Schurter tops Absalon in Val di Sole

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Nino Schurter (Scott-Odlo), after finishing second in the first three rounds of the Mountain Bike World Cup, balanced that by winning the last three, including the World Cup Final on Sunday, in Val di Sole, Italy. His win cemented his hold on the overall title for the year.

Rain overnight had turned much of the course into sticky mud - referred to by one team manager as 'velcro'. The mud was transferred to many of the rocky sections, making them slippery and treacherous, and causing numerous crashes.

Schurter's former team mate, Florian Vogel (Stoeckli Pro Team), started the action with a surge in the opening half lap start loop. Only Schurter and Jaroslav Kulhavy (Specialized) were able to respond initially, but world champion Julien Absalon (BMC) made his way across within a lap and a half.

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The group stayed together until halfway through the fourth lap, when Kulhavy dropped off by 20 seconds - still in sight on the finishing straight, but unable to close the gap, and finishing alone in fourth.

At the front, the trio stayed together until the final lap, with Absalon setting the pace and Schurter content to follow. When Absalon began attacking on the last lap Vogel was dropped, but held on for third.

In front, Absalon continued to attack and to try and get into the descents first, to defend against the superior descending skills of Schurter. The world champion was also riding on a soft front tire, so when Schurter did finally get to the front for the final descent, Absalon could not respond, and the Swiss rider carved out a slim five second lead, which he held to the line.

"Honestly, I didn't feel that good at the beginning," revealed Schurter, "I was struggling a bit. I was just hanging in there and tried to stay up with Julien and Vogel. Towards the end I felt better and better. I tried to stay on Julien's wheel. I knew if I could get first into the descent I could win again. It was actually a lot of drafting from my side but, yah, I feel really happy about this win here. Happy about the World [Cup overall] win also."

"It [World Cup overall] was a big goal for me this year. It started with a bit of bad luck, I always managed to get second, but now three wins in a row is amazing and a big achievement for me."

Schurter, with three seconds and three wins, had a 250 point margin on Absalon for the title. Kulhavy, with two wins, finished third and Vogel jumped from fifth to third with his placing in the final round. Mathias Fluckiger (Stoeckli Pro Team) was bumped down to fifth by Vogel.

"My tire lost some air on the first lap," said Absalon. "Maybe on the jump [in the 4-Cross section]? But it was too difficult to stop [in the pits]. I was losing time in the downhill because I was sliding with the front tire. But I didn't stop and I did all the race like this. It was not possible to do a gap even though I was pushing on the climb and I was losing time on the downhill. Nino was always catching my wheel. On the two last laps I was pushing hard. I was not thinking about the sprint. I was worried about my front tire, afraid to lose all the air. I was pushing to finish a soon as possible with air in the tire."

"Now we are all focused on the Worlds in two weeks. I think next week we will all train hard to be ready for Andorra."

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