In the race for the women's cross-country world championship title, the South African Candice Lill takes the lead. A lead group quickly formed with Puck Pieterse and Alessandra Keller. But the Swiss soon loses ground, while the Dutchwoman Pieterse pushes the pace. Lill tried to close the gap again and again, but on lap three the race was over and Pieterse pulled away.

Behind them, the chasing groups formed anew, with Anne Terpstra (NED) and Martina Berta (ITA) now in contention for the medals. The South African falls further and further behind and loses even more time due to a crash. Terpstra takes advantage of this and pulls away from Lill in the final lap. And the Italian also gets closer and closer and soon challenges Lill for bronze. 

At the front, 22-year-old Puck Pieterse rides confidently to her first elite world title, and a minute later she celebrates the Dutch double victory together with her compatriot Anne Terpstra. Martina Berta won bronze, just ahead of Candice Lill, who had to make do with the leather medal after her promising race. 

The Austrians Laura Stigger and Mona Mitterwallner finished seventh and twelfth, Nina Benz rode to 15th place as the best German and Sina Frei to 16th place as the best Swiss.

Ranking list women elite 

U23 women

In the U23 women's race, which started directly behind the elite, Canada's Isabella Holmgren clearly wins ahead of France's Olivia Onesti. Bronze went to Emily Johnston and thus also to a Canadian. Germany's Sina van Thiel takes sixth place, with eighth place going to Kira Böhm, who made her mark on the first half of the season. The best Swiss athlete is Ginia Caluori in ninth place.

Women's U23 rankings

Premiere for South Africa

Like the women's race, the men's race will also start earlier than previously planned. The reason is severe weather warnings that threaten to play havoc in the afternoon. At the start, it is the German Luca Schwarzbauer who leads the field. The top favorites, including Victor Koretzky, Tom Pidcock and Alan Hatherly as well as the Swiss Mathias Flückiger and Colombo, are represented in the long lead group. However, the latter are struggling early on, which is understandable in the case of Flückiger as he had an appendix operation just a week ago.

Frenchman Koretzky, South African Hatherly and young Brit Charlie Aldridge are now taking the lead. The leading group grows, while the gap to Flückiger widens. On lap four, defending champion Tom Pidcock was also able to catch up, and the Brit immediately took the lead. But Hatherly countered and pulled away with Koretzky on his rear wheel. One lap later, the two are around ten seconds ahead of the British duo, who are not moving very homogeneously.

On the last lap, Pidcock passes Aldridge again and the two leaders also take note of this. Koretzky attacks and tries to prevent the Olympic champion from closing the gap. The South African is able to keep up with the Frenchman's incredible pace and even more so, Hatherly counters. However, Koretzky is unable to counter this attack, Hatherly gradually extends his lead and rides to his first elite world title for himself and for South Africa. Victor Koretzky finishes second again, while Tom Pidcock wins the duel against compatriot Aldridge and thus bronze.

After that, Luca Schwarzbauer and Mathias Flückiger sprinted for seventh place. Although the German had the better result, Flückiger's performance was still remarkable. The Swiss rider had to have an appendix operation a week ago, which meant that his start in the World Championships remained open until recently. "From a Swiss perspective, it wasn't a good race, nobody was able to perform at their best today. And I was on the operating table a week ago, which was definitely not ideal either," analyzes Flückiger and looks back: "The appendix diagnosis was tough to take, but I was in so much pain that the World Championships were a distant prospect in my mind. However, there was always hope that I would be able to take part, but to be honest, three days ago I wouldn't have thought that I would be able to ride like this again today."

David List also achieved a good result. Tenth place for the German, while Nino Schurter fought his way up from 20th place to 13th at the end.

Results Men Elite

Lillo wins silver behind Martin

The U23 men are among the early risers of the day, starting the race at 08:30. It is the Swiss rider Dario Lillo who dictates the pace until the Frenchman Luca Martin joins him. The two complete the race together until the final lap, where Martin has a little more power and takes the world title. After coming away empty-handed in the short track, Lillo is delighted with the silver medal. Behind him, his compatriot Luke Wiedmann fights for bronze, but never quite gets close to Tobias Lillelund. In the end, eight seconds separated the Swiss from the bronze medal, which the Dane secured.

Results men U23