MTB Worlds: Ferrand-Prévot, Gaze win short track titles in Les Gets

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Day 3 of competition at the 2022 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships concluded on Friday evening in Les Gets, France, with the crowd-pleasing XCC. French fans had even more reason to be pleased, with their own Pauline Ferrand-Prévot winning the women's world title, while Sam Gaze of New Zealand took the men's world title.

Only in its second year as a rainbow jersey event, the Short Track runs for 20 minutes of extreme effort on a cross country circuit. The Les Gets circuit featured off-camber switchback climbs and multiple rock gardens to test the riders. 

The women's race quickly came down to a core group of nine riders, with no one willing to attack too early. Rain began falling halfway through the race, making the grass corners and the rocks slippery. 

Ferrand Prévot sat consistently in the top-4 but out of the lead, until the seventh lap (of nine), when she attacked aggressively, opening a gap of 15 seconds on the chasers. Greta Seiwald (Italy) and Annie Last (Great Britain) led the early chase but faded, and no one else could close the gap, as Ferrand-Prévot cruised into victory. Alessandra Keller (Switzerland) took silver, 18 seconds back, with Gwendalyn Gibson (USA) finishing third at 21 second back.

"It's crazy, you know, I can't believe it," said Ferrand-Prévot about winning before a home crowd. "I saw that [the course] was not super fast, so I just wanted to stay on wheels. I had to wait, wait, but with three laps to go I made an attack and went full gas. I was able to make a gap and I tried to keep a good pace but be smooth on the rock gardens. I was feeling good in the last few days, so now it is one more gold medal in the pocket. I'm really happy."

'A dream come true' says Gaze

The rain had stopped by the time the men started, however, it left the rock surfaces extremely slippery, with multiple crashes happening through the race. 

A large group of 15 formed at the front, with surges fracturing it before the leaders backed off and the group came back together. 

This held until Lap 6, when Henrique Avancini (Brazil) crashed in the second last rock garden of the lap while in the lead. Multiple riders crashed into him or were forced to stop and run, splitting the lead group and forcing them to chase. 

On the final lap, Gaze attacked with defending champion Chris Blevins (USA) the only one to stay with him. 

Coming into that same rock garden that Avancini crashed in, Blevins went down, leaving Gaze free to cruise to the line. Swiss riders Filippo Colombo and Thomas Litscher took the remaining podium spots, finishing 3 seconds and 7 seconds behind Gaze respectively.

"The rain that came down before the race made it very slippery," commented Gaze, "and made it hard to keep position. Guys were crashing in front of me so I pulled it back for the first half. I knew it would come down to the last climb. Chris [Blevins] was super strong today, but he had a bit of a mishap on that last corner. Super happy, super proud ... this is a dream come true."