Alessandra Keller is able to hold her own in the front ranks over the entire race distance. She even took the lead around the halfway point when Langvad made a small mistake. However, the winner of Albstadt and Nove Mesto was eventually able to regain the lead. The overall World Cup leader Annika Langvad attacks in the penultimate of ten laps and distances herself from Anne Tauber from the Netherlands by five seconds and Alessandra Keller by ten seconds.

Alessandra Keller loses her second place to Anne Tauber, but is completely satisfied afterwards. "I felt great and am definitely happy with the result. That's a good sign for Sunday," commented Keller on her result.

In contrast to the first two editions in Albstadt and Nove Mesto, the 1.0-kilometer course includes a steep climb. Jolanda Neff uses this to attack on lap one. However, this did not pay off. "I just wanted to see what would happen," explains Neff. "And what happened was that I broke off. It was only in the last two laps that I recovered a bit and made up two places. I thought there would be bigger gaps on this course, but it stayed together for a long time." In eighth place, she still secured the front row of the grid for Sunday.

Van der Poel not to be beaten

After the first third of the race, a three-man lead group formed on the difficult one-kilometre lap in Commezzadura/Val di Sole. Lars Forster, Nino Schurter and Mathieu van der Poel were able to break away, while eleven riders formed a large group behind them. Lars Forster then falls back into this group as Nino Schurter increases the pace. But Mathieu van der Poel is able to counter, takes the lead and rides away from the Grisons rider.

Schurter can no longer catch up, but at the same time keeps his pursuers at bay. They remain more or less in this formation until the final lap, and it is Maxime Marotte who takes third place on the podium. "This is a demanding course. And the battle with Mathieu was tough. I was a bit afraid of giving too much here, which would affect my good feeling on Sunday. I'm definitely happy with my second place; it was definitely a good duel. It's just that the short track race influences your form on Sunday. You saw that in Nove Mesto too. And especially on a course as tough as this one, in Val di Sole, you can tell," says Schurter.
He believes that some riders have already lost a lot of energy on this day, some that he was still holding back.

Florian Vogel and Mathias Flückiger hold their own in this group and end up in fifth and sixth place and thus also on the front row of the grid for Sunday. Flückiger was involved in two or three tussles in the early stages and therefore had to make up places with great difficulty. And that is not so easy on the course, as there is usually only one fast line. "You couldn't benefit from the slipstream here at all," Mathias Flückiger looks back.