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

May 9, 2021

MTB World Cup 2021 – 1 – XCO – 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.

Victor Koretzky (KMC-Orbea) took his first elite mountain bike World Cup win on Sunday at the season-opener in Albstadt, Germany, after French women had finished 1-2 a few hours earlier. With his win and second place in the Short track on Friday, Koretzky also donned the World Cup leader’s jersey.

Albstadt is one of the hardest courses on the World Cup circuit with two long, steep climbs per lap, and once again it tested the riders. Along with Round 2 of the World Cup, next weekend in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, Albstadt is a final qualification event for the Tokyo Olympics, so there were ‘races within races’, as riders fight to qualify for their Olympic teams. After being cold all week, the temperature had shifted overnight to hot – 27 Celcius – adding to the difficulties the riders faced.

The men’s race boasted a stellar field, including Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM) looking for a record-tying 33rd World Cup win, Short Track winner Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) in his first XCO since 2019 and Amstel Gold second-place finisher Thomas Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) in his first elite World Cup race.

Henrique Avancini (Cannondale Factory) took the lead on the start loop and was quickly joined by van der Poel, who attacked on the climb. Avancini was the only rider able to join the Dutchman and the two went ten seconds clear before a chase group led by Schurter began to reel them in, catching them late on the first lap. The attack proved to be ill-advised, with both riders falling off the pace of the leaders; van der Poel would eventually recover to finish seventh, while Avancini was tenth.

At the front, a group formed containing Schurter, Koretzky, 2019 Albstadt winner Mathias Flueckiger (Thomus RN Swiss Bike), Ondrej Cink (Kross Orlen) and world champion Jordan Sarrou (Specialized). Flueckiger and Cink were the most aggressive on the climbs, with only Koretzky and Schurter able to consistently follow them. Others would come back to the group after the descents but were eventually dropped after successive climbs, reducing the race to these four.

Behind them, Pidcock was having a remarkable ride up through the field. Having no UCI mountain bike ranking, Pidcock started on the 11th row with plate 100. He passed over 60 riders on the start loop to move into the top-25, and was up with the leaders by the end of Lap 2. However, the effort took its toll, and he began yo-yoing off the group whenever attacks took place on the climbs. He managed to claw his way back to fifth by the finish, only six seconds out of a top-3.

“I was happy with how it went,” said Pidcock. “It was very hot and I think a lot of guys blew themselves up on the first lap, me included. After that I tried to just settle in. But I had a slow leak in my rear tire and on the last lap it had gone completely flat by the time I got to the finish. But next week I’ll be able to do the Short Track, and hopefully I can go for a front row start in the XCO and I’ll be in a much better situation.”

Flueckiger looked to be the strongest on the climbs, with Koretzky and Schurter just following, and Cink getting dropped regularly whenever the pace went up. On the fifth and second to last lap, Flueckiger managed to get a small gap on the other two before they fought back, however, on the final lap he looked to have a problem – his dropper post, which he had dropped for the descent, didn’t spring back up, forcing him to ride standing up. When Schurter attacked, only Koretzky could respond.

“I felt very strong,” said Flueckiger, “and my tactic was to be first on the first climb of the last lap, because if I could make it to the top in first then I could probably have the victory. But then I had the mechanical problem and I had to stand up for the full lap. This was really hard, and all I could do was fight for third place. Bad luck happens some times, so I’m very happy to get third place in this situation.”

Schurter led up the final climb and down the descent, with Koretzky on his wheel. It looked like the race would come down to a sprint on the final 100 metres of asphalt, but then Koretzky managed to overtake Schurter in one of the final corners, leading through the pump track section and onto the asphalt finishing straight. Schurter attempted to catch him in the sprint, but Koretzky held him off for his first elite World Cup win. Flueckiger managed to stay ahead of Cink for third, with Pidcock taking the fifth and final podium spot.

“I can’t believe, it’s amazing,” said Koretzky. “In the warmup I didn’t feel like I was in my best shape, but after the first two laps it got better and better. On the first lap I was able to follow the front group. I didn’t take the lead and just focussed on the finish line. It was the tactic my manager and I talked about before the race because it was so hot. Then I was able to pass Nino in the grass and just take my sprint to the finish line. It was amazing and I don’t know what else to say.”

Results :
1 Victor Koretzky (France) 1:20:23
2 Nino Schurter (Switzerland) 0:00:02
3 Mathias Flueckiger (Switzerland) 0:00:23
4 Ondřej Cink (Czech Republic) 0:00:25
5 Thomas Pidcock (Great Britain) 0:00:29
6 Anton Cooper (New Zealand) 0:00:30
7 Mathieu Van Der Poel (Netherlands) 0:01:13
8 Alan Hatherly (South Africa) 0:01:19
9 Thomas Griot (France) 0:01:33
10 Henrique Avancini (Brazil) 0:02:05
11 Jordan Sarrou (France) 0:02:06
12 Thomas Litscher (Switzerland) 0:02:19
13 Christopher Blevins (United States Of America) 0:02:26
14 Gerhard Kerschbaumer (Italy) 0:02:30
15 Leandre Bouchard (Canada) 0:02:42
16 Maxime Marotte (France) 0:02:51
17 Joshua Dubau (France) 0:03:03
18 Vlad Dascalu (Romania) 0:03:09
19 Luca Schwarzbauer (Germany) 0:03:12
20 Maximilian Brandl (Germany) 0:03:13
21 Manuel Fumic (Germany) 0:03:16
22 Nadir Colledani (Italy) 0:03:17
23 Reto Indergand (Switzerland) 0:03:28
24 Andri Frischknecht (Switzerland) 0:03:34
25 Milan Vader (Netherlands) 0:03:43
26 Simon Andreassen (Denmark) 0:03:45
27 Martin Fanger (Switzerland) 0:03:47
28 David Valero Serrano (Spain) 0:04:04
29 Vital Albin (Switzerland) 0:04:08
30 Karl Markt (Austria)
31 Bartlomiej Wawak (Poland) 0:04:22
32 Martins Blums (Latvia) 0:04:23
33 Georg Egger (Germany) 0:04:36
34 Jens Schuermans (Belgium) 0:04:45
35 Jan Škarnitzl (Czech Republic) 0:04:46
36 Luiz Henrique Cocuzzi (Brazil) 0:04:53
37 Ben Oliver (New Zealand) 0:04:54
38 Pablo Rodriguez Guede (Spain) 0:05:13
39 Marcel Guerrini (Switzerland) 0:05:22
40 Antoine Philipp (France) 0:05:32
41 Gioele Bertolini (Italy) 0:05:36
42 Peter Disera (Canada) 0:05:38
43 Daniel Mcconnell (Australia)
44 Anton Sintsov (Russian Federation)
45 Erik Hægstad (Norway) 0:05:40
46 Ismael Esteban Aguero (Spain) 0:05:47
47 Dmytro Titarenko (Ukraine) 0:05:50
48 Filip Helta (Poland) 0:05:56
49 Sascha Weber (Germany) 0:06:05
50 Lukas Flückiger (Switzerland) 0:06:08
51 Pierre De Froidmont (Belgium) 0:06:12
52 Lars Forster (Switzerland) 0:06:25
53 Hugo Drechou (France) 0:06:29
54 Cole Paton (United States Of America) 0:06:32
55 Jofre Cullell Estape (Spain) 0:06:44
56 Oleksandr Koniaiev (Ukraine) 0:06:52
57 Catriel Soto (Argentina) 0:06:59
58 Luca Braidot (Italy) 0:07:02
59 Ivan Filatov (Russian Federation) 0:07:05
60 Sergio Mantecon Gutierrez (Spain) 0:07:06
61 Mário Costa (Portugal) 0:07:07
62 Maximilian Foidl (Austria) 0:07:12
63 Andrew L’Esperance (Canada) 0:07:18
64 Basile Allard (France)
65 Rok Naglič (Slovenia) 0:07:19
66 Niklas Schehl (Germany) 0:07:26
67 Samuel Gaze (New Zealand) 0:07:54
68 Jonas Lindberg (Denmark) 0:08:06
69 Sebastian Fini Carstensen (Denmark)
70 Emil Hasund Eid (Norway) 0:08:07
71 Ulan Bastos Galinski (Brazil) 0:08:20
72 Emil Lindgren (Sweden) 0:08:24
73 Gregor Raggl (Austria) 0:08:25
74 Fabian Giger (Switzerland)
75 Andrin Beeli (Switzerland) 0:08:45
76 Titouan Carod (France) 0:09:05
77 Jose Gerardo Ulloa Arevalo (Mexico) 0:09:14
78 András Parti (Hungary) 0:09:16
79 Frazer Clacherty (Great Britain) 0:09:26
80 Bruno Vitali (Switzerland) 0:09:30
81 Keegan Swenson (United States Of America) 0:09:35
82 Sven Olivetti (Switzerland) 0:09:45
83 Simon Vitzthum (Switzerland) 0:09:58
84 Jan Vastl (Czech Republic) 0:10:07
85 Luis Neff (Germany) 0:10:14
86 Matthias Stirnemann (Switzerland) 0:10:23
87 Josef Jelínek (Czech Republic) 0:10:33
88 Julian Schelb (Germany) 0:10:43
89 Nicolas Delich Pardo (Chile) 0:10:53
90 Fabio Hernando Castañeda Monsalve (Colombia) 0:10:58
91 Sean Fincham (Canada) 0:11:01
92 Timofei Ivanov (Russian Federation) 0:11:03
93 Clément Auvin (France) 0:11:05
94 Dario Thoma (Switzerland) 0:11:08
95 Maxime Loret (France) 0:11:16
96 Tim Feinauer (Germany) 0:11:25
97 Kevin Krieg (Switzerland) 0:11:31
98 Mirko Tabacchi (Italy) 0:11:50
99 Sebastian Miranda Maldonado (Chile) 0:11:56
100 Kohei Yamamoto (Japan) 0:12:44
101 Ursin Spescha (Switzerland) 0:16:17
102 Raphael Auclair (Canada)
103 Karol Ostaszewski (Poland)
104 Joris Ryf (Switzerland)
105 Jhonatan Botero Villegas (Colombia)
106 Martin Haring (Slovakia)
107 Lucas Dubau (France)
108 Thibault Daniel (France)
109 Pau Romero Barcelo (Spain)
110 Marc Andre Fortier (Canada)
111 Silas Graf (Germany)
112 Shlomi Haimy (Israel)
113 Rob Vanden Haesevelde (Belgium)
114 Quinton Disera (Canada)
115 Pierre-Geoffroy Plantet (France)
116 Matej Ulik (Slovakia)
117 Zsombor Palumby (Hungary)
118 Periklis Ilias (Greece)
119 Tomáš Paprstka (Czech Republic)
120 Nick Burki (Switzerland)
121 Tobias Steinhart (Germany)
122 Alexandre Vialle (Canada)
123 Abdulkadir Kelleci (Turkey)
124 Marcel Meisen (Germany)
125 Lorenzo Serres (France)
126 Alex Bregenzer (Germany)
127 Vincent Sibille (France)
128 Tristan De Lange (Namibia)
129 Florian Trigo (France)
130 Dimitrios Antoniadis (Greece)
131 Tyler Orschel (Canada)
132 Max Wetzel (Germany)
133 Arthur Tropardy (France)
134 Charoun Molla Amet Ali Oglou (Greece)
135 Raphael Gagne (Canada)
136 Victor Vidal (France)
137 Zdeněk Vobecký (Czech Republic)
138 Ede-Karoly Molnar (Romania)
139 Heiko Hog (Germany)
140 Tomáš Burcák (Slovakia)
141 Serdar Depe (Turkey)
142 Felix Belhumeur (Canada)
DNF Daan Soete (Belgium)
DNF Moritz Bscherer (Austria)
DNF Simon Gegenheimer (Germany)
DNF Stephane Tempier (France)
DNF Krzysztof Lukasik (Poland)
DNF Filippo Colombo (Switzerland)
DNF Gioele De Cosmo (Italy)
DNF Simon Gutmann (Germany)
DNF Guilherme Gotardelo Muller (Brazil)
DNS Daniele Braidot (Italy)
DNS Nicholas Pettina’ (Italy)
DNS Jakub Zamrozniak (Poland)