UCI MTB World Championships Les Gets: Paul Schehl wins Junior World Champion title

With 113 starters from 40 countries, the junior cross-country race at the UCI MTB World Championships 2022 in Les Gets after the Relay race on Wednesday the next big international spectacle. The world champion title went to Paul Schehl, a former rider from the BIKE Junior Team. Since this season, the 18-year-old has been riding in the Lexware Mountain Bike Team alongside Maximilian Brandl and David List. After his German championship title in Bad Salzdetfurth in June, two European Championship bronze medals in Portugal and podium finishes in the UCI Junior Series, the rider from Freiburg crowns his strong season with the World Championship title. "I had already planned to finish on the podium, but you can never really be sure. The fact that I was then also able to win and beat Jan Christen is mega. I'm totally happy," said the new junior world champion.

Schehl and cyclocross world champion Christen deliver a thrilling duel

Paul Schehl, the big favourite Jan Christen from Switzerland and Jack Spranger from the USA got off to the fastest start, closely followed by Gustav Pedersen (DEN) and the French duo Paul Magnier and Melvin Crommelinck. The 18-year-old German champion and the two-time Swiss champion crossed the finish line together after the first of five laps - and they were not to lose sight of each other for the rest of the race.

The French duo worked together to close a gap before Crommelinck tired and had to give up his fourth place. Schehl's BDR colleague Emil Herzog, on the other hand, already German road champion this year and third at the European Championships in the individual time trial on the road, managed to catch up with the three-man leading group of Schehl, Christen and Magnier towards the middle of the race. A little later, Herzog even tried to ride away from the group.

Plates end Herzog's medal hopes

But then Emil Herzog Herzog was slowed down by a puncture. He had to ride half a lap to the tech zone with the flat tyre and dropped back. The junior rider from Bavaria then had to bury his hopes of a medal. When the bell rang for the final lap, the battle for the medals was between Schehl, Magnier and Christen.

When Schehl, the second-placed rider in the world rankings, increased the pace, it was the Frenchman who had to let go. Christen, however, stayed on Schehl's rear wheel. "After that, they really tried to stand up," says national coach Schäfer. Until Paul Schehl took off after a bend and opened up a gap to the chasing Christen. A crash in the final section ultimately made the difference. Paul Schehl took the world champion title in the junior class by 18 seconds. "Paul rode a tactically sensational race. It doesn't get any better than that," summarised national coach Marc Schäfer.

France's Magnier took bronze. The great result for Germany was rounded off by the top placings of the other starters: Benjamin Krüger finished fifth (1:30 min), Emil Herzog was sixth (1:46 min) and Lars Gräter eighth (2:31 min).