Hatherly lands race and overall victory, Lecomte takes World Cup win no. 11 and Lillo no. 1
Loana Lecomte takes the lead on lap one, initially with Australian Rebecca Henderson, then Evie Richards, Sina Frei and Laura Stigger soon gather around the Frenchwoman. However, the Frenchwoman soon tries to get away again and rides over ten seconds ahead of her pursuers Frei, Lill and Stigger. However, the solo run does not last long, in lap two Sina Frei and Laura Stigger catch up, while Candice Lill falls back a little. However, Frei was also unable to keep up the pace at the front and was now riding between the leading group and the chasing group, which included Alessandra Keller.
Nothing happened at the front until the last lap, but then Lecomte launched an attack and immediately put a few seconds between herself and Stigger. The Austrian first tried to keep the gap small, but then lost ground in the meantime. Even though she comes closer again towards the end, she can no longer challenge Loana Lecomte for the win.
Sina Frei takes third place with a clear gap to her pursuers. Candice Lill and Alessandra Keller battled it out for fourth place, with Lill coming out on top. Steffi Häberlin and Tamara Wiedmann also put in impressive races. The Swiss and the Austrian set new personal bests in the Cross-Country World Cup with eighth and ninth place respectively.
A strong performance almost from A to Z
The men's race starts quickly but cautiously. But just as nothing much happens, world champion Alan Hatherly makes his move and quickly creates a gap between himself and his pursuers. Behind them, Victor Koretzky and Mathis Azzaro ride individually before a larger group follows with Filippo Colombo, Charlie Aldridge, Jordan Sarrou and others. Nevertheless, it is a dangerous endeavor for the South African, even if it looks like a success early on.
In fact, his lead begins to shrink in the last third of the race and Frenchman Azzaro closes the gap at the end of the sixth lap. But the expectation that Hatherly would relinquish the lead from now on and Azzaro would soon be riding alone was not fulfilled - on the contrary. Towards the end of the seventh lap, the Frenchman falls back again and the world champion tackles the final lap with a 14-second lead.
The tension rises as the focus shifts to the five-man chasing group, which includes Colombo, Aldridge and Sarrou as well as Victor Koretzky and Simone Avondetto (ITA). And it is Aldridge who is looking for the decision for third place. However, this does not concern Hatherly. Contrary to expectations, the South African extended his lead and rode to a commanding victory, rather winning the overall standings as well.
Aldridge and Koretzky battled for third place behind second-placed Azzaro. However, the Frenchman found a few more grains of energy and overtook the Briton before the home straight. Filippo Colombo was unable to intervene in the remaining fight for the remaining podium places and finished seventh, with fifth place going to Simone Avondetto. Nino Schurter rides to eighth place, Marcel Guerrini finishes tenth. Italian Filippo Fontana achieves his personal best with eleventh place, as does Max Foidl from Austria. The two Germans Max Brandl and David List finish 14th and 15th respectively.
Böhm and Lillo do the double
Before and after the elite women's and men's cross-country races, the U23 World Cups take place, where Kira Böhm (Cube Factory Racing) and Dario Lillo (Giant Factory Off-Road Team) put in a commanding performance, taking a double victory in both the short track and cross-country races.
The U23 women's cross-country World Cup opens the action on the final day of the season. Böhm put in a dominant performance and added to her victory in the short track on Thursday with a win in the cross-country race. But things could have turned out very differently had the U23 world champion Isabella Holmgren not crashed. Holmgren, the home favorite, built up an impressive lead after attacking on the second lap and increasing her lead by almost a minute in a single lap of the Mont-Sainte-Anne course. But just one lap later, she crashes: the 19-year-old flies over the handlebars and hits the ground hard. Although she was able to get back on, she lost more than four minutes as a result and had to retire.
Böhm meanwhile took the opportunity to pull away from Olivia Onesti (Trinx Factory Team) and build up an unassailable lead. It is her third win of the season in cross country, which secures her the overall standings as well as the short track title. Behind Onesti, Switzerland's Fiona Schibler rode to third place.
After the race, Böhm said: "This means a lot to me. It's great that I managed the double victory here in Mont-Sainte-Anne, just like at the start of the season in Brazil. That was the best finish. I'm really looking forward to next year in the elite. It will certainly be fun, but also very tough."
In the U23 men's race, Dario Lillo, Luca Martin and Yannis Musy set themselves apart from the rest of the field and built up a considerable lead on the first lap. Instead of challenging each other for supremacy, the trio work well to increase their lead and put themselves in a good position to fight for the top three places afterwards.
This three-way battle is not ridden to the finish line, however, as Lillo launches an attack at the start of the final lap that Martin and Musy simply cannot follow. The Swiss rider, who had already won both short track races in North America, put on a powerful charge and could no longer be caught. He rides the fastest lap of the race and even overcomes a small crash as he time trialed his way to the finish line and his first World Cup victory in cross country. Martin finished second, Musy third.
"This means a lot to me, because it hasn't been the easiest season for me. I went into the season with high expectations and in Brazil I had quite a few problems in the first few laps. I was able to recover well before the World Championships and from then on I was able to hit the ground running. The trip we took with my team in the last few weeks was the best two weeks of my life. We had so much fun and there was a great atmosphere. I think you can see that in the results. In the second half of the season Luca Martin and I had a few duels and I knew where his strengths were, so I knew from my short races that the sprint on the last lap is pretty good. I tried that and I was able to pull away at the highest point. When I crashed, it was hard to get back into the race, but I was able to do it and win the race by a few seconds. That's all that matters," summed up Lillo.
Riley Amos finished in 13th place to complete his overall victory in the U23 World Cup. For the American, it was the last race in the U23 category and, like Böhm, will move up to the elite class next season.
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