MTB – XCC – World Cup 2024 – 5 – Crans-Montana [FULL RACE] (ladies)

June 22, 2024

MTB – XCC – World Cup 2024 WE – 5 – – Crans-Montana, Valais, Switzerland 🇨🇭

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.

Pieterse rode steady on the early laps and waited until the final lap to launch her attack, moving past compatriot Tauber on the climb and taking a three-second advantage once across the crest. As she rocketed down the descent, she lost some momentum when her back wheel skidded out, but she remained upright and crossed the line alone for the win, four seconds ahead of the chasers.

“It was very tactical, every time especially on the last part of the climb we went all in then on the descents it stayed quite together and on the road it was just looking at each other,” Pieterse said.

“I knew they’d have to push really hard to come back every time and we saved the energy for the climb. Luckily, I could profit off Anna’s [Tauber] attack a bit, I had the feeling I maybe wasn’t the fastest in the descent, I didn’t want to take any big risks. Let’s hope for such good legs tomorrow.”

Lecomte and Keller were part of the early selection of riders on the first lap along with Tauber, Pieterse and US rider Gwendalyn Gibson (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli), who returned to racing in Nove Mesto after breaking her collarbone to start the season.

Lecomte was the only rider to reap rewards from an attack on the second lap, but the chasers pulled her back on the technical course. Once on the finish straight with Pieterse long gone, it was a final push by Keller to stay in frornt of Lecomte for second place.

Keller, the reigning Swiss champion, was dropped on a final climb and worked her way back to be part of the sprint for the final podium spots.

“I rode well uphill and although I was slightly left behind on the last lap, I was able to take second place. Because I knew I was very good downhill. It’s really cool to come second in front of the home crowd,” she said.

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