While Sina Frei gets off to a very bad start, Kate Courtney pulls away within the first two kilometers. She confidently takes her third victory of the season and her fourth overall.

Sina Frei takes second position from Haley Batten (USA) at the end of the first of four laps, but is unable to close the gap on Courtney. On the contrary, she loses more and more time against the outstanding Courtney. Nevertheless, the U23 European champion is not at all unhappy at the finish. After the European Championships she got a sore throat and in the middle of the week she also came down with a cold. "I can't really explain my poor start. But overall I'm satisfied with my performance and result under the circumstances. I was never able to push myself to the limit today." Part of the gap is due to a crash on lap three, when the handlebars and gears on Sina Frei's bike twisted as a result.

Nicole Koller has an even worse start than Frei. A problem she has had for some time and is still puzzling over. "I'm still looking for the reasons," she nods at the finish line. "Maybe I'm just too anxious. I don't think it's a physical problem." Once she got going, things went quite well. She rode from twelfth to fifth place and crossed the finish line 5:32 minutes behind Courtney.

Ramona Kupferschmied was the third Swiss athlete to achieve her best World Cup result in eleventh place (+9:45).

Great Britain's Evie Richards, previously tied on points with Sina Frei in third place, is not at the start. Kate Courtney therefore leads ahead of the final in Val di Sole, 60 points ahead of Sina Frei and 130 ahead of Richards.

Blums gets closer to overall victory

Latvian Martins Blums wins the U23 World Cup in Mont Sainte Anne, Canada. With his second win of the season 45 seconds ahead of Nadir Colledani, Blums extends his lead in the overall standings to 77 points ahead of the final and is therefore on the verge of the first overall victory for a Latvian. Third place goes to the Dane Simon Andreassen (+1:31). Simon Vitzthum battled for the podium for four out of six laps, but was relegated to fifth place (+2:14) by Canadian Quinton Disera in the sprint at the end.

Martins Blums starts a solo in the first lap, which gives him his second U23 World Cup victory after the one in Lenzerheide. Behind him, Simon Vitzthum is surprisingly fighting for a place on the podium. He got off to a good start and proved to be so strong, especially on the longer climbs, that he also distanced Simon Andreassen and overtook Peter Disera to take second place.

The picture changes in the middle of the race. While Blums continues to ride confidently at the front, Andreassen recovers and moves up from fifth to second. Vitzthum allowed himself a crash in which he injured his wrist. "I couldn't pull the handlebars properly on the climb," he says later. That robs him of some of his strength.
Vitzthum was unable to keep up with the rear wheel of the U23 European Championship bronze medallist from Denmark and also had to let the U23 European runner-up Nadir Colledani, who was coming up from behind, pass him.

He maintained fourth place until the home straight, but then Quinton Disera sprinted past him. "I knew I had to do it on the climb because I'm not a good sprinter," he says at the finish, shrugging his shoulders. "But it's still top five and I can be happy with that."

Vital Albin fights his way forward position by position. In the final, however, he can no longer keep up. "It's been like this all season, I still lack the stamina," says Albin. "But I'm happy with my eleventh place." He crossed the finish line 3:53 minutes behind Blums (1:23:37).

World Cup #6, Mont Saint Anne/CAN, XCO Women U23 & Men U23
1.	Kate Courtney (Specialized Racing / USA)	01:06.34
2.	Sina Frei (JB Brunex Felt / SUI)	01:09.05	+2.31
3.	Lucie Urruty (SCOTT CREUSE OXYGENE GUERET / FRA)	01:10.10	+3.36
4.	Haley Batten (CLIF PRO TEAM / USA)	01:10.36	+4.02
5.	Nicole Koller (MOEBEL MAERKI MTB PRO TEAM / SUI)	01:12.06	+5.32
11.	Ramona Kupferschmied (WHEELER PRO TEAM / SUI)	01:16.19	+9.45
15.	Aline Seitz (ROSE VAUJANY FUELED BY ULTRASPORTS / SUI)	01:19.19	+12.45
Men U23
1.	Martin Blums (ZZK / LAT)	01:23.37
2.	Nadir Colledani (Torpado Gabogas / ITA)	01:24.22	+0.45
3.	Simon Andreassen (Specialized Racing / DEN)	01:25.08	+1.31
4.	Quinton Disera (Norco FactoryTeam XC / CAN)	01:25.51	+2.14
5.	Simon Vitzthum (Bischi Kopierpapier / SUI)	01:25.51	+2.14
11.	Vital Albin (Bike Team Solothurn / SUI)	01:27.30	+3.53
18.	Nick Burki (Bike Team Solothurn / SUI)	01:28.52	+5.15
20.	Leo L'Homme (Team VTT BMC Fribourg / BMC)	01:29.16	+5.39
23.	Andrin Beeli (Scott Development MTB Team / SUI)	01:30.22	+6.45
28.	Arnaud Hertling (Team VTT BMC Fribourg / SUI)	01:32.15	+8.38
33.	Sandro Trevisani (Team Dom Cycle / SUI)	01:34.22	+10.45
35.	Ramon Lauener (JB Brunex Felt Team / SUI)	01:35.16	+11.39
37.	Ursin Spescha (Bike Team Solothurn / SUI)	01:35.52	+12.15