indergand skied at a constant pace, securing their medal positions and extending their lead over their pursuers.
The Swiss duo Frei/Indergand stayed together until the middle of the last lap. The lead changed hands several times, with the 1.51 metre tall Sina Frei riding more from the front. Frei's first attack on a steep climb was also countered by Indergand. But in the end, the 24-year-old Frei managed to pull a few metres clear of Indergand and secured silver with an eight-second lead. The unchallenged Swiss triple triumph was completed by Linda Indergand (28).
19-year-old Hungarian finishes in fourth place
19-year-old Kata Blanka Vas from Hungary also put in a strong second half of the race. The runner-up at the 2020 U23 World Championships worked her way up from sixth place to fourth in the final round. Anne Terpstra from the Netherlands came fifth, ahead of Loana Lecomte and Evie Richards. Ronja Eibl (21) finished her first Olympic race in 19th place, 8:13 minutes behind the winner. The second German starter, Elisabeth Brandau, finished one lap down in 32nd place, while Laura Stigger from Austria, who was still in the leading group on the first lap and had hoped for a top result, dropped out in the middle of the race.
