Second race, second victory: Australian Rebecca McConnell secured her second victory after her success in the World Cup kick-off in Petropolis, Brazil She also won the women's cross-country discipline in Albstadt. This rounded off a perfect race weekend in the Swabian Jura: on the On Friday evening, the Australian won the short track competition in their favour. Sweden's Jenny Rissveds and Austria's Mona Mitterwallner finished second and third respectively. Local hero Ronja Eibl from nearby Grosselfingen finished the race as the best-placed German rider in 20th place.
The video summary of the cross-country races of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Albstadt 2022.
After her coup with the first victory of her career in a short track competition last Friday evening, Rebecca McConnell was also in a class of her own in the Olympic cross-country discipline two days later: the Australian put her stamp on the race right from the start and moved into the lead on the opening lap. A small gap opened up, which only the Swede Jenny Rissveds was able to close again with a show of strength. As a result, the Australian-Swedish duo set the pace at the front and battled for victory until the penultimate lap.
In the fourth of five laps to be completed in the Albstädter Bullentäle, Rebecca McConnell launched an attack that Jenny Rissveds was ultimately unable to follow. From then on, McConnell consistently extended her lead and confidently rode to her second victory in the second World Cup race of the season. "I didn't really have a plan before the race. I didn't necessarily want to win, but I felt good from the start. When I was travelling with Jenny, it was a bit tactical. She has different strengths to me, I knew that and when a small hole opened up, I knew now I had to go," said an overjoyed Rebecca McConnell at the finish.
As the race progressed, McConnell and Rissveds seemed to be under constant threat from the chasing pack, especially in the person of Mona Mitterwallner, who later finished third. The 20-year-old Austrian got off to a poor start and was already over 40 seconds behind the two leaders after the start lap. The young Austrian then set off in pursuit and made up a lot of ground: Mitterwallner was able to reduce the gap to the leaders to around 30 seconds over the course of the race, but she never managed to catch up with the leading duo. Instead, the Austrian had to fight for third place with other rivals from the chasing pack, who stubbornly stuck to her rear wheel. Loana Lecomte, last year's French winner in Albstadt, and Switzerland's Alessandra Keller kept up with Mitterwallner until the penultimate lap.
However, Mitterwallner's climbing strength ultimately ensured that Keller and, in the final lap, Lecomte also had to abandon the race. Mitterwallner finally finished in third place, exactly one minute behind, followed 51 seconds later by Loana Lecomte in fourth place. Alessandra Keller was a further 42 seconds behind in fifth place. "It wasn't easy to get to the front from the third row of the grid. But it's also no secret: I'm not the best starter. I still have to work on that if I want to finish at the top. If you lose 40 seconds on the first lap, it's difficult to catch up with the first. But for today I'm really happy," said Mitterwallner.
And second-placed Jenny Rissveds was anything but unhappy after the race: "When Bec went, I couldn't keep up. She was just too strong at that moment. My plan was not to start too fast and that worked. The pace was ok for me. But when Bec attacked, it was just too fast," reported the Swedish Olympic champion with a laugh.
However, the best German skiers were unable to get involved in the battle for the top places at their home World Cup. After her impressive ninth place in the short track on Friday evening, local hero Ronja Eibl managed a solid 20th place. Nadine Rieder and Lia Schrievers followed close behind in 24th and 25th place. Ghost rider Rieder narrowly missed her top 20 target, but was still happy to accept the congratulations at the finish. "Albstadt is always very tough. I had a really bad start, but then I wanted to ride a consistent race and I managed to do that. That's why I'm satisfied."
