Nael Rouffiac pulled out a gap on the fifth lap of seven to hold firm to the line in Vale di Sole to claim the U23 men's title at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships.
After 1:17:20 of racing the 20-year-old French rider clinched the rainbow jersey with a nine second gap to his compatriot Alix Andre Gallis. At 13 seconds back it was Swiss rider Nicolas Halter in third, who won the short-track.
It was Paul Schehl (Germany), who was a close second in the short-track, that pushed the pace early along with Benjamin Kruger (Germany) but the chase was on behind, and ultimately the pair from Germany fell away from the podium places as Rouffiac, Andre Gallis, Halter and Gustav Pedersen (Denmark) passed the early leaders, with Kruger finishing in fifth and Schehl in sixth.
For winner Rouffiac it was a well-timed move to ramp up his results a level, as while the French rider had been on the podium a number of times at the World Cups this season the top step has been illusive, though he made the move up when it counted most.
The 26.1km event over was the second event on Sunday, with Italy's Valentina Corvi taking the women's U23 title earlier in the day. The women's elite and men's elite XCO races later in the day will round out competition at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships.
More to come ...
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Top 10
Position
Rider
Time
1
Nael Rouffiac (France)
1:17:20
2
Alix Andre Gallis (France)
+09
3
Nicolas Halter (Switzerland)
+13
4
Gustaz Pedersen (Denmark)
+21
5
Benjamin Kruger (Germany)
+32
6
Paul Schehl (Germany)
+58
7
Sivert Ekroll (Norway)
+1:09
8
Alejandro Garcia Vazquez (Spain)
+1:32
9
Lucas Teste (France)
+2:00
10
Manen Rens van Teun (Netherlands)
+2:13
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Simone is a degree-qualified journalist that has accumulated decades of wide-ranging experience while working across a variety of leading media organisations. She joined Cyclingnews as a Production Editor at the start of the 2021 season and has now moved into the role of Australia Editor. Previously she worked as a freelance writer, Australian Editor at Ella CyclingTips and as a correspondent for Reuters and Bloomberg. Cycling was initially purely a leisure pursuit for Simone, who started out as a business journalist, but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport.
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