Julien Absalon wins 32nd World Cup in Mont-Ste-Anne

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Julien Absalon (BMC) took his second World Cup win of the season on Sunday in Mont-Ste-Anne, Canada, moving into the overall lead in the World Cup standings, with the absence of former leader Nino Schurter, who elected to skip the event for different Olympic preparations.

Mont-Ste-Anne is the oldest and one of the most storied venues on the World Cup circuit. It always offers a demanding circuit, with steep climbs and rooty, rocky descents. This year, MSA is the final major competition before the Olympic cross-country, and some Olympic-bound riders decided not to attend.

The men's race saw a group of five riders establish themselves at the front in the early laps. Absalon, Mathias Fluckiger (Stoeckli Pro), Victor Koretzky (BH-SR Suntour-KMC), Matthias Stirnemann (Moebel Maerki MTB) and Jordan Sarrou (BH-SR Suntour-KMC) quickly opened a gap on the rest of the field. Koretzky attacked on lap four, with Absalon leading the chase. The Swiss riders, Fluckiger and Stirnemann fell off the pace, and then Absalon attacked with a lap and a half to go, quickly dropping Koretzky to solo in for the 32nd World Cup win of his career.

"In the beginning I was not able to go it alone," explained Absalon, "so I was sitting on the wheels of the others. I thought it was best to wait for a good moment during the last part of the race because it is so hard a course - if you start too fast it is hard to finish fast, and I like to finish fast. It was a good opportunity for me without Nino [Schurter] and Jaroslov [Kulhavy] here to take an advantage in the overall standings. So, it was a good win and also important for me to do this last test two weeks before the Olympics."

Absalon moved in to the leader's jersey, with 1060 points. Schurter drops to second, 160 points back, followed by Maxime Marotte (BH-SR Suntour-KMC) at 798 points.

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