Andri Frischknecht was unlucky when he had to pit after the first lap to change his rear wheel. This dropped him out of the top 20 for the time being. "I then had nothing more to lose and was able to turn up the pace. It went well and I think that's my best race this year. It's a shame that I was so far behind at the start," explains Frischknecht about his continuous race to catch up.

Lars Forster was in 15th place for a long time, but suffered a defect at the end of the race. He loses another eight positions. "Without that, I would have finished in the top 15, which is a shame. It went well, but I got problems with my back on my hardtail in the middle of the race and had to concentrate hard," says Forster, who finishes in 23rd place. Fabian Paumann finished one place behind him.

In the battle for the title, Michiel van der Heijden pulls away after co-favorite Jordan Sarrou has to repair a defect on the fourth of six laps. The Dutchman extends his lead and wins with aplomb. "I opted for the hardtail to make up time on the mountain," explained van der Heijden.

Sarrou rides from fourth place to second again, despite having back problems with his hardtail. The US American Howard Grotts had a very bad start and was only 43rd at the first intermediate time, riding from sixth place to bronze on the last lap.

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