Aldridge, Schneebeli win Junior XC World titles

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Junior Women

Switzerland won their third title in two days at the Mountain Bike World Championships on Thursday, with Jacqueline Schneebeli winning the Junior women's XCO rainbow jersey.  

Schneebeli and Mona Mitterwallner of Austria rode off the front of the field by the end of the first lap, with Helene Marie Fossesholm (Norway) and Kata Blanka Vas (Hungary) battling further back for the bronze medal.  Schneebeli dropped Mitterwallner going into the final lap to win the title by over a minute, with Fossesholm taking bronze.

"I didn't want to start too fast, because it is quite a long lap, and the uphills were really, really hard.  But when I was in front, I just wanted to stay there," said Schneebeli.

"In the uphill Mona and I were always close together, but on one of the downhills she had a crash and I was able to get a gap."

Junior Men

The Junior men's race at the Mountain Bike World Championships saw Great Britain win their first title on Thursday, with Charlie Aldridge showing that he is fully recovered from a mid-season knee injury.  

Luca Martin of France took silver and Andreas Vittone of Italy won the bronze medal.  

A group of five riders broke clear on the first lap and the podium was going to come from this group, which also included Canadian favourite Carter Woods and Luke Moir of South Africa.  Vittone attacked in the third lap, splitting the group, with Aldridge bridging up to him and dropping his rival on the final lap to win the title.  Martin took second after Vittone crashed, damaging his chain.

"It was a really, really, close race," said Aldridge.  "I was never quite sure who was going to be my main competitor, so I was just watching to see how the race progressed.  But it was really close at the end.  I made a bit of a mistake and he [Vittone] was able to get a bit of a gap, but I was able to catch up to him later and take it to the finish."