Pia Sundstedt (Fin) at World Cup Round 1 on way to overall victory (Image credit: MTB World Cup)
451 racers competed on Sunday in Oisans, France, in marathon races. The 100km distance between Deux-Alpes and Bourg d'Oisans served as the third and final round of the Nissan UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Cup.
Frenchman Thomas Dietsch (Gewiss Bianchi) was the clear winner of the final round. He crossed the line just over three minutes in front of Austrian Alban Lakata (Trek-VW) in the 100km race. Dietsch also keeps his top spot in the final World Cup standings with 610 points, ahead of two runners-up Italian Massimo De Bertolis (Full-Dynamix-R.S.M) with 540 points and Lakata with 480 points.
In the women's race, Finland's Pia Sundstedt (Gewiss Bianchi) left the rest of the women's field behind, finishing more than 13 minutes ahead of her nearest rival Switzerland's Esther Süss. With her win, Sundstedt secured the overall World Cup series title with 700 points ahead of Süss and Ivonne Kraft (Germany), who had 600 and 360 points respectively.
Sue George is an editor at Cyclingnews. She coordinates all of the site's mountain bike race coverage and assists with the road, 'cross and track coverage.
