At the World Cup opener in Nove Mesto na Morave, Linda Indergand was the best Swiss athlete in third place. She finished 1:18 minutes behind world champion Annika Langvad (Den, 1:28:45) and 22 seconds behind Sabine Spitz (Germany), recording the second-best result of her career. Alessandra Keller (Stans) finished 16th (+4:34).

Linda Indergand's final offensive

Linda Indergand got off to her usual good start and took the lead in the race. After a 2.8-kilometre start lap, Annika Langvad takes the lead on a climb and is unstoppable from then on. Indergand has to let the Canadian Catharine Pendrel pass her, but she suffers a chain break one lap later. Indergand moves back into second position. But only briefly, as Sabine Spitz makes a big move and passes the Swiss rider. This settles the classification in the first three positions, but things get exciting again in the final lap. Yana Belomoina from Ukraine passes Indergand, but she manages to counter in a technical passage. "I rode the passage cleanly and was able to go out onto the asphalt first," says Indergand, explaining how she defended third place after all. Not far behind her, Poland's Maja Wloszczowska and Germany's Adelheid Morath were also within striking distance, but it was enough for Indergand's second-best result after second place in Cairns.

Third place in Nove Mesto should perhaps be valued more highly, however, because not all of the top riders were at the start in Australia at the time. "I'm over the moon that it was enough for third place. After the spring results, I was hoping for a top five result," says a beaming Linda Indergand. For Alessandra Keller, things didn't go quite as planned. She starts well, but can't keep up with the pace at the front. She is in eighth place. "But then I had a performance gap and had to let the group go," says Keller. "That certainly wasn't the optimum, I could have done better. It's only my second elite year, I'm still U23," she tries to classify this critically.

Jolanda Neff disappoints in 18th place

Jolanda Neff reaches the finish line in 18th place (+4:53). The European champion was second behind Linda Indergand on the first lap, but was unable to keep up the pace. She shrugs her shoulders at the finish. "It's quite simple: the form isn't there yet," she says. Neff denies that she should perhaps have held back at the start. "No, that was the best thing about the whole race. It allowed me to position myself on the trails. I don't think the result would have been any different if I had started slower."

Jenny Rissveds decides not to start

Olympic champion Jenny Rissveds has not traveled to Nove Mesto. Two relatives close to her recently passed away. According to "Scott-SRAM" team manager Thomas Frischknecht, Jenny Rissveds will also not be competing in Albstadt. "Sometimes there are more important things than riding bike races," explained Frischknecht in an interview with Red Bull TV.