Vlad Dascalu, four-time U23 World Cup winner this season and U23 European champion, is in a class of his own. Dascalu, who has lived in Spain for twelve years, takes the first world title for a Romanian mountain biker after riding up and away. The Spaniard Jofre Cullell attacked, Dascalu went with him and the Iberian crashed behind him.

Filippo Colombo first leads the chasing group, but then last year's world championship runner-up Christopher Blevins takes second place, while Vital Albin gets closer and closer from behind.
First Colombo is caught, then Blevins too. Now it is the Dane Simon Andreassen who breaks into the group. Vital Albin is able to keep up, while Colombo falls back due to a rear wheel defect. He doesn't lose all his air and is still able to ride halfway. However, he drops back to eighth place and seems to lose his chances of a medal.

In the penultimate of six laps, Vital Albin gets caught out. He suffers a front wheel defect and loses contact with Andreassen. He is lucky that the technical zone is not far away, so that he only loses half a minute and is able to resume the race in third place, ten seconds ahead of team colleague Colombo, who has left a chasing group behind him with the best lap time.

Not enough dramatic twists and turns. Colombo was able to catch up with Albin and was in third place when Simon Andreassen suffered a rear wheel defect on the technical "La Beatrice" descent. On the following climb to the "Zig Zag", Colombo rides past the two-time junior world champion. Albin is also able to overtake his rival, who has no chance.
Both finish the last kilometer safely and celebrate silver and bronze.

"I've felt insecure over the last few days and had a bad feeling. As if an infection was coming on. In the race, I then tried to ride at the front, but to go my pace. There were a lot of punctures and I also had a flat tire. After that I thought it would be difficult to win a medal. Now I'm super, super happy with the silver medal," commented Filippo Colombo on his first individual world championship medal.

While Colombo was one of the favorites, Vital Albin was not expected to be in the medal ranks. However, the 2016 Junior World Championship silver medallist had a very good day. "I felt good before the race and was hoping for a top ten finish. It went well right from the start, and the start was good too. I got further and further forward and suddenly I was third," said Albin. "I was lucky that the flat tire happened not far from the tech zone. After that, I tried to look on the bright side and ride as if I hadn't had it and concentrate fully on the race. It was a mega cool race."

Alexandre Balmer also rode a strong race. In ninth place (+3:19), he achieved his best result of the season. "I never thought I would finish so far ahead," says Balmer. "I was in a lot of traffic jams at the start, but then I had good pacing. I'm very happy in my first U23 year."
On the final lap, he experienced another scary moment when he crashed in the La Beatrice section and fell between two protective mats. He lost two positions in the process.

With Joel Roth and Fabio Püntener, two more Swiss athletes make it into the top 15, while Ursin Spescha finishes the World Championships in 46th place, which is not what he wanted.

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