Spitz wins Vallnord women's cross country World Cup

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Sabine Spitz (Sabine Spitz Haibike) made a strong return to competition, after missing the first half of the season due to injury, by winning the fourth round of the UCI Cross Country Mountain Bike World Cup in Vallnord, Andorra. Altitude, heat and strong winds all played a factor in making this one of the hardest races of the season. Tanja Zakelj (Unior Tools) held onto the women's overall lead with a fifth place result.

Katerina Nash (Luna) set an aggressive pace in the first lap of the women's race, quickly shattering the field. Five riders joined Nash at the front of the race by lap two: Spitz, Eva Lechner (Colnago Sudtirol), Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa (Multivan Merida), Maja Wloszczowska (Giant Pro XC) and Jolanda Neff (Giant Pro XC). Zakelj was just behind, but losing ground.

A lap later, both Neff and Wloszczowska were gone, unable to hold the pace. The front four stayed together through most of lap four until Nash attacked, opening a five-second gap as she began the final lap. The Luna rider extended her lead to 10 seconds by the halfway mark of the lap, as the chase began to fall apart.

Spitz, who is just back from shoulder surgery that took her out of action just before the start of the World Cup season, began to surge in the final two kilometres, catching Nash in the final 600 metres as the pair entered the last section of singletrack before a short climb to the finish.

Spitz, the 2008 Olympic champion, put in a last effort over the final 200 metres to take her first World Cup win since 2002, finishing just one second in front of Nash, with Lechner at four seconds and Dahle Flesjaa at nine seconds - one of the closest finishes in recent history.

"With the headwind, nobody wanted to go into the lead," said Spitz. "Eight weeks ago I crashed on my home course in Albstadt [before the World Cup], and, yeah, it's amazing to win. I never expected to come back like this."

"I had hoped for a top ten place...but this win is unbelievable. It [the win] means so much because when you have an accident and have to go out of competition, then you are not sure how your fitness is when you get back to the World Cup circuit. It means so much to me."

Zakelj now leads the women's World Cup standings with 790 points, with two races remaining. Lechner moves up from third to second, 160 points back, and Nash moves up a spot to third, a further 15 points in arrears.

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