Watch the first leg of the XCO World Cup on Red Bull TV.
The first weekend dedicated to the Mercedes Benz UCI World Cup XCO did not disappoint. The fans present on the German track of Albstadt and those connected from all over the world thanks to Red Bull TV witnessed a generational change at the top of the cross country world. If you missed it, check out the replay now at www.redbull.com. It's absolutely worth it.
The women's race was a solo by world champion Kate Courtney, who scored her maiden World Cup victory. The young Californian under the Scott Sram Racing Team started 2019 as she had finished 2018: great. On Friday she took the first success of her career in the short track, today instead for the first time she made her a World Cup race among the Elite.
Behind her second place at 49 ″ for the European champion Jolanda Neff who in the final won the Dutch Anne Tauber, cut off from the game by a fall in which she ran into one of the new wooden walkways. She completes the podium at 1'31 ”a newfound Yana Belomoina. The Italian champion Eva Lechner, on the other hand, failed to go beyond 21st place.
The rain that had pardoned the girls fell abundantly on the men's test, making the course slimy and challenging. The duel announced between the world champion Nino Schurter and the emerging champion Mathieu Van der Poel, dominator of the short track, started as soon as the start was given. The frenzied pace of the first rounds and the downpour that hit Albstadt, however, reopened the game and made the ruler pay the bill of recent seasons. While the others end up on the ground (above all Lars Forster, who crashed twice and was forced to retire) or are now running out of energy after a "full blown" start, the Swiss Mathias Flückiger on the fifth of seven laps manages to make the difference and to go and take his second World Cup stage, after the 2018 one in Mont Sainte Anne. Van der Poel takes second place at 32 ”from the Swiss of the Thömus RN Swiss Bike Team, preceding the French Jordan Sarrou in the sprint. Schurter, in difficulty as never before, finishes only sixth and over a minute and a half behind the winner. The Italian champion Gerhard Kerschbaumer closes in 14th position. In the top 20 also the young Nadir Colledani, 17th.
