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Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) and Puck Pieterse (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won the elite short track cross-country races at the WHOOP UCI MTB World Series round at Crans-Montana, Switzerland on Saturday.
Pidcock overcame early-race miscues and powered to an incredible come-from-behind victory in the men’s race. German Julian Schelb (Stop&Go Marderabwehr MTB Team) closed quickly for second place, surging to within two seconds of Pidcock at the line.
Luca Braidot (Santa Cruz RockShox Pro Team) was another four seconds down for third, while Christopher Blevins (Specialized Factory Racing) rode just ahead of Maximilian Brandl (Lexware Mountainbike Team) and Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM MTB Racing) for fourth.
Pieterse broke away from four other riders in the lead group to secure her second consecutive win of the season. Alessandra Keller (Thömas Maxon) won a three-rider sprint for second, just ahead of Loana Lecomte (Canyon CLLCTV), who took third, and Anne Tauber, in fourth.
With her runner-up finish, Keller retained her lead in the World Cup rankings for XCC. Haley Batten (Specialized Factory Racing), second in the standings, was never in the mix and finished 27th, allowing Pieterse to overtake her spot in the series.
Overall XCC series leader Victor Koretzky (Specialized Factory Racing) did not start on Saturday due to illness and injury. However, he retained his lead when his closest challenger, world champion Sam Gaze (Alpecin-Deceuninck), seemed to suffer from ongoing knee problems on the laps after the holeshot and barely managed to finish the six laps, going next-to-last in 36th position. Blevins jumps to third overall.
How it unfolded
Elite men’s XCC
The sound of the start gun had barely time to finish reverberations when the Olympic MTB champion slipped out of a pedal from his second-row start position, causing Pidcock to plummet in the field. On a descent in the first lap, he then collided with another rider to disrupt any momentum and leaving him 23 seconds behind the early lead group led by Schurter and Luca Schwarzbauer (Canyon CLLCTV).
“I didn’t make it easy that’s for sure. At the start I unclipped then I was at the back, and I was actually getting dropped on that first climb, they were going so fast,” Pidcock said after his worse-to-first race in Switzerland.
“Going into the descent if you’ve got riders in front, you can only lose time so I was trying to time it right so I could make up time on the descents.”
After the opening lap, Pidcock rode in 33rd place, 23 seconds behind leaders Schurter and Luca Schwarzbauer (Canyon CLLCTV). The duo had broken away with a slight lead but were soon caught by Blevins and Thomas Litscher (Lapierre Mavic Unity).
All remained quiet on the middle laps, which allowed Pidcock to pick way back through the field, but he dragged a rested bunch with him when he finally made contact on a descent to Schwarzbauer and Schurter.
“I got there and I was suffering and I looked around and no one was pulling so I thought ‘Oh God, these guys have had it easy’ but I just carried on and obviously they were suffering.”
Pidcock made first attack from the front at the start of the penultimate lap, and at the start of the final circuit was caught by Charlie Aldridge (Cannondale Factory Racing) to make it a British one-two, for a short time.
Schelb then made his move by punching past Aldridge, Schwarzbauer and other tiring riders, taking the reigns in the chase in second.
Pidcock is expected on the start line for Sunday’s cross-country event at Crans Montana, which will be his final MTB appearance before defending his Olympic Games title in Paris. In between he will be in the Ineos Grenadiers lineup for the Tour de France, coming off a sixth-place on GC at the Tour de Suisse last week.
“Coming from a week-long stage race it’s something a little bit different but I was just riding it full, just to pick off riders every time on the climb and it was just my tactic, just ride full gas,” Pidcock said.
Elite women’s XCC
Pieterse rode steady on the early laps and waited until the final lap to launch her attack, moving past compatriot Tauber on the climb and taking a three-second advantage once across the crest. As she rocketed down the descent, she lost some momentum when her back wheel skidded out, but she remained upright and crossed the line alone for the win, four seconds ahead of the chasers.
“It was very tactical, every time especially on the last part of the climb we went all in then on the descents it stayed quite together and on the road it was just looking at each other,” Pieterse said.
“I knew they’d have to push really hard to come back every time and we saved the energy for the climb. Luckily, I could profit off Anna’s [Tauber] attack a bit, I had the feeling I maybe wasn’t the fastest in the descent, I didn’t want to take any big risks. Let’s hope for such good legs tomorrow.”
Lecomte and Keller were part of the early selection of riders on the first lap along with Tauber, Pieterse and US rider Gwendalyn Gibson (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli), who returned to racing in Nove Mesto after breaking her collarbone to start the season.
Lecomte was the only rider to reap rewards from an attack on the second lap, but the chasers pulled her back on the technical course. Once on the finish straight with Pieterse long gone, it was a final push by Keller to stay in frornt of Lecomte for second place.
Keller, the reigning Swiss champion, was dropped on a final climb and worked her way back to be part of the sprint for the final podium spots.
“I rode well uphill and although I was slightly left behind on the last lap, I was able to take second place. Because I knew I was very good downhill. It’s really cool to come second in front of the home crowd,” she said.
Results – Women XCC
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Results – Men XCC
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