Neff wins cross country World Cup in Meribel

Image 1 of 13

The 2014 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup concluded on Sunday with the seventh and final round of the cross country series in Méribel, France. There were no surprises in the overall title, since Jolanda Neff (Liv Pro XC) had won the women's title prior to the final round. However, any World Cup victory is important, and Neff took her third win of the season.

In Méribel, the riders were faced with both steep climbs at altitude and technically difficult descents, demanding both skill and fitness to do well.

Neff ended her World Cup season the way she began it, with a start to finish ride at the front of the race. By the end of the first lap in the six-lap race, Neff had 28 seconds on Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa (Multivan Merida) and Pauline Ferrand Prevot (Liv Pro XC), with Maja Wloszczowska (Liv Pro XC) and Catharine Pendrel (Luna) a further five seconds in arrears.

By the third lap, Pendrel, the winner of the previous round and second in the overall standings, had moved up to join Dahle Flesjaa and Ferrand Prevot in the chase. Pendrel dropped off the pace to eventually finish fourth, while Dahle Flesjaa chased alone after Ferrand Prevot crashed in a rock section and had to briefly stop in the tech zone for assistance. Dahle Flesjaa's gap shrank to 14 seconds by the halfway mark, but that was as close as the Norwegian would get before it stretched out again to 48 seconds at the start of the last lap. Ferrand Prevot dropped Pendrel to take third.

"I went from the beginning and rode the whole race at my own pace," said Neff. "It is a very nice course, quite technical in the descents and I enjoyed it a lot. The start was especially important here because we didn't have a long start loop and then it went into singletrack, so it was even more important to have a good start then in other races."

"It was great to win today, even though I didn't need to for the overall. I'm very happy to win the overall trophy."

Neff won the overall title with 1300 points and three wins for the season. She is youngest ever elite World Cup title winner since she is actually an under 23 aged rider. Pendrel, despite missing the first two rounds due to an early season injury, finished second with 940 points and Tanja Zakelj (Unior Tools), the defending champion, was third with 856, just ahead of Emily Batty (Trek Factory Racing) at 830 points.

Results