Mountain Bike World Championships 2023 [FULL RACE – XCO] (U23) (ladies)

August 11, 2023

Mountain Bike World Championships 2023 – XCO WU23 🇬🇧 – Glasgow, Scotland

This summer, Glasgow, Scotland is hosting the first-ever combined UCI World Championships, bringing together almost every UCI-sanctioned discipline for one big super event this August. From road racing to artistic cycling, more than 200 rainbow jerseys will be given out in 13 different disciplines across the 11 days of action in and around Glasgow. With the first combined World Championships heading to Glasgow and Scotland this year, the downhill riders will return to the famed Fort William track to battle for the rainbow jersey.

The Friday races were held under overcast skies on the 3.5km circuit at Glentress Forest in the Scottish Borders. The men faced 1,015 metres of elevation gain, the women 870 metres, which wore down competitors on a technical course with stiff climbs mixed with rooty and rocky descents.

Samara Maxwell (New Zealand) wasted little time in attacking the course and the full field of 55 riders en route to her women’s U23 crown at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Scotland. She pounced at the front of the race in the first half lap, going solo across the ‘B-line’ of a tricky rock feature and never looking back.

Switzerland’s Ginia Caluori overtook her teammate Ronja Blōchlinger late in the race to secure silver, 1:01 off the winning time. Blōchlinger took bronze, 1:27 back. Emily Johnston of Canada made a late move to finish fourth, the only other rider to finish within 2 minutes of Maxwell.

Race favourite Sofie Pedersen (Denmark), the 2023 women’s U23 European champion with four World Cup wins this season, crashed on the first lap and had to pick off riders on the first pass of the long, winding forest ascent. She clawed her way into 12th position at one point, but faded to 17th at the end.

Maxwell, the reigning U23 champion of New Zealand, put on a clinical performance on Friday for the entire six-lap race to take her first win of this calendar year.

“It was incredible. I wanted to start off fast, make it a hard race from the start. I had a gap and I didn’t think I was going to hold it, I just kept going. I can’t believe it,” the new World Champion said at the finish.

“You always think what does it take to be the best, and you think you have to suffer or sacrifice something. And to do this in a healthy and sustainable way means so much to me. You just need to be happy on your bike and enjoy what you are doing and you’’ get the results.

How many more laps could she have done? “None” was the answer.

“It was so hard. I loved the track. The technical features and the climbs were hard. Like the elevation profile, it doesn’t look steep, but it’s hard climbs. It is probably one of the best tracks I have ridden.”

With the sun shining through previously-overcast skies on the Glentress Forest on the second lap, Maxwell began to put in huge daylight between herself and the rest of the field. Blōchlinger worked her way into solo second with the gap now 22 seconds to the leader, fending off four riders – Kata Blanka Vas (Hungary), Ginia Caluori (Switzerland), Noëlle Buri (Switzerland) and Sara Cortinovis (Italy) – who began to close down her effort.

The two Swiss riders joined forces on the fourth lap as Blanka Vas and Cortinovis dropped off the pace. One circuit later, Caluori accelerated into lone second place, riding just five seconds ahead of Blōchlinger. Surging behind the Swiss pair was Canadian Johnston, who had passed Blanka Vas and trailed Caluori by 50 seconds.

Meanwhile, Maxwell kept pushing the pace and grabbed a New Zealand flag in the finish stretch to capture the world title in a time trial effort. Caluori extended her gap on her compatriot to ride solo in second, followed 26 seconds later by Blōchlinger.

Results :