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Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM MTB Racing) celebrates his win (Image credit: Robert Jones)

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Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM MTB Racing) and Stephane Tempier (Bianchi Countervail) (Image credit: Robert Jones)

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Top team, Cannondale Factory Racing XC (Image credit: Rob Jones)

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Stephane Tempier, Nino Schurter, Mathieu van der Poel (Image credit: Rob Jones)

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Jordan Sarrou (Fra) KMC-Ekoi-SRSuntour (Image credit: Rob Jones)

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Marco Aurelio Fontana (Ita) Bianchi Countervail (Image credit: Rob Jones)

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Henrique Avancini (Bra) Cannondale Factory Racing XC (Image credit: Rob Jones)

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Maxime Marotte (Fra) Cannondale Factory Racing XC (Image credit: Rob Jones)

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Nino Schurter (Sui) Scott-SRAM MTB Racing (Image credit: Rob Jones)

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Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) Corendon-Circus (Image credit: Rob Jones)

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Podium: Antoine Philipp, Joshua Dubau, Jonas Lindberg (Image credit: Rob Jones)

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Joshua Dubau wins U23 Men's XC (Image credit: Rob Jones)

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Julien Absalon was presented with gifts by Nino Schurter on behalf of the UCI (Image credit: Rob Jones)

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Podium: Maxime Marotte, Stephane Tempier, Nino Schurter, Mathieu van der Poel, Jordan Sarrou (Image credit: Robert Jones)

World champion Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM) had something to prove on Sunday, in Albstadt, Germany, at round 2 of the Mountain Bike World Cup. He had lost the first round of 2018 after sweeping the Series in 2017, and then did not finish the Short Track race on Friday, relegating him to the third row of the start grid.

By the end of the start loop, Schurter was firmly in control at the front of the race. He was joined for the first laps by cyclo-cross pro turned mountain biker Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus), Maxime Marotte (Cannondale Factory), Mathias Flueckiger (Thomus-RN Racing), Lars Forster (BMC) and round 1 winner Sam Gaze (Specialized).

Gaze flatted and eventually dropped out of the race, while Flueckiger also flatted and Forster could not handle the pace, and were replaced by Stephane Tempier (Bianchi Countervail) and Jordan Sarrou (KMC-Ekoi-SR Suntour).

When Schurter ramped up the pressure on the fourth lap, only Tempier could go with him, leaving van der Poel and Marotte chasing 13 seconds back. Schurter dropped Tempier on the penultimate fifth lap, while van der Poel dropped Marotte for third.

"It's a really good feeling to have my first World Cup win of the year," said Schurter. "I was quite disappointed after the Short Track, with the hard luck with a mechanical. It's a nice relief [to win]. The first lap I was lucky, I was able to ride well and into the first corner I was at the front. It's important to be at the front. Third row was okay, but it definitely makes it more difficult."

Schurter leads the standings with 450 points, a slim 15-point margin over Van der Poel, with Marotte at 385 points and former leader Gaze at 350 points.

Results

#	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Nino Schurter (Swi)	1:28:07
2	Stephane Tempier (Fra)	0:00:16
3	Mathieu Van Der Poel (Ned)	0:00:40
4	Maxime Marotte (Fra)	0:00:50
5	Jordan Sarrou (Fra)	0:01:11
6	Mathias Flueckiger (Swi)	0:01:26
7	David Valero Serrano (Spa)	0:01:31
8	Lukas Flueckiger (Swi)	0:01:51
9	Manuel Fumic (Ger)	0:02:24
10	Nicola Rohrbach (Swi)	0:02:47
11	Lars Forster (Swi)	0:03:03
12	Reto Indergand (Swi)	0:03:27
13	Marco Aurelio Fontana (Ita)	0:03:42
14	Luca Braidot (Ita)	0:03:55
15	Martin Loo (Est)	0:04:05
16	Marek Konwa (Pol)	0:04:19
17	Henrique Avancini (Bra)
18	Anton Cooper (NZl)	0:04:20
19	Gioele Bertolini (Ita)	0:04:24
20	Titouan Carod (Fra)	0:04:32
21	Pablo Rodriguez Guede (Spa)
22	Maximilian Foidl (Aut)	0:04:34
23	Anton Sintsov (Rus)	0:04:48
24	David Rosa (Por)	0:04:52
25	Thomas Litscher (Swi)	0:05:05
26	Carlos Coloma Nicolas (Spa)	0:05:32
27	Catriel Soto (Arg)	0:05:38
28	Peter Disera (Can)	0:05:51
29	Hugo Drechou (Fra)	0:06:04
30	Jhonatan Botero Villegas (Col)	0:06:13
31	Andrea Tiberi (Ita)	0:06:18
32	Jan Škarnitzl (Cze)	0:06:19
33	Andri Frischknecht (Swi)	0:06:20
34	Leandre Bouchard (Can)	0:06:21
35	Matthias Stirnemann (Swi)	0:06:40
36	Marcel Guerrini (Swi)	0:06:54
37	Victor Koretzky (Fra)	0:06:56
38	Karl Markt (Aut)	0:06:58
39	Gerhard Kerschbaumer (Ita)	0:07:11
40	Fabian Giger (Swi)	0:07:16
41	Florian Vogel (Swi)	0:07:20
42	Gregor Raggl (Aut)	0:07:21
43	Georg Egger (Ger)	0:07:24
44	Martin Gluth (Ger)	0:07:41
45	Florian Chenaux (Swi)	0:07:43
46	Michael Stünzi (Swi)	0:07:49
47	Julian Schelb (Ger)	0:07:54
48	Daniel Mcconnell (Aus)	0:07:55
49	Luiz Henrique Cocuzzi (Bra)	0:08:05
50	Nicholas Pettina' (Ita)	0:08:07
51	Daniele Braidot (Ita)	0:08:20
52	Raphael Gay (Fra)	0:08:31
53	Bartlomiej Wawak (Pol)	0:08:51
54	Sergio Mantecon Gutierrez (Spa)	0:09:00
55	Manuel Fasnacht (Swi)	0:09:08
56	András Parti (Hun)	0:09:14
57	Raphael Gagne (Can)	0:09:23
58	Michiel Van Der Heijden (Ned)	0:09:25
59	Arnis Petersons (Lat)	0:09:36
60	Maxime Loret (Fra)	0:09:37
61	Shlomi Haimy (Isr)	0:09:42
62	Simon Vitzthum (Swi)	0:09:52
63	Sebastian Fini Carstensen (Den)	0:10:00
64	Ismael Esteban Aguero (Spa)	0:10:12
65	Jan Vastl (Cze)	0:10:24
66	Andrew L'esperance (Can)	0:10:37
67	Florian Trigo (Fra)	0:10:56
68	Mário Costa (Por)	0:11:08
69	Luke Vrouwenvelder (USA)	0:11:09
70	Tom Meeusen (Bel)	0:12:26
71	Grant Ferguson (GBr)	0:13:56
72	Jens Schuermans (Bel)
73	Ruben Scheire (Bel)
74	Lorenzo Pellegrini (Ita)
75	Arthur Tropardy (Fra)
76	Timofei Ivanov (Rus)
77	Andrin Beeli (Swi)
78	Tomáš Paprstka (Cze)
79	Gregor Krajnc (Slo)
80	Lukas Baum (Ger)
81	Benoît Jeanniard (Fra)
82	Sven Strähle (Ger)
83	Ivan Diaz Buj (Spa)
84	Keegan Swenson (USA)
85	Guy Sessler (Isr)
86	Denis Fumarola (Ita)
87	Dario Gasco (Arg)
88	Lorenzo Samparisi (Ita)
89	Maximilian Holz (Ger)
90	Alexis Paris (Fra)
91	Maxim Gogolev (Rus)
92	Harold Flandre (Fra)
93	Fco. Javier Poza Ruiz (Spa)
94	Domenico Valerio (Ita)
95	Jasper Ockeloen (Ned)
96	Tom Bell (GBr)
97	Frank Beemer (Ned)
98	Erno Jacob Mccrae (Bel)
99	Louis Wolf (Ger)
100	Simon Gegenheimer (Ger)
101	Sebastian Jayne (Aus)
102	Kohei Yamamoto (Jpn)
103	Manuel Sanchez Aldeguer (Spa)
104	Jakob Hartmann (Ger)
105	Tobias Dominik Rotermund (Ger)
106	Rubens Donizete Valeriano (Bra)
107	Zdenek Vobecký (Cze)
108	José Aurelio Hernandez De Jesus (Mex)
109	Guilherme Gotardelo Muller (Bra)
110	Jaime Miranda Jaime (Mex)
111	Jan Withaar (RSA)
112	Edoardo Bonetto (Ita)
113	Marcel Lehrian (Ger)
114	Joseph De Poortere Emelien (Fra)
115	Thom Bonder (Ned)
116	Robert Schwenk (Ger)
117	Titouan Perrin Ganier (Fra)
118	Mikhail Besaha (Blr)
119	Markus Schulte-Lünzum (Ger)
120	Ingvar Omarsson ISL
121	Till Drobisch (Nam)
122	Pierrick Kersuzan (Fra)
123	George-Vlad Sabau (Rom)
124	Tobias Sindlinger (Ger)
DNF	Samuel Gaze (NZl)
DNF	Christian Pfäffle (Ger)
DNF	Nadir Colledani (Ita)
DNF	Martin Fanger (Swi)
DNF	Martins Blums (Lat)
DNF	Ondrej Cink (Cze)
DNF	Aleksander Stafilov (Rus)
DNF	Jeff Luyten (Bel)
DNF	Vincent Sibille (Fra)
DNF	Jaroslav Kulhavý (Cze)
DNS	Wolfram Kurschat (Ger)
DNS	Martin Stošek (Cze)
DNS	Frédéric Ischard (Fra)
DNS	Ben Zwiehoff (Ger)