UCI XC WORLD CUP NOVE MESTO ROUND 1 RECAP

by | Oct 1, 2020 | Bike, Bike Events & Racing, Bike Race Reports

1 XCC and XCO done and dusted for the men and women racing the XC World Cup in Nove Mesto!

Uci Xc World Cup Nove Mesto Round 1 Recap

Photo: Bartek Wolinski / Red Bull Content Pool

Tuesday’s short track was rain soaked which of course made for difficult racing conditions. Riders were fighting to keep it together while jostling for position and pushing out all the watts!

The results from the short track race were of naturally incredibly close! Evie Richards of Great Britain raced her first ever short track event and came away with a photo finish win ahead of World Champion Pauline Ferrand Prevot! What a race!

Alan Hatherly raced hard and put down consistent laps to come in 5th elite men just 2 seconds off the front. This stood him in good stead for the XCO round to come. Top results for the XCC race below.

Elite Women:

Evie Richards – 1stPauline Ferrand Prevot – 2nd (photo finish)Loana Lecomte – 3rd (+ 0:01)Cherie Redecker – 24th (+ 0:36)Candice Lill – 33rd (+ 1:01)

Elite Men:

Jose Gerardo Ulloa Arevalo – 1stVictor Koretzky – 2ndMaxime Marotte – 3rd (+ 0:01)Alan Hatherly – 6th (+ 0:02)

Below are the highlights from the action packed short track race on Tuesday!

Conditions were looking chilly but less wet for the XCO today. The Nove Mesto track is know for its technicality, punchy climbs and fast descents. The rain this week has added another dimension to the racing for sure. I cannot begin to imagine navigating that track in the wet with slick XC tires but these riders manage to do it while redlining their heart rate for 90 minutes!

The ladies raced first at 12pm with eyes on Evie Richards, waiting to see how her short track performance would carry into the XCO. South Africa had three ladies lining up to start. Candice Lill, Cherie Redecker and Mariske Strauss (who wasn’t able to compete in the XCC on Tuesday). Pauline Ferrand Prevot looked strong from the start but after 3 laps, Loana Lecomte rode away from her! One of the climbs featured a particularly technical section of rocks that was tripping up many of the riders, Lecomte was making significant time by managing to ride the section instead of walking as other riders were. She managed to pull of a win at her first ever Elite World Cup! An incredible achievement for the 21 year old rider.

Our Safas were also battling it out there, Mariske placing highest at 37th, Candice at 44th and Cherie at 45th. Mariske says that her body was definitely in a quite a shock afterwards which isn’t surprising given it was the first World Cup in over a year! Rest well ladies, there’s more where that came from tomorrow!

Results:

1st – Loana Lecomte 1:22:06

2nd – Anne Terpstra (+ 0:31)

3rd – Pauline Ferrand Prevot (+ 0:37)

4th -Lena Gerault (+ 1:15)

5th – Laura Stigger (+1:21)

37th – Mariske Strauss ( + 9:26)

44th – Candice Lill ( + 11:06)

45th – Cherie Redecker ( + 11:17)

Uci Xc World Cup Nove Mesto Round 1 Recap

Photo: Bartek Wolinski / Red Bull Content Pool

At 4:30pm the men saddled up for the their first World Cup of the season and the tension was palpable. Only 2 XCO races this year to prove themselves and attain valuable UCI points for the start of next season. Alan Hatherly secured himself a good position on the start line from his 6th place in the XCC. His race started strong, sitting with the front pack through to the last coupe laps where things started to break up a bit. He pushed through to the end and brought home an impressive 6th place! Great work there from Alan!

There was a phenomenal performance from 23 year old Simon Andreassen who rode a brilliant race and took home the win at hist first ever Elite World Cup! Outstanding racing from the young guns in the mens and ladies at the first round of the year!

Results:

1st – Simon Andreassen 1:34:39

2nd – Maxime Marotte (+ 0:09)

3rd – Milan Vader (+ 0:26)

4th – Nino Schurter (+ 0:44)

5th – Henrique Avancini (+ 0:44)

6th – Alan Hatherly (+ 0:52)

That is the first round of the UCI XC World Cup over and round 2 begins with the short track tomorrow on Friday the 2nd of October! We already have three young new winners and who knows what tomorrow could hold? A huge night’s sleep for all the athletes and they wake up tomorrow do it all again and give it their best!

Cheers,

J-Dogg

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