We didn’t have long to wait for the second round of the 2021 XC World Cup season after the opener in Albstadt, Germany last weekend. The short track honours on Friday night went to Haley Batten and Mathieu van der Poel, the U23s then hit the track for their races the following day. Both races were wet and wild although it was last weekend’s winners Mona Mitterwallner and Carter Woods who proved to be the cream of the crop once again. Carter Woods opened up a gap of close to two minutes over Riley Amos who fended off Alexandre Balmer, Joel Roth and Simone Avondetto. The U23 women was a closer run competition with Ghost’s Caroline Bohe just two seconds back from Mitterwallner who then had Kata Blanka Vas, Puck Pieterse, and Harriet Harnden in behind her.
Track conditions hadn’t improved much overnight and with little to no rain falling through the day it began to dry out, albeit slowly. It would be difficult to read the conditions. That said, Loana Lecomte read them to absolute perfection and was the runaway winner once again pulling one minute and thirty-nine seconds out over Haley Batten who went one better than last week and finished second. Aussie Rebecca McConnell rode strong and composed to a comfortable third place with Pauline Ferrand Prevot recovering to fourth after her big crash in short track, Evie Richards rounded out the top five with her first Elite podium.
The writing was on the wall early in the men’s race with Thomas Pidcock and Mathieu van der Poel going bar to bar once again. It was the young Brit who would come out on top this time, sauntering to his first Elite World Cup win in only his second start. The gap back to Van der Poel was exactly a minute. Mathias Flueckiger slotted into third with Ondrej Cink in fourth which must be bittersweet - a home podium for the Czech racer, albeit with no fans. World Champ Jordan Sarrou took the final step on the box.
We’ve got a few weeks to wait for the next round in Leogang, but given how this season is shaping up you certainly won’t want to miss that one!
I also wonder if the short track race format gives an advantage to the younger riders who are likely to recover faster before the main XC race.
Loana looks like the real deal -she has the technical skills and fitness to compete at the highest level -will be interesting to see how everyone responds which can only mean entertaining racing.
Did any of the Vittoria-riders use Barso (almost same thread as CrossKing) or did they all go with Mezcal?