"Very wild - it started before the first forest entrance and I was just able to avoid going over the handlebars or riding off the track. I had some good sections, but overall my ride remained wild and I'm glad I was able to finish it without crashing," said Carina Cappellari, commenting on her ride in the first World Cup race of the 2019 season.

The day before, she achieved a very good result in the qualifying race with sixth place. However, the Swiss champion does not see it as a disappointment that she did not achieve the same place in the main race: "The time gaps in front of and behind me are very close. So I'm satisfied with tenth place after my wild ride. But for the upcoming races it's good to know that I still have room to move forward."

Behind Cappellari, her Swiss colleagues Camille Balanche and Janine Hübscher finished eleventh and twelfth. After crashing in the iXS Cup race, Emilie Siegenthaler calls her goal "to finish the race with a safe ride". With a damaged shoulder, she rode to 14th place and said: "It was difficult to race with so little strength. But I'm happy with my time, even if not quite with the result. However, the time gaps were also very close."

Tahnee Seagrave leaves nothing to chance in the women's race. The Brit started third last and set the fastest time at every split. At the finish, she is 3.5 seconds ahead of the French rider Marine Cabirou, who has been leading so far.

World champion Rachel Atherton is faster than Seagrave at the first split time, but virtually drops back to second place after the second. Despite the best split time on section three, she was unable to catch up and ended up just 0.85 seconds behind her compatriot.

Qualification winner Tracey Hannah from Australia cannot quite match her performance from the previous day, but is delighted with third place in the end, which she saves by just under a second ahead of Cabirou.

Results

www.uci.org/mountain-bike/events/mercedes-benz-uci-mountain-bike-world-cup