Sam Gaze was the brilliant winner of the XCO CUP Costa Blanca held today in Ibi, Alicante. The New Zealander, who has just ridden the last Tour Down Under in Australia on the road, started the MTB season in the best possible way by winning by a large margin over Ondrej Cink, certainly not the last to arrive.
The Czech Ondrej Cink wore the colors of his team new Primaflor-Mondraker-Genuins team. A nice surprise was the Norwegian Emil Hasund, who is demonstrating an excellent leg at the start of the season.
WOMEN RACE
The team project all-female MMR Factory Racing, which we remember was Nadir Colledani's Team last year (now passed to Santa Cruz RockShox) could not have started in a better way. His 3 athletes conquered the first 3 positions Portuguese Raquel Queiros beat Matylda Szczencinska and Lucía Gómez, almost all reaching the finish line together.
MEN'S ELITE RANKING
| 1 | GAZE Samuel |  NZL | ALPECIN-DECEUNINCK | 01.20.27 |
| 2 | CINK Ondřej |  CZE | PRIMAFLOR MONDRAKER GENUINS RACING TEAM | 01.21.18 |
| 3 | EID Emil Hasund |  NOR | 01.21.41 | |
| 4 | JANSSENS Arne |  BEL | BH-WALLONIE MTB TEAM | 01.22.39 |
| 5 | RODRIGUEZ GUEDE Pablo |  ESP | BH COLOMA TEAM | 01.22.48 |
| 6 | BARBER ARGUIMBAU Francesc | ESP | PRIMAFLOR MONDRAKER GENUINS RACING TEAM | 01.22.59 |
| 7 | VANDERSTEEN Jarne | BEL | 01.23.24 | |
| 8 | TEUNISSEN VAN MANEN Rens |  NED | 01.23.32 | |
| 9 | BOSQUE RUANO Christopher | ESP | X-SAUCE FACTORY TEAM | 01.24.10 |
| 10 | WEYDAHL Tormod | NOR | 01.24.10 |
FEMALE ELITE RANKING
| 1 | QUEIRÓS Raquel |  POR | MMR FACTORY RACING TEAM | 01.26.16 |
| 2 | SZCZECINSKA Matylda |  POL | MMR FACTORY RACING TEAM | 01.26.17 |
| 3 | GOMEZ ANDREU Lucia | ESP | MMR FACTORY RACING TEAM | 01.26.36 |
| 4 | Santos Ana | POR | X-SAUCE FACTORY TEAM | 01.27.02 |
| 5 | LLORET LLINARES Elena | ESP | 01.28.20 | |
| 6 | SARKULOVA Alina |  KAZ | 01.30.38 | |
| 7 | VAN DOORN Pink | NED | 01.30.39 | |
| 8 | BOSCH PICO Nuria | ESP | BH COLOMA TEAM | 01.31.13 |
| 9 | PIRARD Alice | BEL | 01.31.27 | |
| 10 | MACHO JIMENEZ Lucia | ESP | 01.33.17 |
