After months of uncertainty and waiting, the Mercedes-Benz UCI Mountain Bike World Cup 2020 finally back. After the wet, surprising short track race on Tuesday, the cross-country elite raced the full Olympic race distance for the first time this season in Nove Mesto yesterday.
Ladies: Three French women in the top four
After the young cyclocross specialist Evie Richards (Trek) had won her first short track race on Tuesday, she was the last on the starting grid and was right up there at the front. Together with Pauline Ferrand-Prevot and Anne Terpstra, she formed the first leading group of the race. They were joined by Sina Frei, the young Austrian Laura Stigger, Kate Courtney from Scott-Sram and the French rider Loana Lecomte (21).
It was soon the world champion Ferrand-Prevot who took the lead and set the pace. Behind her, it was the young French rider Loana Lecomte who took up the chase. Nove Mesto was Lecomte's first race in the Elita, but after her third place in the short track she had the necessary confidence from the start.
By the middle of the race, the French U23 champion had caught her compatriot and overtaken the world champion. For Ferrand-Prevot, it looked like a safe second place until the last lap. But behind her, Anne Terpstra (Ghost) managed to go one better and the gap to the world champion shrank.
Finally, the group of chasers behind them split up. Lena Gerault (FRA) and Stigger finished their race confidently and secured fourth and fifth place respectively. Terpstra's strong finish brought her second place in the end and Ferrand-Prevot, the leader for a long time, had to settle for third place.
Lecomte (Massi) was clearly the strongest rider in the race, with a lead of more than 30 seconds she had enough time to enjoy the final metres of her first World Cup victory in the elite. Elisabeth Brandau, who finished fifth in the short track race, was pushed far back by a rear wheel defect on the first lap and also struggled with technical problems afterwards. In the end, she finished 57th.
Men: Schurter ignites late and comes from behind
After Mexican champion Jose Ulloa Arevalo had surprisingly won the short track race, he was again in the leading group in the first laps of the cross-country race, but then crashed on the wet roots and dropped out.
Henrique Avancini (Cannondale) was at the front from the start and set the pace. The Dutch champion's jersey of Milan Vader (KMC Orbea) was never far away from the leader. The young Dane Simon Andreassen (Specialized), on the other hand, had to slowly fight his way towards the leading group from far back in his first elite race, as he had not ridden a short track.
Mathias Flückiger (Thömus) was the first rider to challenge Avancini's authority at the front. However, Flückiger retired a little later with stomach problems. Avancini himself eventually dropped back. World champion Nino Schurter was a different story. He had difficulties in the early stages of the race and dropped back to 25th place. But he found his rhythm again and steadily fought his way forwards.
When the leading group collapsed, the young guns Vader (24) and Andreassen (23) began to break away. Only Maxime Marotte (Cannondale) kept up and was able to exert pressure, allowing Vader to burst away on the last lap. With half a lap to go, the U23 vice world champion Andreassen then pulled away from Marotte and took his first World Cup victory in the elite, ahead of Maxime Marotte and Milan Vader.
The battle for fourth place ended with a sprint between Schurter and Avancini. The world champion beat the Brazilian champion by a few centimetres.
German champion Maximilian Brandl, also in his first year as an elite athlete, added another exclamation mark after his strong fifth place in the short track. He was the best German in 11th place. Julian Schelb finished 21st, while Manuel Fumic slipped on a wet root, fell on his left shoulder and crashed out.
