Van der Poel takes second MTB World Cup win in Val di Sole

Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus) took the second Mountain Bike World Cup win of his career on Sunday, at Round 5 in Val di Sole, Italy. His win moved him from third to second in the overall standings, behind Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM), who was third on the day, behind Mathias Flueckiger (Thomus RN).

After an extremely muddy short track on Friday, racers were back to good weather for the XCO on Sunday. The Val di Sole course, site of the 2008 world championships, has 190 metres of climbing per lap, and is known for some of the longest and steepest climbing on the World Cup circuit, with early leaders often fading in the final lap.

By the end of the start loop, the race was down to three riders after a scorching fast start - van der Poel, Schurter and Henrique Avancini (Cannondale Factory). Flueckiger bridged across, as did Gerhard Kerschbaumer (Torpado Ursus) and Stephane Tempier (Bianchi Countervail). However, when Flueckiger upped the pace on the final climb of the lap, only Schurter and van der Poel could go with him.

The three rode together for the rest of the race, setting a relentless pace. Van der Poel and Flueckiger appeared to be climbing better than Schurter, but the world champion used his bike handling skills to quickly rejoin them on every descent. It wasn't until the final lap when the trio broke apart, with a massive attack by van der Poel on the first climb. Schurter was the first to get dropped and then Flueckiger, as the new European champion kept the pressure on for the entire climb. By the top he was ten seconds ahead of Flueckiger and 20 seconds in front of Schurter. He padded that on the remaining two climbs to finish 18 seconds in front of Flueckiger, with Schurter at 53 seconds.

"It was really hard," admitted van der Poel. "I felt really good from the beginning of the race, but I think Flueckiger and Schurter were also feeling good, because the pace was incredibly high. When one of us wasn't riding full gas, another one was, so the pace never dropped, making it a fast and hard race. I attacked [on the last lap] because I wanted to be first in the descents; I was the only one of us taking the B-line on the second drop, so I wanted to have some gap before that. I felt there was still something left in the tank, so I just tried to go full gas on the first climb, and I got a gap. It has been a good weekend for me as the European champion."

Schurter's overall lead was not in danger, with a 206 point lead going into the race, however, van der Poel has now cut that to 116 points. Avancini remains in third, but Flueckiger has closed to within 22 points of the Brazilian. 

Results

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#Rider Name (Country) TeamResult
1Mathieu Van der Poel (Ned)1:20:47
2Mathias Flueckiger (Swi)0:00:18
3Nino Schurter (Swi)0:00:53
4Henrique Avancini (Bra)0:01:46
5Luca Braidot (Ita)0:02:01
6Milan Vader (Ned)0:02:42
7Daniele Braidot (Ita)0:02:47
8Thomas Litscher (Swi)0:02:55
9Gerhard Kerschbaumer (Ita)0:03:10
10Stephane Tempier (Fra)0:03:12
11Manuel Fumic (Ger)0:03:15
12Nadir Colledani (Ita)0:03:29
13Anton Cooper (NZl)0:03:42
14Gioele Bertolini (Ita)0:03:47
15Kevin Panhuyzen (Bel)0:03:54
16Victor Koretzky (Fra)0:03:59
17Matthias Stirnemann (Swi)Row 16 - Cell 2
18Reto Indergand (Swi)0:04:35
19Erik Hægstad (Nor)0:04:41
20Lukas Flueckiger (Swi)0:04:42
21Georg Egger (Ger)0:04:45
22Luca Schwarzbauer (Ger)0:04:59
23Carlos Coloma Nicolas (Spa)0:05:04
24Fabian Giger (Swi)0:05:08
25Nicholas Pettina' (Ita)0:05:17
26Lars Forster (Swi)0:05:28
27Andrea Tiberi (Ita)0:05:41
28Jordan Sarrou (Fra)0:05:49
29Daan Soete (Bel)0:05:59
30David Valero Serrano (Spa)0:06:06
31Karl Markt (Aut)0:06:21
32Jens Schuermans (Bel)0:06:31
33Andri Frischknecht (Swi)Row 32 - Cell 2
34Titouan Carod (Fra)0:06:47
35Anton Sintsov (Rus)0:06:54
36Markus Schulte-lünzum (Ger)0:06:56
37Martin Loo (Est)Row 36 - Cell 2
38Martin Haring (Svk)0:07:00
39Simon Vitzthum (Swi)0:07:03
40Gregor Raggl (Aut)0:07:07
41Jan Škarnitzl (Cze)0:07:09
42Leandre Bouchard (Can)0:07:10
43Thomas Griot (Fra)Row 42 - Cell 2
44András Parti (Hun)0:07:20
45Bartlomiej Wawak (Pol)0:07:27
46Kohei Yamamoto (Jpn)0:07:30
47Samuel Gaze (NZl)0:07:51
48Daniel James Mcconnell (Aus)0:08:02
49Maximilian Foidl (Aut)0:08:12
50Maxime Marotte (Fra)0:08:18
51Florian Chenaux (Swi)0:08:23
52Pablo Rodriguez Guede (Spa)0:08:37
53Christian Pfäffle (Ger)0:08:42
54Sven Strähle (Ger)0:08:45
55Maxime Loret (Fra)0:08:47
56Marcel Guerrini (Swi)0:08:55
57Lorenzo Pellegrini (Ita)0:09:01
58Mário Costa (Por)0:09:24
59Moritz Bscherer (Aut)0:09:38
60Noah Blöchlinger (Swi)0:09:50
61Ben Oliver (NZl)0:09:59
62Léo Lhomme (Swi)0:10:09
63Jaroslav Kulhavý (Cze)0:10:22
64Nicola Rohrbach (Swi)0:10:31
65Andrin Beeli (Swi)0:10:39
66Ivan Filatov (Rus)0:10:45
67Peter Disera (Can)0:10:53
68Martins Blums (Lat)0:10:57
69Lukáš Kobes (Cze)0:11:26
70Mirko Tabacchi (Ita)0:11:52
71Davide Clerici (Ita)0:12:02
72Denis Fumarola (Ita)0:13:30
73Jakob Hartmann (Ger)Row 72 - Cell 2
74Cameron Ivory (Aus)Row 73 - Cell 2
75Andrew L'Esperance (Can)Row 74 - Cell 2
76Erno Mccrae (Bel)Row 75 - Cell 2
77Erik Groen (Ned)Row 76 - Cell 2
78Grant Ferguson (GBr)Row 77 - Cell 2
79David Menut (Fra)Row 78 - Cell 2
80Cyril Bourdon (Fra)Row 79 - Cell 2
81Dmytro Titarenko (Ukr)Row 80 - Cell 2
82Sebastian Jayne (Aus)Row 81 - Cell 2
83Edoardo Bonetto (Ita)Row 82 - Cell 2
84Severin Disch (Swi)Row 83 - Cell 2
85Tomáš Paprstka (Cze)Row 84 - Cell 2
86Guilherme Gotardelo Muller (Bra)Row 85 - Cell 2
87Lucas Dubau (Fra)Row 86 - Cell 2
88Maximilian Holz (Ger)Row 87 - Cell 2
89Bruno Vitali (Swi)Row 88 - Cell 2
90Jesus Torres Perez (Spa)Row 89 - Cell 2
91Florian Vogel (Swi)Row 90 - Cell 2
92Zsombor Palumby (Hun)Row 91 - Cell 2
93Bastien Rolland (Fra)Row 92 - Cell 2
94Thibaud Saint Guilhem (Fra)Row 93 - Cell 2
95Catriel Soto (Arg)Row 94 - Cell 2
96Franco Nicolas Adaos Alvarez (Chi)Row 95 - Cell 2
97Pau Romero Barcelo (Spa)Row 96 - Cell 2
98Joshua Dubau (Fra)Row 97 - Cell 2
99Mattia Setti (Ita)Row 98 - Cell 2
100Tristan Lipani (Fra)Row 99 - Cell 2
101Dimitrios Antoniadis (Gre)Row 100 - Cell 2
102Guillaume Desette (Fra)Row 101 - Cell 2
103Robbert De Nijs (Ned)Row 102 - Cell 2
104Alessio Zamuner (Ita)Row 103 - Cell 2
105Raphael Gagne (Can)Row 104 - Cell 2
106Maël Desrieux (Fra)Row 105 - Cell 2
107Oleksandr Koniaiev (Ukr)Row 106 - Cell 2
DNFSebastian Fini Carstensen (Den)Row 107 - Cell 2
DNFJan Vastl (Cze)Row 108 - Cell 2
DNFMartin Gluth (Ger)Row 109 - Cell 2
DNFLuiz Henrique Cocuzzi (Bra)Row 110 - Cell 2
DNFRicardo Marinheiro (Por)Row 111 - Cell 2
DNFZdeněk Vobecký (Cze)Row 112 - Cell 2
DNFAlan Hatherly (RSA)Row 113 - Cell 2
DNFRaphael Gay (Fra)Row 114 - Cell 2
DNFMárton Dina (Hun)Row 115 - Cell 2
DNFBen Zwiehoff (Ger)Row 116 - Cell 2
DNFFlorian Trigo (Fra)Row 117 - Cell 2
DNFFelipe Rodrigo Garry Rojas (Chi)Row 118 - Cell 2
DNFBenjamin Inauen (Swi)Row 119 - Cell 2
DNFOndřej Cink (Cze)Row 120 - Cell 2
DNSWout Alleman (Bel)Row 121 - Cell 2

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