Schurter wins his first race of the season in Italy

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The colors of the rainbow lit up a typical winter day at the Maremma Cup cross country race in Italy. Those were the colors of World Champion Nino Schurter, who won the elite men's race.

In the fourth of six laps, Schurter went the the front, leaving Italian champion Marco Aurelio Fontana behind for an eventual second place. In the women's, race, Italy's Eva Lechner, took on former downhill champion Marielle Saner, for the victory.

The men's race

The Italian Fontana tried to escape, ahead of the other favorites, as early as the second lap, but his attempt was unsucessful as Schurter went with him. The two stayed together, riding the same tempo, until the fourth lap.

That's when Schurter accelerated with a strong effort to gain a lead of several meters, which would prove decisive. The Scott Swisspower rider won with a time of 1:48:29 after extending his lead to 21 seconds over Cannondale's Fontana.

Ralph Naef did the entire race in the shadow of two pacemakers and finished third ahead of Tony Long in fourth. Longo, who set a fast pace early on, rode practically the entire race alone. Swiss champion Florian Vogel, Schurter's teammate, had expected more, but had to be content with fifth place.

Swiss Patrik Gallati proved the best of the Under 23 racers. Junior World Champion Gerard Kerschbaumer made his debut in the under 23 category, finishing in 20th overall and as the second best Under 21 rider.

The women's race

At the start of the women's race, Eva Lechner tried to gain an advantage, but her teammate Nathalie Schneitter stuck to her wheel and went to the front.

In the third lap, Schneitter fell victim to a flat and lost substantial time when changing her tire. Lechner, in turn, also had a flat tire, but she managed to hold off the challenge from the Swiss Marielle Saner Guinchard by nearly two minutes. Third place went to the Czech rider Tereza Huríková. Judith Pollinger was fourth, and Virginie Pointet took fifth.

The juniors' races

Swiss Lisa Mitterbauer finished as top junior woman.

Andrea Righettini gave the spectators in the head-to-head race with the Swiss Roger Waldner in the junior men's race. The latter suffered a fall in the first lap, letting Righettini enjoy his "ride" to a winning margin of over four minutes. Roberto Panzeri was third at more than seven minutes back.

The athletes gets a rest day on Monday and on Tuesday, it'll be back to the starting line for another kermesse in Porto Santo Stefano.

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