In hot temperatures and lots of dust, an elimination race develops over the eight laps. Avancini often set the pace, but Schurter always had the situation under control. Surprisingly, Schurter's great rival Mathieu Van der Poel loses more and more ground and at some point is only 32nd when he finds his legs again and finally finishes 16th.

At some point, only four riders remain at the front. Then the Czech Ondrej Cink loses the connection and one lap before the end Henrique Avancini, after Nino Schurter has put the pressure on for the first time.
He starts the final lap together with Kerschbaumer and the Grisons rider then uses the second climb to leave the South Tyrolean behind.

Kerschbaumer only loses a few seconds, but that's enough for Schurter to distance himself from his rival.
"Gerhard Kerschbaumer was strong, but not quite as lively as me and I knew that if he couldn't outsprint me, I had a good chance. It was a great race. I upped the pace a bit on the second-to-last lap to catch Avancini and Cink was also still hanging on. So there were only two of us, which is a bit easier in my head. On the last lap, I just tried 'all out' and it worked."

With his 32nd World Cup victory, Schurter is now within one win of record holder Julien Absalon in the all-time leaderboard. He could catch and even overtake him this year.
Schurter also extends his lead in the overall World Cup to 235 points over Avancini.

Mathias Flückiger does not have a good day. He doesn't start the race well, then improves to eighth position and even reaches the leading group. But when the pace is stepped up there, Flückiger is the first to lose touch.

He fights doggedly and alone in the wide open until the Belgian Jens Schuermans comes from behind and pushes him into ninth position.
"I don't know, I had very bad legs, even at the start. Emotionally, I was never at the limit, but I had no power. Maybe I wasn't recovered enough, just sh...", commented Flückiger on his ninth place.

Florian Vogel rode to the finish in 14th place (+2:45). "I didn't actually feel bad. My times are similar to last year, when I always rode around eighth place. I think the level is simply very high at the moment," says Vogel. "I've certainly ridden better races, but it was a solid race."

Filippo Colombo misses out on the podium

Filippo Colombo missed out on the podium in the men's U23 World Cup in Les Gets. In fourth place, he finished 59 seconds behind the winner Vlad Dascalu from Romania (1:13:22), who extended his lead in the overall standings. This is the fourth time a Swiss has finished fourth in Les Gets, after the women's short track and U23 races.

Filippo Colombo is part of the leading group, which is reduced from eight to four riders on the second lap. The German Max Brandl loses the connection on lap five and a few minutes later Vlad Dascalu suffers a tire failure.
The winner of Andorra loses 30 seconds during the wheel change and Colombo takes the lead. The Ticino rider pushes the pace. "I wanted to get Vlad into a bit of trouble," explains Colombo. But his efforts fizzled out. On the one hand, Brandl came back, took the lead and pulled out a gap.

On the other hand, Vlad Dascalu is able to close the gap within a lap and catch up with Colombo, who is underway with Canadian Sean Fincham.
Dascalu leaves the duo behind, catches up with Brandl and wins the race on the final lap. It is his fourth U23 World Cup victory, his third of the season.
Colombo attacks Fincham and gets away, but he can't keep up the pace. Fincham passes him on the seventh and final lap and takes the podium (+0:46), 13 seconds ahead of Colombo.
"I didn't have good legs from the start," admits Colombo. "Three were better than me today." He remains second in the overall standings, but is now already 70 points behind Dascalu.

Joel Roth struggled with back pain over the entire distance. "My legs were on fire, I think it was from my back. After my crash in Andorra, I probably should have had more treatment," said Roth at the finish, which he nevertheless reached in a good tenth place (+2:48).
"It was still a good race," said Roth, who was in ninth place at one point and not far off eighth position.
Vital Albin finished 13th, 3:08 minutes behind

Full results