The results are in from Les Gets after some dusty high-speed racing. Nino Schurter got his second win in 2019 after beating Gerhard Kerscbaumer to the line in a nail-biting last lap. Henrique Avancini couldn't quite keep up with the top two riders, he had to settle for third 38 seconds back. Stephane Tempier and Ondrej Cink sprinted to the line in a photo finish with Tempier just edging out in front.
Kate Courtney secures another perfect weekend with a win in both the short track and the XCO. After breaking away on the second lap Courtney was unstoppable throughout the whole race. Jolanda Neff pushed hard in the latter laps but it wouldn't be enough crossing the line just over 30 seconds back. Elisabeth Brandau got her best-ever World Cup results in third and was closely followed by Sina Frei. Pauline Ferrand Prevot would make sure a French rider made it onto the podium in Les Gets with a strong performance throughout the day.
Elite Men
1st. Nino Schurter: 1:22.10
2nd. Gerhard Kerschbaumer: +4
3rd. Henrique Avancini: +38
4th. Stephane Tempier: +48
5th. Ondrej Cink: +48
6th. Peter Disera: +1:08
7th. Jens Schuermans: +1:21
8th. Jordan Sarrou: +1:22
9th. Mathias Flueckiger: +1:29
10th. David Valero Serrano: +1:46
Elite Women
1st. Kate Courtney: 1:26.29
2nd. Jolanda Neff: +33
3rd. Elisabeth Brandau: +1:05
4th. Sina Frei: +1:15
5th. Pauline Ferrand Prevot: +1:32
6th. Haley Smith: +1:40
7th. Anne Terpstra: +1:41
8th. Rebecca McConnell: +2:16
9th. Jenny Rissveds: +2:24
10th. Eva Lechner: +2:44
Elite MenFull ResultsRace AnalysisElite WomenFull ResultsRace Analysis
Live Race Updates:
3:20 am PDT The Elite Women are off! Who will take the win today?
3:24 am PDT Jolanda Neff leads into the first downhill section. It looks like she is back to her usual tactic of going fast right out of the start gate.
3:27 am PDT Elisabeth Brandau has now taken the lead up the second climb of the course. Jolanda Neff is paying for her quick start and has fallen back.
3:31 am PDT Kate Courtney is now opening up a gap back to Brandau, as they head into the second half of the lap.
3:33 am PDT Top five Elite Women after lap one: 1st. Kate Courtney // 2nd. Jenny Rissveds // 3rd. Eva Lechner // 4th. Pauline Ferrand Prevot // 5th. Anne Terpstra //
3:34 am PDT Jenny Rissveds had an amazing first lap and she is now leading the chasing group. It's great to see her back at the front of the race.
3:36 am PDT Rissveds has overtaken Kate Courtney and is now leading after the first climb on the second lap.
3:41 am PDT Kate Courtney takes back the lead and has pulled a 12-second gap to Rissveds.
3:43 am PDT Jolanda Neff is now nearly a minute back in ninth place, she managed to come from behind last weekend but can she do it again in Les Gets?
3:46 am PDT Top five Elite Women after lap two: 1st. Kate Courtney // 2nd. Jenny Rissveds // 3rd. Sina Frei // 4th. Elisabeth Brandau // 5th. Pauline Ferrand Prevot //
3:50 am PDT Courtney has a lead of around 20 seconds ahead of Rissveds. It doesn't look like Courtney is pushing that had but no one has an answer for her speed so far.
3:53 am PDT Jolanda Neff is on a comeback, she is back up to eighth but still over 50 seconds off Courtney.
3:57 am PDT Top five Elite Women after lap three: 1st. Kate Courtney // 2nd. Jenny Rissveds // 3rd. Sina Frei// 4th. Pauline Ferrand Prevot // 5th. Elisabeth Brandau //
3:59 am PDT Jolanda Neff's lap three was only one second slower than Courtney, it looks like she is on the pace of the leader, but she will need to push hard to close the gap.
4:05 am PDT Neff passes Brandau to take fifth position. She has made over 11 seconds back on Courtney in the last lap.
4:09 am PDT The chasing group has been caught by Neff and she is upping the pace significantly.
4:10 am PDT Top five Elite Women after lap four: 1st. Kate Courtney // 2nd. Jolanda Neff // 3rd. Pauline Ferrand Prevot // 4th. Sina Frei // 5th. Jenny Rissveds //
4:13 am PDT The gap from Courtney to Neff is down to just 30 seconds. If Neff can keep up her current pace she will reach the leader on the last lap. Could we see a sprint finish?
4:19 am PDT Kate Courtney is now in sight of Jolanda Neff, the gap is down to 27 seconds.
4:23 am PDT Top five Elite Women after lap five: 1st. Kate Courtney // 2nd. Jolanda Neff // 3rd. Pauline Ferrand Prevot // 4th. Sina Frei // 5th. Elisabeth Brandau //
4:24 am PDT Jolanda Neff pulled back 10 seconds on the fifth lap, she is going to have to push even harder if she is going to catch Kate.
4:32 am PDT Pauline Ferrand Prevot goes down in the woods, she now drops out of the chasing pack.
4:36 am PDT Top five Elite Women going into the final lap: 1st. Kate Courtney // 2nd. Jolanda Neff - +34 // 3rd. Elisabeth Brandau - +1:01 // 4th. Sina Frei - +1:01 // 5th. Pauline Ferrand Prevot - +1:09 //
4:38 am PDT Pauline Ferrand Prevot is pushing hard to regain positions after her crash, she passes Sina Frei on the first climb in a big move on the last lap.
4:47 am PDT Kate Courtney wins in Les Gets.
5:50 am PDT The Elite Men are off, for eight tough laps.
5:50 am PDT Huge pile up out of the start gate!
5:51 am PDT Victor Koretzky leads up the first climb.
5:54 am PDT Henrique Avancini reaches the bottom of the first descent at the front. There are no gaps so far but the pace is already high, we are definitely in for a great race today.
6:02 am PDT Top five Elite Men after the first lap: 1st. Nino Schurter // 2nd. Henrique Avancini // 3rd. Victor Koretzky // 4th. Ondrej Cink // 5th. Stephane Tempier //
6:04 am PDT Henrique Avancini attacked up the first climb and leads into the first descent. He has pulled out of huge lead!
6:05 am PDT After the downhill section Schurter is back with Avancini.
6:10 am PDT Avancini slips out of the off-camber grass and stalls Schurter.
6:12 am PDT Top five Elite Men going after the second lap: 1st. Stephane Tempier // 2nd. Jordan Sarrou // 3rd. Ondrej Cink // 4th. Henrique Avancini // 5th. Nino Schurter //
6:17 am PDT MVDP seems to be struggling today, missing out on last weekends race may not have paid off for him.
6:22 am PDT Top five Elite Men after the third lap: 1st. Stephane Tempier // 2nd. Henrique Avancini // 3rd. Nino Schurter // 4th. Ondrej Cink // 5th. Gerhard Kerschbaumer //
6:23 am PDT Gerhard Kerschbaumer is setting the pace up the first climb of the fourth lap. With the halfway point of the race coming up will we see a rider start to break away?
6:28 am PDT Ondrej Cink is pushing hard and moves to the front of the leading pack. Mathias Flueckiger is also looking fast a she makes his way back up to the front group after a slow start.
6:31 am PDT Top five Elite Men after the fourth lap: 1st. Ondrej Cink // 2nd. Henrique Avancini // 3rd. Gerhard Kerschbaumer // 4th. Nino Schurter // 5th. Stephane Tempier //
6:34 am PDT Ondrej Cink is opening up a sizeable gap, is he going to try and break away from the leading group.
6:36 am PDT At the bottom of the second big climb it's Cink, Avancini and Schurter forming a new leading group.
6:37 am PDT Reaching the top of the climb the pace is slowing. The race is definitely becoming tactical between the top riders.
6:40 am PDT Jordan Sarrou is dropping off the leaders, it looks like he can't maintain the high pace being set by Kerschbaumer.
6:43 am PDT Top five Elite Men after the fifth lap: 1st. Gerhard Kerschbaumer // 2nd. Henrique Avancini // 3rd. Nino Schurter // 4th. Ondrej Cink // 5th. Stephane Tempier //
6:46 am PDT Kerschbaumer, Schurter, Avancini and Cink have upped the speed once again. They are dropping Tempier and Sarrou.
6:47 am PDT Ondrej Cink is now dropping off the top three riders.
6:50 am PDT Top five Elite Men after the sixth lap: 1st. Gerhard Kerschbaumer // 2nd. Nino Schurter - +0 // 3rd. Henrique Avancini - +1 // 4th. Ondrej Cink - +2 // 5th. Stephane Tempier - +17 //
6:54 am PDT Nino Schurter is setting the pace at the front, only Kerschbaumer can go with him.
6:56 am PDT Schruter and Kerschbaumer have broken away, they have put a 10-second gap back to Avancini and Cink.
6:58 am PDT Avancini is closing in but Schurter is sprinting up the climb and puts a decent gap to Kerschbaumer.
7:02 am PDT Kerschbaumer has closed the gap to Schurter, he will be looking to break away on the first climb of the last lap.
7:04 am PDT On the first climb of the final lap Schurter and Kerschbaumer are setting a fast pace, who will be the first to go?
7:07 am PDT With one more climb to go there is nothing between the top two riders.
7:08 am PDT Schurter is attacking at the top of the climb he is riding away with ease.
7:11 am PDT Nino Schurter has created a huge lead and is still pushing hard.
7:13 am PDT Schurter takes the win!
Amazing day for you guys. Your support for Canadian XC racing is top notch!!
Congrats on the great results this weekend !
She really is a tough Dutch; crash in Albstadt, NMNM, and Les Gets. And last year she finished Val di Sole (10), Andorra (4), European Championships (6), and Mont-Sainte-Anne (5) with a broken finger.
Les Gets crash (25min mark): https://www.redbull.com/int-en/events/AP-1XJS6F1KN2111
Broken finger, 2018: https://www.instagram.com/p/Blf5C1Qgn8G/
Interview in Dutch: https://www.vojomag.nl/interview-anne-tauber-de-vrolijkste-spring-in-t-veld-uit-het-mtb-en-schaatspeloton/
@WAKIdesigns : I admit I haven't paid much attention to Batty, not sure what's going on. There were the European championships BMX this weekend. The Dutch got 1-2-3 in the mens and 1-3-4 in the womens elite finals. Looking forwards to the worlds. The ladies got 1-2-3 in the elite and 1st in the juniors last year. They just don't care to make the transition to mtb. Fair enough. BMX is olympic and we have no mountains .
I wonder how her average speed compares this year to last.
For some time now Emily has been the top female rider on the Trek Factory squad.
I think with Jolanda joining the team it has ripped the wind from Emily's sails.
She just may be feeling like she's been demoted. In essence she's not doing well mentally with being relegated to number two.
Just a theory but it wouldn't be the first time these type of circumstances have lowered the performance of the individual who's been displaced from the top seat at the table. It can be a real confidence shaker.
1. keto diet having adverse effects
2. feeling slighted after tough negotiations with Trek and then finding out Trek signed her rival, Jolanda.
3. burnout from her most successful, but most demanding season of her career, 2018. Batty wanted time off, but Trek wouldn't allow it.
4. poor strategy/coaching; an inability to make proper adjustments early season or even mid-season. Unless the rest of the field has made a quantum leap in speed and power, it's far more likely that Batty's performance has dropped off drastically and her coach or her team or Batty herself, could not negotiate time off or some strategy for recovery.
So the relationship between Emily & Trek has been broken, now she moves on and builds something with a new team and hopefully comes back better.
Either way, I doubt Trek would drop her for the 2020 season. Not sure if she's going to compete in the Olympics but if she does, it would be a horribly shitty thing to do. And acting like that (as a brand) is getting you more negative publicity than a whole season of podiums would set straight. Especially with this aging population of mtb fans, brands are now getting props for supporting a legend (like Sabine Spitz or ACC) or their kids (Carpenter, Shandro etc). You can't get away with ditching an athlete after one poor season.
In team sports, it is common practice to rebuild with a new coach and/or roster if their current personnel can't quite get over the hump to win a championship. It's called "rebuilding." Meaning, tearing it all down and building it back up again into something (hopefully) superior.
Trek is signaling that they want a champion. Jolanda is their champion. I do think Emily would be better off with a different team and/or a change of coaching. However, Emily's coach is her husband and Trek realizes that Emily has one of the largest fanbases in the sport, regardless of gender or discipline, so changes are not likely.
Sometimes, a change of scenery is required when the pressure gets to be a bit too much or things aren't working out. Kevin Durant won two championships with the Warriors but he was unsatisfied with his relationship with the coach or players and switched teams. Kawhi Leonard switched teams and won a championship but he wanted to be in LA and switched teams again.
Mountain bike racers don't have nearly the leverage but at some point, when there is mutual dissatisfaction, it may be preferable to change teams instead of trying to grind it out and tough out an increasingly unpleasant situation.
Ultimately, I believe Batty is suffering burn out from an extremely challenging 2018 season, but for whatever reason was unwilling to take a break for at least part of the year and is now suffering the consequences.
As I have stated before, we are all speculating to some degree, piecing together bits of info available in the media with our own previous knowledge of how athletes and teams operate to arrive at a "best guess" as to what's going on. None of this is even close to being definitive but there is a lot of documented evidence out there.
For me, its largely a matter of curiosity, and perhaps helping others to gain some insight into what's going on with elite athletes.
A good example, go back a year when Kate and Annika where teammates. See how many videos or articles they are in together. They also acted like teammates. Then go try to find any with Emily and Jolanda sitting down together. If you had to make a paycheck off of it you'd starve to death.
Bob Lazar, really? If you want to degrade the conversation to that level you'll have to do it with someone else.
I don't waste my time wrestling with swine.
Trek has been sued by Dave Weagle over the claim that they stole his suspension design (Trek's ABP design). Trek has also bought out a very large percentage of it's competition over the past decades. They've also made a practice of buying out a large number of bike shops over the years as well.
Not to mention, I doubt Trek was very happy with Emily airing out Trek about her grievances with their contract negotiations.
Trek is a billion dollar corporation and they got there with aggressive business practices. They don't play nice and neither does Specialized.
BTW I think Jolanda lost because her glasses were to heavy
It's interesting that the Athertons have spoken openly about at least some of the terms of their contract whereas most mtb racers have said absolutely nothing about contractual terms. The only other racer who has given details about earnings is Aaron Gwin.
All I can say with any certainty is that Batty's relationship with Trek is rocky. It's unfortunate that Batty is struggling this season; it would've been great if she had better results to give her more negotiating leverage if she wanted out.
Batty has more than twice as many followers as Rissveds or Langvad; and about the same following as Kate Courtney, Jolanda Neff and Rachel Atherton, all far more decorated. She is as popular and as marketable as most any racer aside from Nino Schurter in the mtb world with significantly lesser results.
It's an odd conundrum for Batty and Trek both; she is uber popular even without any World Cup victories. There is definitely some internal tension. Neither side is satisfied but each benefits so much from the other there's little incentive to negotiate a release from contract which both parties seem to want.
1. post race interviews with riders that place 1, 2, or 3
2. occasional pre-race interviews with top ranking riders, usually just 1 or 2 at most
3. personality/lifestyle coverage of a handful (at most) of elite riders, usually one a year
4. an annual (at most) interview with pink bike
As far as I can tell, 100% of these interviews are conducted by red bull and/or pink bike. The rest can only be gleaned from whatever spin or background information the riders themselves share on social media, which is usually full of the typical cliches.
One thing I should add is that as I stated, Batty admitted she had a contentious contract negotiation, but she also claims that the stress from these negotiations affected her performance adversely. So she is on the record stating that her relationship with her own sponsor was difficult enough as to affect her performance. There is little doubt that their signing Neff has had a similar effect.
Yeah so Batty stated first hand that she isn't happy with her relation with Trek. She hasn't said anything about Jolanda, she hasn't explained whether or not her performance is worse than she expected it to be and what the cause was. It could be what you mentioned, it could be something different. Heck, she could be pregnant (not meant to introduce another rumor). Again, if she wants to tell, she will. Until then, let's accept that we just don't know.
But this is not communist Russia. There is a little bit of freedom of speech remaining, as long as pink bike allows. What do you suggest we talk about on a mountain bike racing forum? Tic tac toe? How to change out transmission fluid? The best EDM festivals in Malaysia?
However, the men race 8 laps vs 7 for the women, which is an extra 3.6 Km. The most likely scenario is that Kate would've finished last in the men's race.
Is Elisabeth Brandau sponsored by the Thirst Mutilator?
Meanwhile, Kate seems to lay low between 2 and 5, until she feels comfortable making her break. This seems like the smarter strategy. Let your opponents fight the wind for a few laps, save energy, then try to get away.
He had an off race last season at KoppenbergCross, coming way down. That course has a brutal hill every lap, and starts up the hill. Sometimes that immediate effort he seems to go too deep, then takes a while to recover.
I've heard of and seen much worse in the pack: racers punching and elbowing competitors is not unheard of.
In real time it looks unintentional, but slowed down it looks intentional... eyes on Kate the whole time and doesn't aim away.
You are mistaken if you think these girls are devoted to promoting peace, harmony and namaste 24/7. Sports is sublimated warfare.
They are not middle schoolers, but it's not fun time in a kindergarten playground either. Don't be naive: these women are extremely competitive and it can and does spill over into open hostility and aggression.
There is a story about Kate where she was punched by a fellow competitor in mountain bike race. Fierce competition is the norm in mountain biking.
Stop being politically correct and naive: we don't need to pretend that these girls are perfect little princesses.
Nino: "hold my water bottle..."