Kalentieva wins the elite women's cross country at Hafjell World Cup

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Irina Kalentieva (Topeak Ergon) won the eighth cross country World Cup of her career in Hafjell, Norway on Saturday. Eva Lechner (Colnago Sudtirol) narrowly beat Julie Bresset (BH-SR Suntour-KMC) for the second spot while Lea Davison (Specialized) put in a top five finish for fourth and home crowd favorite Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa (Multivan Merida) was fifth.

"It's unbelievable," said Kalentieva after winning. "This year I had a lot of bad luck. I was fourth in the Worlds, like at the Olympics. I know this feeling from earlier, when I won many times in the World Cup and Worlds. I'm so happy."

"I knew that in this race, I'd have to be at the front in the beginning. It was so fast and today I did it - I was near the front. When I was in third and fourth, I was thinking, today I can win, so I tried and gave everything."

The short 4.1-kilometre course proved to be very tough, with many riders underestimating the constant climbing and rough, rocky descents. Four riders went to the front on the first lap of the six lap women's race, and attrition gradually whittled their numbers down. Kalentieva was joined at the front by round one winner Lechner, world champion Bresset and Davison.

Behind, local favourite Dahle Flesjaa rode her own pace for the entire race to stay in fifth, while the lead was constantly shuffled at the front.

Davison was the first to get dropped, on lap three, while Kalentieva, Lechner and Bresset took turns pushing each other. Lechner made a strong attack with a lap and a half to go, dropping Bresset for good, but Kalentieva clawed her way back up and then broke clear on the one of the final climbs, to solo in by 20 seconds ahead of Lechner.

The race came down to the last lap. With one and a half laps to go, Bresset made her attack and distanced Lechner and Kalentieva while Davison chased alone in fourth. However, after a flat tire, Bresset was reeled back in and passed. She was not near a tech zone and lost substantial time on her way to getting a wheel change, dropping back to fourth.

The French woman put in an impressive comeback to catch and pass Davison. She also caught up to Lechner on the final lap, but the Italian held her off.

Kalentieva, alone at the front after Bresset's flat, had plenty of time to celebrate her win while Lechner held off the chase from Bresset.

Behind, Zakelj rode back in eighth place for the first half of the race before starting to move forward to eventually finish sixth, cementing her overall World Cup title, and becoming the first Slovenian to win both an individual World Cup (rounds two and three), as well as an overall title. Lechner's second place moved her into second overall from fourth, leapfrogging Katerina Nash (Luna), who dropped from second to third.

"It's so amazing. I never expected it at the beginning of this season," said the new World Cup champion Zakelj. "I never expected before this season that something this awesome would happen to me. This race was so tough - the toughest in my whole career. I felt a lot of pressure and wanted to keep focused. What I achieved is so important and simply amazing, I haven't been able to think about it yet."

"All the pressure that I felt (made the race hard) and the conditions were not perfect for me. I like it more warm and more sunny, but the conditions were the same for everybody. And I think it was normal that the other girls to be at the front that were not so strong at the beginning of the season, because it is very tough to keep so high every race,. This day I still managed to be very close to the podium and I am very happy about it."

"I hope I will continue to do races like that in my future. I am still young, and I have many opportunities in front of me, I am looking forward to next season," said Zakelj.

Race note

Sabine Spitz (Sabine Spitz Haibike) sat out the race after injuring herself in a crash during training at the world championships two weeks ago. She has since undergone surgery on her shoulder.

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