Flueckiger wins incident filled Mont Sainte-Anne World Cup

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Round 6 of the UCI Mountain Bike XCO World Cup at Mont Sainte-Anne, Quebec, saw multiple lead changes on Sunday, as leading contenders crashed or suffered mechanicals. In the end, it was Mathias Flueckiger (Thomus RN Racing) that prevailed, taking his first ever World Cup victory. World champion and World Cup leader Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM) wrapped up the overall title with one race remaining in the series, despite finishing seventh after breaking his chain while in the lead.

A large group of riders headed out from the start loop at the front, which was gradually whittled down over the first couple of laps to just Schurter and New Zealand champion Anton Cooper (Trek Factory). The pair rode together until Schurter broke his chain on lap four, leaving Cooper alone at the front. He was joined by Flueckiger, Gerhard Kerschbaumer (Torpado Gabogas) and Titouan Carod (BMC) by the end of the lap.

Kerschbaumer crashed on the sixth lap, and Carod lost contact, leaving just Cooper and Flueckiger at the front. Coming down the rocky Beatrice descent, Cooper crashed hard, losing his bike off the side of the hill and having to scramble down to retrieve it. Flueckiger safely navigated the final lap to take his first win, with Kerschbaumer recovering to finish just in front of Carod.

"I'm so happy to win, because I've had bad luck before at World Cups," said Flueckiger. "In my career I've had many podiums and been close many times, but today everything came together. I felt good on Friday after getting third in the short track, but it's a really hard track here and the other guys were strong. In 2010 I won the under-23 World Championship here, so this track is really special for me."

In the overall standings, Schurter has an insurmountable lead with 1,546 points, 466 more than second place Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus), who did not race at Mont-Ste-Anne.

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