France takes under-23 XCO women's title while Italy scores U23 win for men at MTB Worlds

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The final day of racing on Sunday at the Mountain Bike World Championships in Les Gets, France, opened with the XCO races for women and men. France took their fourth title of the Championships with a win by Line Burquier in under-23 women, while Italy's Simone Avondetto won his nations first title in the men's U23 race.

The 3.9 kilometre circuit was dry and dusty, despite rain in the previous 36 hours. Rough roots and rocks made the course slippery, and riders had to be cautious in the corners. The women rode five laps and the men six.

Italy's Giada Specia and Ronja Blochlinger of Switzerland opened a small gap on the first lap, but by the end of lap 2 Burquier was firmly in charge, and steadily increased her lead in the second half of the race to win by 43 seconds. 

Puck Pieterse of the Netherlands battled with Sofie Pedersen (Denmark), Giada and Blochlinger in the second and third laps before finally breaking clear on the final lap to take the silver medal. Pedersen won the bronze medal.

The men's race was expected to be a battle between the two dominant riders on the World Cup circuit - defending champion Martin Kossman of Chile and Carter Woods of Canada. Woods fell off the pace early, while Kossman rode at the front for the first half of the race. However, the Chilean couldn't open much of a gap and began to fade on the fourth lap, when first Avondetto, and then Mathis Azzaro (France), overtook him. 

A lap later and Luca Schatti (Switzerland) had knocked Kossman down to fourth, where he finished. Azzaro took silver and Schatti bronze.