MTB – XCC – World Cup 2023 – 3 – Leogang [FULL RACE] (ladies)

June 16, 2023

MTB – XCC – World Cup 2023 WE – 3 – Leogang, Austria

As the name suggests, these races take place on shorter versions of the XCO tracks, and are usually around 20 minutes in length. It’ll have fewer big features than the main XCO course, and is an all-out race from start to finish. The XCC kicks off the weekend of racing, taking place on the Friday evening. Short track was initially introduced to the World Cup series in 2018, when it was used to determine the start grid for the XCO race, and fed into the overall points. From 2022, the short track still determines Sunday’s start and there are points available for the XCO overall, but it also has its own overall competition.

Puck Pieterse (Alpecin-Deceuninck) led the group off the line to begin the first ascent on the open terrain, the wide track allowing for riders to position themselves headed to the first technical, slippery turns. Martina Berta (Santa Cruz RockShox Pro Team) then moved quickly past Pieterse for the lead on the second lap.

Evie Richards (Trek Factory Racing) led the charge midway through the second lap, only xx able to match the downhill acceleration on the slippery surface. Jenny Rissveds (Team 31 IBIS Cycles) was riding in third place but slipped and seemed to have a mechanical and dropped well back in the chase. Pieterse regained the lead on the big climb on the second lap, Richards and World Champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (Ineos Grenadiers) on her back wheel.

The threesome worked together on lap 3 for a solid lead over the field. Pieterse gained a little separation on the fourth climb, but it was Ferrand-Prevot who surged to the front on the final climb on the fifth lap, sliding a little sideways on the descent with Pieterse trying to close the distance, but the French rider winning by

Ferrand-Prevot took her first XCC victory of the season with a xx gap over Pieterse. Richards made a big push on the final descent to hold off Anne Terpstra (Ghost Factory Racing) for third.

“I won today so of course I am very happy. I tried to be smart, don’t push too much at the start and just try to follow. I knew I had to attack with like two laps to go, and it worked,” the World Champion said.

“When I saw Puck and Evie together at the front, I said ‘OK, I have to close the gap’. After that I tried to recover for one or two laps [before an attack].” That attack took place just before the final climb and she held the momentum to the end.

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