4 Things We Learned from the Les Gets XC World Cup 2021

After taking yet another win in 2021, Loana Lecomte continued to write herself into the history books as she becomes the only Elite Women to win the first four rounds of a season since 2003. The last time this was achieved was during Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå's perfect season in 2003. Once again, the young Frenchwoman broke free of the other riders from the mid-point of the second lap and she was unstoppable for the rest of the race.

Loana Lecomte now also joins Catharine Pendrel in being the only Elite Women to win four races in a season in the past 15 years of racing. With two more World Cups, the Olympics and World Champs in her sights and no signs of slowing down from Loana, we could see more records broken soon.

Another big record reached in Les Gets was Mathias Flueckiger joining Mathieu Van Der Poel as the only riders to have two consecutive perfect weekends of results. Mathias managed to secure both the XCC Short Track and the XC win in Les Gets following his double win in Leogang the race before. Van Der Poel is normally dominant in short track racing but Mathias has taken full advantage of his absence from the recent World Cups and it will be very interesting to see the two go head to head in Tokyo.

The tricky conditions on course in Les Gets threw up a lot of problems for the riders and made some of the already technical rock sections even harder. Adaptation on the fly was necessary and there was one part of the track that we saw plenty of inventive lines choices with some riders riding a tight line, some going wide and then in the Elite Women's race was saw a decisive move from Evie Richards that was repeated by a large amount of the top men later in the day.

On the live feed, Evie Richards was the first rider we saw take a super tight line into the wide corner filled with rocks that had a small rock garden on the exit. Once Evie hit the inside of the corner she quickly hopped off her bike and walked around the corner following the tape and avoiding the rocks. when we first saw her do this she gained a ton of time on Pauline Ferrand Prevot who initially tried to ride the full corner before getting off her bike for the last rocks. Evie's extensive cyclocross experience played in her favor here as she was able to quickly get through the section and back on her bike. In the Elite Men's racing, this strategy proved very popular after the first few laps that saw many riders go down either on the setup to the corner or slipping out on the rocks and losing time.

The racing in Les Gets was the last time all of these riders will face each other at a major international event before the Olympics Games in Tokyo at the end of the month. With many riders deep in their build-up to the games, this was a great weekend to test out how they are feeling against their competition for the gold medal. Despite the tricky conditions making it a very hard race for everyone, there were a few performances that will give some riders confidence and others something to work on over the next few weeks.

Pauline Ferrand Prevot will be one of the riders leaving Les Gets wanting more as she is yet to beat fellow French rider Loana Lecomte in both World Cup races and French national events. Pauline has stated since the start of the season her goal has always been Tokyo but it will be on her mind that she has never been able to best Loana so far in 2021. Current Women's gold medalist Jenny Rissveds could be Loana's closest rival in Tokyo as she put down an incredible performance in the mud and even looked to be closing in on the leader in the last couple of laps.