With titles on the line, the world’s best marathon mountain bikers held nothing back as they tackled a grueling, muddy 100km course in Snowshoe, USA, for the final round of the UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Cup.
In addition to the 2.275m of elevation gain, several days of rain and fog had left parts of the route muddy and super technical.
In the women's race there was a victory for the home athlete Hannah Otto (Pivot/DT Swiss) who went solo with a five minute advantage over Canadian Haley Smith. Third was the Lithuanian Katazina Sosna (Torpado Factory Team).
Lejla Njemcevic of Bosnia-Herzegovina crossed the finish line in fourth place, enough to win her the 2023 champion title.
In the men's race it was a three-way sprint to the finish line with the German Simon Stiebjahn (Singer Racing Team) finding the strength to win. The Frenchman Axel Roudil-Cortinat (Team Bulls) and the Swiss Casey South (Torpado Factory Team) had to settle for second and third place respectively.
Italian Fabian Rabensteiner (Wilier-Pirelli Factory Team MX) finished fifth and was awarded the title of 2023 World Cup champion after four rounds.
For me, despite the rain, the cold and the fog, today was a beautiful day and it is an incredible satisfaction to bring this shirt home. It was an epic race, a very tough race from the start due to the really bad weather, a lot of mud and in the first part of the race also a lot of wet roots and stones, so the risk of a fall was just around the corner and you always had to be very careful and concentrated . I ran a tactical race, I managed to always stay with the first group, then towards the end I saw that Diego had pulled away and there were eight of us and I knew that to win the jersey I simply had to stay in this small group and not make any mistakes. When they accelerated in front I preferred to continue at my pace, not take risks and take 5th place with the certainty of the final victory. Conquering the XCM World Cup is truly a dream come true, a dream that I have seen possible since Nove Mesto and that I have been chasing all season, I couldn't be happier. This victory is a success for me, but also for the whole team that allowed us to win this jersey – Fabian Rabensteiner
Samuele Porro's support to Fabian was fundamental, not only in the Snowshoe race, but throughout the season. For him, an 11th place in Snowshoe and a 7th place in the World Cup.
MEN'S RANKING
| 1. | STIEBJAHN Simon SINGER RACING TEAM |  | 4:38:17 |
| 2. | ROUDIL CORTINAT Axel TEAM BULLS |  | 4:38:18 |
| 3. | SOUTH Casey TORPADO FACTORY TEAM |  | 4:38:18 |
| 4. | SCHNELLER Simon TEAM BULLS | | 4:38:57 |
| 5. | RABENSTEINER Fabian WILIER-PIRELLI FACTORY TEAM MX |  | 4:39:28 |
| 6. | STOSHEK Martin CANYON NORTHWAVE MTB TEAM |  | 4:39:44 |
| 7. | STUTZMANN Marc CANYON NORTHWAVE MTB TEAM | | 4:39:48 |
| 8. | PINK Diego | | 4:40:09 |
| 9. | SAMPARISI Nicolas KTM ALCHEMIST POWERED BY BRENTA BRAKES | | 4:41:23 |
| 10. | PAEZ LEON Hector Leonardo |  | 4:42:36 |
GENERAL WORLD CUP
FEMALE RANKING
| 1. | EIGHT Rae Hannah |  | 5:46:31 |
| 2. | SMITH Haley |  | 5:51:44 |
| 3. | SOSNA Katazina TORPADO FACTORY TEAM |  | 5:54:59 |
| 4. | NJEMCEVIC Lejla |  | 6:04:16 |
| 5. | HUCK Erin | | 6:15:17 |
GENERAL WORLD CUP
