MTB World Cup 2021 – 1 – Albstadt [FULL RACE – XCC]

May 7, 2021

MTB World Cup 2021 – 1 – XCC – Albstadt

The UCI Mountain Bike World Cup is a multi-round mountain bike racing series that is sanctioned by the Union Cycliste Internationale. The first World Cup series – which was composed of cross-country events – was held in 1989. The Downhill World Cup was inaugurated two years later, and the Dual Slalom World Cup was launched in 1998. The dual-slalom format – which involved knock-out heats with two riders on the parallel courses in each heat – evolved into four-cross (with four riders on a single course per heat) in 2002 before being dropped after the 2011 season. Riders win points according to their placing in each event. The reigning series leaders in each class are identified by a special jersey.

The men’s race saw Van der Poel returning to mountain biking for his first race since August of 2019. That year the Dutch rider was five-for-five in Short Track and, while he has shown his continued speed and power on the road and in cyclo-cross, the question was: how would he fare against the top mountain bikers?

He answered quickly on the second lap of a seven-lap race, attacking explosively and shredding the field.

Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM), the world number one ranked rider, struggled to latch onto his wheel, and the bunch came back together once Van der Poel eased back on the pedals.

For the rest of the race, until the final lap, Van der Poel sat a few riders back from the lead, recovering, while Schurter, Victory Koretzky (KMC-Orbea) and Henrique Avancini (Cannondale Factory) took turns setting a high tempo. But on the final lap the Dutch rider attacked again and no one could respond. Koretzky beat Schurter at the line for second.

“It was different racing on mountain bikes with the wide handlebars … there’s was a lot of touching. But at the end I managed to pull out a win,” Van der Poel admitted..

Talking about his early attack, he explained, “I wanted to reduce the group a bit, because of the headwind it was tactical and I tried to get away with a little group, but there was nobody pushing on with me. So I tried to recover a bit for the last lap. I wanted a good starting position [for the XCO] and as many points as possible to go for the Olympics, so I’m happy I get to start with the leader’s jersey.”

Results :
1 Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) 0:20:39
2 Victor Koretzky (Fra) 0:00:02
3 Nino Schurter (Swi) 0:00:03
4 Henrique Avancini (Bra) 0:00:09
5 Mathias Flueckiger (Swi) 0:00:10
6 Jordan Sarrou (Fra) 0:00:11
7 Peter Disera (Can)
8 Luca Braidot (Ita) 0:00:13
9 Nadir Colledani (Ita) 0:00:14
10 Alan Hatherly (RSA)
11 Anton Cooper (NZl) 0:00:15
12 Lars Forster (Swi) 0:00:17
13 Titouan Carod (Fra) 0:00:18
14 Milan Vader (Ned)
15 Daniele Braidot (Ita) 0:00:20
16 Christopher Blevins (USA) 0:00:21
17 Ondřej Cink (Cze) 0:00:22
18 Jens Schuermans (Bel) 0:00:23
19 Maxime Marotte (Fra)
20 Maximilian Brandl (Ger) 0:00:24
21 Thomas Griot (Fra) 0:00:25
22 David Valero Serrano (Spa)
23 Manuel Fumic (Ger)
24 Leandre Bouchard (Can) 0:00:27
25 Sebastian Fini Carstensen (Den) 0:00:30
26 Vlad Dascalu (Rom) 0:00:31
27 Jofre Cullell Estape (Spa) 0:00:34
28 Stephane Tempier (Fra) 0:00:37
29 Reto Indergand (Swi) 0:00:46
30 Thomas Litscher (Swi) 0:00:50
31 Daniel Mcconnell (Aus) 0:01:07
32 Karl Markt (Aut) 0:01:08
33 Matthias Stirnemann (Swi) 0:01:12
34 Bartlomiej Wawak (Pol) 0:01:18
35 Keegan Swenson (USA) 0:01:22
36 Gerhard Kerschbaumer (Ita) 0:01:32
37 Andri Frischknecht (Swi)
38 Jose Gerardo Ulloa Arevalo (Mex)
39 Simon Andreassen (Den)
DNS Filippo Colombo (Swi)