A thrilling race takes place in front of an enthusiastic crowd at the traditional mountain bike resort of Mont Sainte Anne. Nino Schurter rides to a small lead several times, but is caught up again in the flatter first part of the course.
"I knew there was a flat section and I didn't want to go too early," says Schurter, explaining why he didn't go solo early on. One time he was in front with Mathias Flückiger, another time with Stephane Tempier.

But both Flückiger and Tempier fall back again after defects. When Tempier has to stop, the way is clear for a solo by Nino Schurter, which leads him to his eighth world championship title, his fifth in a row.
"It's moving to win my eighth title here on this classic course," says Schurter. "I knew that you have to ride a clean line here and have the right material. That was the key. I looked at a lot of different lines."

In 2010, he had two defects and therefore invested a lot to avoid that this time. Other constellations are constantly developing behind him. Mathias Flückiger dropped back to eighth place after his defect. "I lost a bit of motivation there, but then tried to do my job and just concentrate on the next five meters. I think that was the key to coming back," says Flückiger.

Italian Gerhard Kerschbaumer has taken second position from the chasing group, with Mathias Flückiger and Stephane Tempier fighting for bronze behind him. Apparently.
Before the first climb of the last lap, Flückiger attacks and pulls out a few seconds gap. At the same time, he rapidly reduces the gap to Gerhard Kerschbaumer. At the highest point of the next climb, it was still twelve seconds.

At the end of the following descent towards the finish line, the South Tyrolean suffered a rear wheel defect and Flückiger overtook last year's world championship runner-up 200 meters before the finish.
"I'm a little annoyed about the defect, but under the circumstances I'm happy with my silver medal," commented Flückiger. For him, it is the best World Championship result of his career. He previously won bronze in 2012.

Third best Swiss rider is Andri Frischknecht in ninth place (+2:00). He got off to a good start and then successfully picked his pace. "I simply rode my speed and the technical passages cleanly. I hardly made any mistakes. And then I had a great last lap," explained Frischknecht, who moved up from position twelve to nine from the penultimate lap onwards. "I'm really happy with that for a world championship," he said.Full results