In the beginning, it was the Italian Martina Berta and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot who broke away from the field. However, on the first long climb, the world champion already pulls away on her own, as she has often done, while Berta breaks away somewhat. At the start of the second lap, the gap to Berta and the chasing Alessandra Keller and Evie Richards (GBR) is already a good 20 seconds. But Ferrad-Prevot's lead soon began to shrink. Keller closes the gap to the world champion before the end of the lap and immediately passes her. The young Austrian Mona Mitterwallner is also gradually closing the gap and is only ten seconds behind at the start of the third lap. The Frenchwoman can no longer keep up with Keller's pace and is soon overtaken by the Austrian, who in turn catches up with Keller a little later. A riding error accelerates the closing of the gap.

Keller and Mitterwallner are together for just under a lap, but then the 21-year-old pulls away slightly from the Swiss skier. At the same place where she made a mistake on the previous lap, Keller faltered again and her gap to the Austrian quickly grew to around 15 seconds. Keller does everything she can to close the gap again, but Mitterwallner keeps up the same pace for one lap. Keller loses some more time in the final kilometers and gives Mitterwallner some breathing space, who wins her first elite World Cup race a little later and cries her happiness. Having overcome her initial emotions, Mitterwallner explains: "This victory means a lot to me. It feels like I've had to wait forever for it, even though I'm only 21. I was often close, but something always came up. Everything finally fell into place today!"

Keller is delighted with her second place after winning the short track race on Friday. "It was a great weekend and I wasn't far away from winning. However, it got very hard and cold in the last two laps. My riding mistakes also cost me extra time, but above all Mona was simply a bit stronger today."

Pauline Ferrand-Prevot was put under pressure towards the end by compatriot Loana Lecomte, but still managed to finish third. Evie Richards completes the podium in fifth place. Jolanda Neff and Nicole Koller finish 13th and 14th, Austrian Laura Stigger rides to 17th place, while Nina Benz is the best German in 24th place.

Results XCO women

Swiss double victory

New Zealander Samarah Maxwell shows off her world champion jersey at the front at the start of the U23 race. But then the Swiss rider Noëlle Buri (BiXS Performance Race Team) caught up with Maxwell. On lap three, Maxwell breaks away and Buri leads the race solo, with her compatriot Ronja Blöchlinger around 15 seconds behind.

Büri is able to extend her lead to the finish and wins her first World Cup race of the 2023 season. Blöchlinger (Liv Factory Racing) finished second, while Noemie Garnier (FRA/Scott Creuse Oxygene Gueret) made up a lot of ground from sixth position and snatched third place from the world champion on the final lap.

Ranking list XCO U23 women