In the elite final of the short track race, the women put the pedal to the metal at the start and quickly split the field. The Italian Martina Berta was the first to do so, but Rebecca Henderson (AUS) and Alessandra Keller also did a lot of leading work. Keller is ultimately able to take the overall World Cup victory in the short track.

The horrendous pace reduces the leading group to ten riders after the halfway point of the race, and the number is decreasing. Swiss champion Keller soon pays tribute to her dictated pace and loses the last of her energy on the last climb before the finish when she gets caught in the inside bend and loses momentum. Although she manages to catch up with the leading group again, she falls back at the next increase in pace.

Further ahead is Puck Pieterse (NED), Keller's toughest rival, in the battle for overall short track victory. In the penultimate round, the leading group is reduced once again to Laura Stigger (AUT), Rebecca Henderson and Loana Lecomte, who has cleverly hidden until now. However, Pieterse was unable to keep up the pace, even when Evie Richards (GBR) tried to close the gap to the leading trio on her own.

Meanwhile, Laura Stigger had pulled away and was celebrated as the winner of the final a little later. "It's just crazy and cool that I can now follow up my cross-country victory last weekend with a win in the short track. Let's see what's possible on Sunday in cross country, but I'm not making any predictions, it's a new race," said Stigger a few minutes after her victory.

Places two and three go to Loana Lecomte and Rebecca Henderson, Evie Richards takes fourth place ahead of Puck Pieterse, who is now also the overall short track winner after her early overall World Cup victory in cross country. The best Swiss athlete is Sina Frei in ninth place.

Results

Koretzky confident from A to Z

The men start the last race of the season just as furiously. The German short-track cannon Luca Schwarzbauer is always at the front of the pack, following the fast start of Romanian Vlad Dascalu. Victor Koretzky also joins him in the fast pace at the front. Also at the front is Nino Schurter, who is very aggressive.

At the halfway point of the race, the field actually splits, but the ten or so riders are unable to maintain the gap and there is another big break-up on this super-fast course. And once again it is Koretzky who ensures that the riders at the back of the field are unable to break into the front ranks with his pace.

However, Tom Pidcock, who had been in hiding for a long time, was still able to advance. But you wait in vain for the cross-country world champion to attack. Instead, Lars Forster takes the lead with two laps to go. However, the attack was again launched by a Frenchman. It was Victor Koretzky, who rode away with compatriot Jordan Sarrou and team colleague Christopher Blevins (USA), then rode to victory alone on the last lap.

Forster starts another chase to catch up, but instead of sprinting for a podium place, it goes to Sarrou and Blevins. The Swiss rider finished the race in 15th place after an incident on the final section. Pidcock took fourth place, Schurter finished fifth and collected important points in the battle for overall victory in the cross country. The "small" overall victory goes to Luca Schwarzbauer, who confidently defends the leader's jersey in the short track with seventh place.

Results

Blöchlinger and Boichis take overall victories

Swiss rider Ronja Blöchlinger and Frenchman Adrien Boichis were crowned overall UCI World Cup winners in the U23 short course on Thursday. Both riders underlined their claim to the title by winning the final round in Mont-Sainte-Anne.

Blöchlinger's victory in the final means that she has now won eight out of eight races in the U23 short track and is the only athlete across all formats of the UCI Mountain Bike World Series to remain unbeaten throughout the season. The Swiss rider beat Kiwi Samara Maxwell (Rockrider Ford) in Canada and relegated compatriot Noëlle Buri (Bixs Performance Race Team) to third place. Maxwell and Buri also finished the season in second and third place in the overall standings.

In the men's race, Adrien Boichis was able to break away from a group that also included Canadian Carter Woods (Giant Factory Off-Road Team -XC) and Riley Amos from Trek Factory Racing XC. Woods and the American Amos took second and third place in the race and in the overall standings.

Boichis' victory in the short course is enough to secure overall victory in the Olympic U23 Cross Country World Cup series ahead of the final race on Sunday.

Results U23 women

Results U23 men