Schurter starts very quickly and soon gains a few meters on the almost five-kilometre course. Behind him, Fabian Giger lines up in second position and Manuel Fumic (GER) in third. Schurter's rival Julien Absalon (FRA) is a few seconds behind. While Schurter consistently holds the leading position, Spaniard Jose Hermida closes in on the chasing group. Soon after, it is Fabian Giger who struggles in the technical passages and has to keep plugging holes.

Manuel Fumic almost crashes on the Steingarten descent and drops out of the decision for the time being. Hermida and Giger are now alone in the chase after Schurter. The gap to his pursuers is no longer growing. While Hermida sets the pace, Giger can remain passive and let himself be pulled. Fumic, who seemed to be out of the picture, has recovered well and fights his way back into the chasing group to Hermida and Giger. Shortly afterwards, however, it was Giger who crashed on the descent, dropping back to fifth place.Manuel Fumic is now chasing Nino Schurter together with Jose Hermida. Nevertheless, their gap to the Grisons rider is widening again. Going into the sixth lap, the two are a good 20 seconds behind. Meanwhile, Fabian Giger continues to lose ground and tackles the penultimate lap in tenth place. European champion Absalon can no longer get close to the medal positions and is in sixth position.

Schurter seemed unbeatable until the 27-year-old slipped in a corner and crashed. An unpleasant fall on the last lap still causes a scare. However, as the defending champion quickly got back on his bike and was able to continue the race without any injuries, he lost practically nothing.

In fact, not much happened on the last section of the course and Nino Schurter was able to celebrate his third and second consecutive title as cross-country world champion a short time later. "I wanted to tackle the first lap very quickly because Julien Absalon usually has difficulties there," explains Schurter. However, he had other things to contend with on this day. Absalon injured his ribs in training and is therefore prevented from making the race difficult for Schurter. Schurter goes on to say: "This title is worth more to me than the one in Saalfelden. Last year, the Olympic Games were the absolute highlight."

Behind Schurter, Manuel Fumic is delighted to have won the silver medal and Jose Hermida is also delighted with his bronze award. Fabian Giger was able to hold on and finished the race in tenth place. "It wasn't enough to get to the front today. I tried everything and fought, but that was all I could do," says Giger.

Florian Vogel never got within reach of the top ten and had to settle for 17th place. "I'm just missing that certain something this season. I didn't start too fast today, I certainly can't blame myself for that," says Vogel. The two Martin's, Fanger and Gujan, finished 20th and 22nd, while Ralph Näf failed to get up to speed and drifted down to 51st place. Lukas Flückiger crashes on the start straight and is unable to continue the race.