By the end of the sixth of eight laps, a four-man leading group is at work, which surprisingly includes Mathias Flückiger. The rider from Leimiswil has been on a break since the beginning of August due to illness and is coming back strongly. He even led the group at times. "It was much easier in the technical sections, you don't have to watch out for anyone in front of you. I wasn't able to keep up the pace either, I'm still lacking intensity. But I was able to ride at a high rhythm," explained Flückiger.

Nino Schurter attacked a few times, but never went all out. "I didn't want to dominate the race, but I did pull away a few times," explains Schurter. Jaroslav Kulhavy parried all of the world champion's moves. Fontana and Flückiger, on the other hand, had to suffer time and again. At the end of the sixth lap, an attack by Nino Schurter finally breaks up the group and the race becomes a duel between the two Olympic rivals. In Hafjell, it also went in the Czech's favor, who stayed with the group until the last lap and pulled away with all his might on the last long climb.

His lead before the final descent was not large, but Schurter was unable to close the gap and finished seven seconds behind. "Jaroslav was very strong today. I can be very happy with second place. I haven't trained with the same consistency over the last two weeks and you can tell," explained Schurter.

For Kulhavy, it is the seventh World Cup victory of his career. "I like these duels with Nino. But I don't know if he likes them too," says Kulhavy with a grin. The answer to that is yet to come. Mathias Flückiger was able to leave Fontana behind, but his team-mate Fumic caught up with him and decided the duel for third place in his favor. "It's a conciliatory finish. It paid off that I skipped the World Championships and focused entirely on the World Cup final. If I had ridden the World Championships, it would have meant an interruption in my build-up," says last year's World Championship bronze medallist. Fabian Giger finishes the World Cup season in tenth place.

Lukas Flückiger will have to miss the start in Hafjell due to his two broken ribs, as will his BMC team-mate Julien Absalon, who will also have to take a break due to broken ribs. Although Ralph Näf is not doing particularly well either, the team from Grenchen is defending its lead in the team standings ahead of Multivan-Merida and Scott-Swisspower.

www.hafjellworldcup.com

Rankings World Cup 2013, #6 Hafjell/NOR, men:
1. Jaroslav Kulhavy (CZE)	1.36.19	+0.00
2. Nino Schurter (SUI)	1.36.26	+0.07
3. Manuel Fumic (GER)	1.37.53	+1.34
4th Mathias Flückiger (SUI)	1.38.05	+1.46
5th Marco Aurelio Fontana (ITA)	1.38.26	+2.07
6th Mattias Wengelin (SWE)	1.38.36	+2.17
7th Daniel McConnell (AUS)	1.38.47	+2.28
8th Ondrej Cink (CZE)	1.38.57	+2.38
8th Julien Absalon (FRA)	1.28.26	+-7.53
9th Miguel Martinez (FRA)	1.39.05	+2.46
10th Fabian Giger (SUI)	1.39.21	+3.02
12th Florian Vogel (SUI)	1.29.29	+-6.50
17th Ralph Näf (SUI)	1.41.40	+5.21
36th Daniel Eymann (SUI)	1.47.36	+11.17
DNF. Nicola Rohrbach (SUI)	abandoned
DNF. Patrik Gallati (SUI)	1.32.17	+-4.02
DNS. Lukas Flückiger (SUI)	1.30.26	+-5.53

World Cup overall ranking men
1.	Nino Schurter (SUI)	1180 points
2.	Daniel McConnel (AUS)	800
3.	Julien Absalon (FRA)	760
4.	Jaroslav Kulhavy (CZE)	736
5.	Ondej Cink (CZE)	705
6.	Mathias Flückiger (SUI)	643
7.	Marco Aurelio Fontana (ITA)	616
8.	Fabian Giger (SUI)	555
9.	Maxime Marotte (FRA)	551
10.	José Antonio Hermida (ESP)	542
11.	Lukas Flückiger (SUI)	502
13.	Florian Vogel (SUI)	405
15.	Thomas Litscher (SUI)	374
19.	Martin Fanger (SUI)	349
22.	Ralph Näf (SUI)	338
32.	Martin Gujan (SUI)	271
33.	Nicola Rohrbach (SUI)	226
50.	Jürg Graf (SUI)	106
54.	Patrik Gallati (SUI)	94
57.	Daniel Eymann (SUI)	85
71.	Sepp Freiburghaus (SUI)	55
80.	Giancarlo Sax (SUI)	46
87.	Lucien Besancon (SUI)	42