The fourth XC World Cup of the year provided some incredible racing in Leogang. Kicking off a packed day of racing was the U23s with Puck Pieterse just pulling ahead of Line Burquier by only two seconds. For the U23 Men, Martin Vidaurre Kossmann secured another win with a nearly twenty-second advantage over Simone Avondetto.
In a repeat of the 2021 results, Loana Lecomte took the win in the Elite Women's race with Jenny Rissveds and Laura Stigger once again taking 2nd and 3rd respectively. Loana looks to be back on her unstoppable 2021 form with a commanding win with control of the race from the very start. Series leader Rebecca McConnell didn't have the race she would have wanted crossing the line over three minutes back in 7th. Massive respect goes out to Mona Mitterwallner who was involved in a crash right out of the start and went from dead last to an impressive 15th place finish.
For the Elite Men we saw Mathias Flückiger join Loana Lecomte with a perfect weekend in Austria. Nino Schurter tried his best to stick with Mathias on the last lap but an attack up the second big climb was just too much for the World Champion and a small gap formed that couldn't be closed before the finish line. Alan Hatherly ran an amazing race to hold onto third and stuck within touching distance of the top two for nearly all of the six laps.
Check out the results below.
Results:Elite Women (5 Laps)
1st. Loana Lecomte: 1:15:42
2nd. Jenny Rissveds: +1:13
3rd. Laura Stiger: +1:28
4th. Sina Frei: +1:41
5th. Anne Terpstra: +2:10
Elite Men (6 Laps)
1st. Mathias Flückiger: 1:15:31
2nd. Nino Schurter: +6
3rd. Alan Hatherly: +39
4th. Vlad Dascalu: +45
5th. Maxime Marotte: +1:09
U23 Women (4 Laps)
1st. Puck Pieterse: 1:04:41
2nd. Line Burquier: 1:04:43
3rd. Olivia Onesti: 1:06:11
4th. Sofie Pedersen: 1:06:39
5th. Luisa Daubermann: 1:07:31
U23 Men (5 Laps)
1st. Martin Vidaurre Kossmann: 1:06:54
2nd. Simone Avondetto: 1:07:13
3rd. Filippo Fontana: 1:07:28
4th. Luca Schätti: 1:08:23
5th. Janis Baumann: 1:08:42
Full Results:Elite WomenElite MenU23 WomenU23 Men
Live Race Updates:
The 2022 World Cup XC racing continues with the fourth round in Leogang.
The Women's racing kicks off on Red Bull TV at: 12:00pm CEST (3:00am PST, 6:00am EST, 11:00am BST)
The Men will start on Red Bull TV at: 14:30pm CEST (5:30am PST, 8:30am EST, 13:30pm BST)
3:20 am PDT
The Elite Women are off but there is a huge crash out of the start that has taken out Mona Mitterwallner.
3:22 am PDT
Jenny Rissveds is leading the race so far on the shorter start lap.
3:24 am PDT
Jolanda Neff now sprints into the lead up the first big climb, she is closely followed by Loana Lecomte.
3:29 am PDT
After the start lap the top five riders are:
1st. Jolanda Neff: 7:45
2nd. Loana Lecomte: +0
3rd. Jenny Rissveds: +2
4th. Rebecca McConnell: +5
5th. Laura Stiger: +5
3:31 am PDT
Loana Lecomte and Jenny Rissveds are already building a decent gap up the first climb of lap one.
3:33 am PDT
The gap from the two leaders to the chasing group has grown to almost thirty seconds up the long first climb.
3:42 am PDT
After the first of five laps the top five riders are:
1st. Loana Lecomte: 21:02
2nd. Jenny Rissveds: +1
3rd. Laura Stiger: +37
4th. Sina Frei: +41
5th. Rebecca McConnell: +42
3:44 am PDT
Loana Lecomte is putting the power down on the tough climb at the start of lap two as she pulls ahead of Jenny Rissveds by 10 seconds.
3:46 am PDT
After a crash at the start of the race, Mona Mitterwallner has made her way from last place to 34th.
3:47 am PDT
At split one near the top of the first big climb, Loana Lecomte is 20 seconds ahead.
3:56 am PDT
After lap two the top five riders are:
1st. Loana Lecomte: 34:31
2nd. Jenny Rissveds: +29
3rd. Laura Stiger: +1:04
4th. Sina Frei: +1:04
5th. Rebecca McConnell: +1:24
4:03 am PDT
The gap from Loana to Jenny seems to be holding at around 40 seconds.
4:10 am PDT
After lap three the top five riders are:
1st. Loana Lecomte: 48:11
2nd. Jenny Rissveds: +47
3rd. Laura Stiger: +1:24
4th. Sina Frei: +1:24
5th. Anne Terpstra: +1:50
4:14 am PDT
Rebecca McConnell is struggling to find speed today as she is sitting back in 7th place.
4:15 am PDT
Mona Mitterwallner has had an impressive ride so far to have ridden back to 19th after being last following a crash at the start of the race.
4:24 am PDT
Going into the last lap the top five riders are:
1st. Loana Lecomte: 1:01:59
2nd. Jenny Rissveds: +52
3rd. Laura Stiger: +1:35
4th. Sina Frei: +1:35
5th. Anne Terpstra: +2:00
4:29 am PDT
At split one on the final lap the gap between Loana Lecomte and Jenny Rissveds has grown to 1:08. It will be very hard to close this without a mistake from Loana.
4:34 am PDT
Laura Stigger has launched an attack on the second big climb to try and build a gap ahead of Sina Frei in the battle for third place.
4:35 am PDT
Loana Lecomte makes it a perfect weekend and secures her second in a row Elite World Cup win in Leogang.
4:38 am PDT
The top five Elite Women are:
1st. Loana Lecomte: 1:15:42
2nd. Jenny Rissveds: +1:13
3rd. Laura Stiger: +1:28
4th. Sina Frei: +1:41
5th. Anne Terpstra: +2:10
5:50 am PDT
Henrique Avancini is the fastest off the line and leads the riders into the shorter start loop.
5:52 am PDT
Vlad Dascalu is now upping the pace at the front as the riders head to the top of the start loop.
5:58 am PDT
After the start loop the top five riders are:
1st. Vlad Dascalu: 6:34
2nd. Alan Hatherly: +1
3rd. Anton Cooper: +1
4th. Henrique Avancini: +1
5th. Jordan Sarrou: +1
5:59 am PDT
Nino Schurter pushes through to the front to lead up the massive first climb on lap one.
6:04 am PDT
A small gap is starting to form between Nino Schurter and the chasing riders. It's only three seconds but he is pushing hard and any gap requires the chasing riders to go harder to catch up.
6:05 am PDT
Alan Hatherly and Mathias Flückiger have put the power down as they realise the gap needs to be closed to Nino.
6:06 am PDT
Alan Hatherly, Vlad Dascalu, Mathias Flückiger and Anton Cooper have closed the gap but it took a decent effort to close in on Nino.
6:09 am PDT
After the first lap the top five riders are:
1st. Nino Schurter: 18:09
2nd. Alan Hatherly: +1
3rd. Vlad Dascalu: +1
4th. Mathias Flückiger: +2
5th. Anton Cooper: +4
6:17 am PDT
Nino Schurter is sprinting up the second big climb, this is a very early point in the race to be launching an attack. The top four stick with him but it will have taken a lot of energy.
6:20 am PDT
After the second lap the top five riders are:
1st. Nino Schurter: 29:43
2nd. Vlad Dascalu: +1
3rd. Alan Hatherly: +2
4th. Mathias Flückiger: +2
5th. Maxime Marotte: +10
6:21 am PDT
Maxime Marotte has fought hard to close in on the leading group, we now have five riders at the front with Anton Cooper not far behind.
6:23 am PDT
Mathias Flückiger launches a massive attack up the first climb. Nino Schurter smashes his pedals to keep up but this is a ridiculous pace up such a long and steep climb.
6:24 am PDT
Mathias Flückiger has opened a small gap to Nino Schurter but the chasing group is now around 10 seconds back.
6:32 am PDT
After the third lap the top five riders are:
1st. Mathias Flückiger: 41:16
2nd. Nino Schurter: +1
3rd. Alan Hatherly: +2
4th. Maxime Marotte: +16
5th. Vlad Dascalu: +16
6:43 am PDT
After the fourth lap the top five riders are:
1st. Nino Schurter: 52:49
2nd. Mathias Flückiger: +0
3rd. Alan Hatherly: +8
4th. Maxime Marotte: +30
5th. Vlad Dascalu: +31
6:55 am PDT
Going into the final lap the top five riders are:
1st. Mathias Flückiger: 1:04:34
2nd. Nino Schurter: +0
3rd. Alan Hatherly: +7
4th. Maxime Marotte: +25
5th. Vlad Dascalu: +28
6:56 am PDT
The top five riders have come closer together over the past laps suggesting Nino and Mathias have slowed down. How much power do they have left for a big attack on the last lap?
6:58 am PDT
Mathias Flückiger and Nino Schurter have definitely picked up the pace as the gap to Alan Hatherly in third grows from seven to 23 seconds up the first climb.
7:02 am PDT
Mathias Flückiger is attacking up the second climb but Nino Schurter goes with him.
7:03 am PDT
A gap is forming between the top two now with Mathias having a four-second advantage. This isn't the end of Nino's chance but he will need to close this before it gets any bigger.
7:05 am PDT
Mathias Flückiger takes the win in Leogang and has a perfect weekend!
7:07 am PDT
The top five Elite Men are:
1st. Mathias Flückiger: 1:15:31
2nd. Nino Schurter: +6
3rd. Alan Hatherly: +39
4th. Vlad Dascalu: +45
5th. Maxime Marotte: +1:09
The women had an incredible era of parity from 2016-2020 where any of a dozen great riders could win, and there were lots of battles late into races.
As far as Bec being off the pace—it's almost impossible to peak that high for more than a couple months. It looks like she's coming down from her peak and Loana is on the way up. That's just how it goes. Hopefully Bec can recover a bit and then make another run late in the year.
Looking forward to the future when the DH coverage integrates better run-to-run comparisons like overlaying riders in the same shots.
He finish 12th just 17 seconds out of the Top 10.
When was the last time he was even close to the Top 10?
Prediction for Lenzerheide. Nino, he's fit, he's hungry for #34 and it's his home crowd.
“The new Lefty Ocho features the all-new Stop Lock brake mount, a funky new quick release system that releases the caliper and mount by holding down a button and turning the 5mm-head bolt 180-degrees.”
I ran the older Lefty 2.0 before and now SID. There’s no way the brake caliber could loose because of the two Allen bolts. Am I missing something here?
Had the brake caliber stayed on, she only need to twist the handlebar and get back chasing
www.pinkbike.com/news/cannondale-lefty-ocho-review-2018.html
Lecomte
Terpstra
McConnell
Risveds
Mitterwallner
Batten
Keller
Neff
Genuinely curious—I missed the race and haven’t watched the replay yet
Sure, unfortunate result but it's how you do on your bad days that makes your championship.