In the women's race, Candice Lill is the first to get serious and pulls away from her competitors for a short time. But the South African was not alone for long. Her early attack soon led to the formation of a lead group of six, including Laura Stigger (AUT), the Swiss Alessandra Keller and Sina Frei, Loana Lecomte (FRA) and the American Savilia Blunk.

However, the lead group fell apart as Blunk and Lill stepped up the pace. Gradually, Lecomte was able to catch up again, followed by Laura Stigger. But even this constellation did not last at the end of the fourth lap. While Sina Frei and Rebecca Henderson (AUS) catch up, first Blunk and then Stigger fall behind. Candice Lill was also no longer able to keep up with Lecomte's rear wheel.

The final lap began and Lecomte's supposed dominance was suddenly called into question when Lill closed in again. But that's not all: Sina Frei starts to catch up and, together with her teammate Stigger, manages to catch up with Lecomte and Lill. Stigger wastes no time and launches the finale, but the quartet stays together until shortly before the finish. Stigger gets out of the saddle again and now only Frei can keep up. It comes to a sprint between the two Specialized riders, where the Austrian has the better end. Frei celebrates her best result in the Cross-Country World Cup with second place. Behind her, Loana Lecomte sprinted to third place, ahead of Lill and Henderson. 

"The race was brutally hard. I had a lull about three times, but then rode my rhythm and got going better and better towards the end and worked really well with Sina. The fact that we came first and second in the end is awesome," says a delighted Laura Stigger, while Sina Frei adds: "I never gave up, always tried to stay focused and ride my race. To be able to fight like that with my team-mate Laura at the end and then share the podium together, that's just great!"

Behind the podium places, Nicole Koller (SUI) showed a strong finish that put her in eleventh place, ahead of Alessandra Keller and Steffi Häberlin in ninth and tenth. For Häberlin, tenth place means her career best performance. With Jolanda Neff in 14th place, five Swiss women finish in the top 15.

Results

Koretzky with clever riding style to double victory

Alan Hatherly sets the pace at the start, with all the co-favorites such as Nino Schurter, Victor Koretzky and Filippo Colombo behind him. As early as lap two, Hatherly and Koretzky try to break away, resulting in a temporary three-man lead that also includes Colombo. However, the high pace of the chasers led to another breakaway. The favorites split off again and again, but never quite get away. The pace is horrendous and also provokes riding errors. On lap four, Alan Hatherly and Julian Schelb had to make an emergency stop in the tech zone to change their wheels.

On the fifth of eight laps, a leading group formed again, this time with eight riders, including four Swiss riders: Colombo, Flückiger, Schurter and Guerrini. Under Flückiger's pace dictates, the lead of the leading group increases, and now Schurter also has to enter the tech zone due to a flat tire. At the start of the third-to-last lap, the leading group, which had shrunk to five riders and also included French riders Victor Koretzky and Mathis Azzaro, was eleven seconds ahead of the chasers.

However, even this lead began to crumble as the chasers slowly made up ground, including Alan Hatherly. In fact, the Hatherly group merges and eleven riders start the second-to-last lap together, now with a clear lead over the chasers. The breakaway begins as Guerrini presses the gas, and again the lead shrinks to five riders - Flückiger, Koretzky, Hatherly, Colombo and Guerrini. Azzaro drops back as he complains of a puncture for the second time. Although the Italian Christopher Blevins and Luca Braidot come dangerously close again, the finale is already underway. Colombo pulls through the group and tries from the front in the twisty final phase. Probably too early, as the Ticino rider lacks the decisive punch on the final straight. Victor Koretzky wins ahead of Alan Hatherly, while Colombo takes third place ahead of Marcel Guerrini and Mathias Flückiger.

"It was incredibly fast. Until shortly before the end, it was hard to tell who was the strongest. I tried to hide a bit and that paid off in the end. I'm very proud to have landed a double victory this weekend and even more proud of our team performance," said Victor Koretzky.

Results

Keller and Hatherly lead shortly before the end

In the overall World Cup rankings, with cross country and short track combined, Alessandra Keller leads with 1383 points. Savilia Blunk, Candice Lill, Laura Stigger and Puck Pieterse are clearly behind Keller with 1061, 1053, 1025 and 1023 points, but make the race for second place all the more exciting.

Intermediate classification

Alan Hatherly clearly leads the men's classification with 1378 points. He is followed by Victor Koretzky with 1119, Filippo Colombo with 1085, Nino Schurter 1036 and Mathias Flückiger with 974 points.

Intermediate classification