MTB – XCC – World Cup 2023 – 6 – Les Portes du Soleil [FULL RACE] (ladies)

September 8, 2023

MTB – XCC – World Cup 2023 WE – 6 – Les Portes du Soleil, France

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.

In the women’s short track the 21-year-old Pieterse came over the line ahead of Evie Richards (Trek Factory Racing XC), who passed Alessandra Keller (Thömus Maxon) in the last stretch to the line. Pieterse had broken away from the lead group of five that came into the final lap of seven together, recovering position quickly despite being disrupted by a coming together with Keller after the Swiss rider’s wheel slipped on a corner near the end of the penultimate lap.

“I knew it was a lap of three minutes with a long climb so everything could happen. Luckily they went a bit slower on the finish straight which meant I could get past them and then I just went all in to the top,” said Pieterse after recovering a little from the effort, which saw both her and second-placed Richards throw themselves down onto the grass straight after the line, spent but smiling. Pieterse also now leads the short-track standings after six rounds of eight.

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