Elisabeth Osl wins World Cup after skipping last week's World Championship

Elisabeth Osl (Central Ghost Team) decided to skip the World Championships last weekend in Australia to focus on the World Cup, and it paid dividends on Sunday at round seven in Champéry, Switzerland, when she decisively won and took the lead in the overall standings with one race remaining. Anna Szafraniec (JBG-2 Pro MTB Team) finished second, with Lene Byberg (Specialized Factory Racing), in the World Cup leader's jersey, finishing third.

The top North American finisher was Canadian National Champion Catharine Pendrel (Luna) in 10th, followed one spot behind by Marie-Helene Premont (Maxxis-Rocky Mountain). Pendrel moves up to third in the World Cup standings, behind Osl and Byberg.

The five lap race began with sprint on pavement into the long 1,200-metre start loop. Traditional fast starter Eva Lechner (Colnago Cap Arreghini) took the lead into the first lap, closely followed by Swiss champion Katrin Leumann, Osl's teammate Sabine Spitz and Osl.

A number of top riders were struggling, including newly crowned World Champion Irina Kalentieva (Topeak Ergon), Byberg, Marga Fullana (Massi) and Pendrel. Kalentieva crashed on the second lap, landing on her knee, and was taken to hospital; it was an inauspicious start to her reign as World Champion. Fullana pulled out on the same lap with, as it turned out, a back injury. According to her team, she crashed in training two days before the race, damaging a vertebra. She will now see a specialist to assess the severity of the injury.

Osl and Lechner moved into the lead on the first lap, already 40 seconds ahead of Leumann, Szafraniec and Spitz by the start of the second lap, with Byberg 1:21 back and seeing her World Cup lead disappearing. Osl took the lead on the second lap, but it was a slim five to 10 second gap that did not change until just before the start of the last lap, when Lechner flatted, letting Szafraniec move into second place. The Italian managed to get to the pit in fourth and hold onto that spot, but her chances of winning were finished.

Byberg had a strong race coming from behind. She moved up to join a chase group of Spitz, Pendrel and Leumann mid-race, and then dropped them to move into third. However, anything other than a win would have dropped her out of the lead, so she goes into the final round 65 points behind Osl, who will be racing in front of her native Austrian fans.

"Yesterday I woke up with a cold, and my head felt thick," said Osl, "so I didn't think it was possible to win here. When Eva and I were away in front, I was being more cautious in the technical sections, because it would have been easy to make a mistake, and lose a lot of time."

"But I was faster [than Lechner] on the climb, and when I went into the lead, it wasn't really an attack. I could see that she was at her limit and I was still able to go harder. The gap was small until Eva flatted, and it was only then that I knew that I could win."

"It is really cool to win, and become the leader as the World Cup goes to my home country. This makes me happy with my decision not to go to the World Championships."

The final lap took its toll on Pendrel, who slipped down to 10th.

"That was really hard!," she exclaimed after crossing the line. "I had a good race, I was climbing and descending well, but I think we are staring to see some riders coming into form who weren't as strong earlier into the season. This just shows the depth of the women's field."

Emily Batty (Team Canada) finished 20th, the fourth Under 23 rider. Her results leaves her in second overall in the Under 23 standings, 33 points behind World Champion Aleksandra Dawidowicz (CCC Polkowice), who was ninth in today's race and the highest-placing Under 23 racer. Batty goes into the final round with a 31-point advantage over third placed Caroline Mani (Team Bikepark.ch).

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