Cooper holds off Koretzky to claim U23 XC world title

New Zealand's Anton Cooper took the Under 23 men's Cross-country world title on Friday in Vallnord, Andorra, after a race-long battle with Victor Koretzky (France). Grant Ferguson (Great Britain) rode up through the field to take the bronze medal.

The men's race was shortened by a lap just before the start, after the earlier overtime women's race showed that course conditions from a week of rain were slowing lap times dramatically. While the men mostly missed the rain, the drying mud actually made the rocks and roots more treacherous.

Sam Gaze (New Zealand), the silver medalist in the Eliminator earlier in the week, shot off the front on the opening climb, but he was quickly joined by Cooper and Titouan Carod (France). Koretzky was moving up, but had stopped to let some air out of his tires to improve traction.

When Koretzky joined Cooper at the front it became a two man race to the finish. Cooper would attack on the climbs and Koretzky would pull him back and drop him in the technical descents. But neither could get more then ten seconds on the other.

Behind, Ferguson was moving up, first catching Gaze to move into third and then racing to within sight of the two leaders, but that was as close as he would get.

Cooper and Koretzky went into the final singletrack together and it wasn't until the last short climb 300 metres from the line that Cooper was able to open up a two second gap, which he held to the finish.

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