Van der Poel takes MTB World Cup short track win in Italy
By Rob Jones
Langvad continues domination in women's series
Recently crowned Dutch road race champion Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus) took his second win in three races in the new XCC (Short Track) discipline at the Mountain Bike World Cup in Val di Sole, Italy, on Friday. Raced on a short, two-minute circuit for 25 minutes, the top-40 world ranked riders vie for World Cup points (50 per cent of the cross-country), plus the top 16 finishers start on the first two rows of Sunday's XCO race.
While the first two rounds of the XCC have been on mostly flat circuits with pavement, the Val di Sole version had no asphalt and began with a stiff climb backwards up the Downhill course, before taking the riders onto the 4-Cross circuit for a rock garden, pump track section and banked turns.
Sam Gaze (Specialized), winner of the last XCC at Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, led the field up the first climb, but he quickly fell off the pace after that as the leaders were whittled down to van der Poel, XCO world champion Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM) and Lars Forster (BMC). Forster attacked on third of 11 laps, but was quickly brought back by the other two, and then dropped on the seventh lap when van der Poel unleashed a massive attack on the climb.
Schurter could not close the gap and lost further time through the remaining laps as van der Poel continued to pull away each time up the climb. Schurter held on for second, three seconds ahead of a chase group, with Maxime Marotte (Cannondale Factory) winning the sprint for third. Schurter remains in the lead for the overall World Cup standings, however, van der Poel has overtaken Marotte for second place.
"As I expected, it was really, really hard," said van der Poel. "Full gas on the climb, then a little bit of recovery, and then the climb was there again. Those 30 second sprints I'm good at, and I enjoyed racing it today. Sam [Gaze] started really fast and I know it hurt everyone, so on the second lap I did it again."
Langvad continues short track domination
Annika Langvad (Specialized) continued to dominate the new XCC (Short Track) discipline at the Mountain Bike World Cup, winning her third straight XCC in Val di Sole on Friday.
World champion Jolanda Neff (Kross Racing) attacked on the first climb, which proved to be a tactical error after she faded badly, only recovering at the end to finish eighth. Langvad bided her time, moving to the front with Pauline Ferrand Prevot (Canyon Factory), Alessandra Keller (Thomus-RN Racing) and Anne Tauber (Sandd American Eagle) on the fourth lap of ten, and then dropping everyone but Keller with three laps to go. A lap later she dropped Keller on the climb to solo in for victory, with Tauber finishing second and Keller third. Langvad's win padded her lead over Neff in the World Cup standings.
"It was definitely not easy," said Langvad. "I was more nervous going into this one than the previous ones because there is pressure when you have had two wins in a row. It was different [than the previous XCCs] because it didn't come back together, so it made my strategy easier on the deciding hill. When Jolanda [Neff] attacked, I thought 'this is going to be tough', but then she completely blew on the second lap, and then Pauline [Ferrand Prevot] attacked and then [Alessandra] Keller ... it was just attack, attack, attack on that climb, and in the end it was just a question of endurance."
Results
# | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
---|---|---|
1 | Mathieu Van der Poel (Ned) | 0:20:27 |
2 | Nino Schurter (Sui) | 0:00:07 |
3 | Maxime Marotte (Fra) | 0:00:10 |
4 | Jordan Sarrou (Fra) | |
5 | Florian Vogel (Sui) | |
6 | Mathias Flueckiger (Sui) | 0:00:11 |
7 | Gerhard Kerschbaumer (Ita) | |
8 | Henrique Avancini (Bra) | 0:00:12 |
9 | Titouan Carod (Fra) | 0:00:13 |
10 | Lars Forster (Sui) | 0:00:14 |
11 | Luca Braidot (Ita) | 0:00:17 |
12 | Lukas Flueckiger (Sui) | 0:00:19 |
13 | Anton Cooper (NZl) | 0:00:21 |
14 | Reto Indergand (Sui) | 0:00:22 |
15 | David Valero Serrano (Esp) | 0:00:23 |
16 | Gioele Bertolini (Ita) | 0:00:28 |
17 | Nadir Colledani (Ita) | 0:00:32 |
18 | Stephane Tempier (Fra) | 0:00:36 |
19 | Manuel Fumic (Ger) | 0:00:38 |
20 | Jan Škarnitzl (Cze) | 0:00:41 |
21 | Martin Loo (Est) | 0:00:45 |
22 | Howard Grotts (USA) | 0:00:50 |
23 | Sergio Mantecon Gutierrez (Esp) | 0:00:54 |
24 | Carlos Coloma Nicolas (Esp) | 0:01:00 |
25 | Jaroslav Kulhavý (Cze) | 0:01:03 |
26 | Samuel Gaze (NZl) | |
27 | Thomas Litscher (Sui) | 0:01:13 |
28 | Andrea Tiberi (Ita) | 0:01:23 |
29 | Hugo Drechou (Fra) | 0:01:36 |
30 | Sebastian Fini Carstensen (Den) | |
31 | Martins Blums (Lat) | |
32 | Anton Sintsov (Rus) | |
33 | Catriel Soto (Arg) | |
34 | Nicola Rohrbach (Sui) | |
35 | Luiz Henrique Cocuzzi (Bra) | |
36 | Karl Markt (Aut) | |
DNF | Daniel Mcconnell (Aus) | |
DNF | Marcel Guerrini (Sui) | |
DNF | Gregor Raggl (Aut) | |
DNS | Marco Aurelio Fontana (Ita) |
# | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
---|---|---|
1 | Annika Langvad (Den) | 0:21:36 |
2 | Anne Tauber (Ned) | 0:00:05 |
3 | Alessandra Keller (Sui) | 0:00:10 |
4 | Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa (Nor) | 0:00:21 |
5 | Pauline Ferrand Prevot (Fra) | 0:00:31 |
6 | Annie Last (GBr) | 0:00:34 |
7 | Emily Batty (Can) | 0:00:35 |
8 | Jolanda Neff (Sui) | 0:00:36 |
9 | Barbara Benkó (Hun) | 0:00:37 |
10 | Elisabeth Brandau (Ger) | 0:00:43 |
11 | Kate Courtney (USA) | 0:00:49 |
12 | Chloe Woodruff (USA) | 0:00:54 |
13 | Linda Indergand (Sui) | 0:00:56 |
14 | Sabrina Enaux (Fra) | |
15 | Tanja Žakelj (Slo) | 0:00:58 |
16 | Maja Wloszczowska (Pol) | 0:00:59 |
17 | Githa Michiels (Bel) | |
18 | Eva Lechner (Ita) | 0:01:13 |
19 | Lea Davison (USA) | 0:01:16 |
20 | Karla Štepánová (Cze) | 0:01:21 |
21 | Yana Belomoina (Ukr) | 0:01:25 |
22 | Haley Smith (Can) | 0:01:28 |
23 | Sandra Walter (Can) | 0:01:35 |
24 | Jitka Škarnitzlová (Cze) | |
25 | Serena Calvetti (Ita) | |
26 | Irina Kalentyeva (Rus) | |
27 | Kathrin Stirnemann (Sui) | |
28 | Cherie Redecker (RSA) | |
29 | Mariske Strauss (RSA) | |
30 | Agustina Maria Apaza (Arg) | |
31 | Claudia Galicia Cortina (Esp) | |
32 | Jovana Crnogorac (Srb) | |
33 | Elisabeth Osl (Aut) | |
34 | Janka Keseg Stevkova (Svk) | |
35 | Luciana Roland (Arg) | |
DNF | Anne Terpstra (Ned) | |
DNF | Ramona Forchini (Sui) | |
DNS | Katarzyna Solus-Miskowicz (Pol) | |
DNS | Fabienne Schaus (Lux) | |
DNS | Joana Monteiroa (Por) |
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