World Cup: Absalon electrifies to the record
Frenchman Julien Absalon takes his 29th World Cup victory in impressive style. It is also the first World Cup victory to be won with electronic gears. After the starting signal, however, it is Nino Schurter who seems to be trying to bring about a preliminary decision with a fast start. After a rather poor start, Absalon is caught by Ralph Näf and Schurter. Näf falls back and after Absalon, his compatriots Maxime Marotte and Stéphane Tempier as well as Fabian Giger catch up. The latter takes the lead and soon only Absalon and Schurter are in front with Giger. The next to fall victim to Giger's pace dictates is Nino Schurter, who is able to catch up with the chasers again.
Absalon is then on the push and Giger falls back to Schurter and Tempier. World Cup leader Absalon continuously extends his lead, while Schurter slowly recovers. One lap before the end, the world champion is able to increase his pace again, which only Tempier can keep up with. Meanwhile, Giger forfeits his effort and struggles to catch up with the two. "It went very well, but Julien was too strong and I had to let him go. The track suited me and I rode well. In the end, there wasn't much missing on Tempier, but I'm very satisfied. Everything is just very close together," explained Giger.
Nothing changed at the finish line and Schurter secured second place. "That was the maximum today, Julien was in a league of his own today. The course suits him very well and it doesn't suit me at all. The descents are highways for me, there's no flow, it's just hard work. When Fabian attacked, I had to reduce my pace, otherwise I would have exploded. I was able to accelerate again on the last two laps," said Schurter in his statement.German champion Moritz Milatz finished fifth. Lukas Flückiger is the third Swiss rider in tenth place. His brother Mathias has been unable to train properly since the race in Solothurn due to breathing problems, but is doing very well: "I was hampered after the start and therefore came out of the first lap in 40th place. Because of my breathing problems, I was never able to make full use of my performance, but I was still able to steadily catch up. I'm very satisfied with that." Florian Vogel finished 13th behind Flückiger and Reto Indergand finished the World Cup race in 18th place. This is his best World Cup result to date in the highest category. Martin Gujan enjoys an upward trend with 26th place: "Of course the rank could be better, but it went well and I was able to finish around 20th again."In the overall standings, Julien Absalon leads with a huge lead over Schurter and Australian Daniel McConnell. Fabian Giger and Lukas Flückiger are in eighth and ninth place respectively.
| Rankings Worldcup 2014, #4 Albstadt/GER, Men: | ||
| 1. Julien Absalon (FRA) | 1.29.24 | +0.00 |
| 2. Nino Schurter (SUI) | 1.30.43 | +1.19 |
| 3rd Stéphane Tempier (FRA) | 1.30.48 | +1.24 |
| 4th Fabian Giger (SUI) | 1.31.04 | +1.40 |
| 5th Moritz Milatz (GER) | 1.31.26 | +2.02 |
| 6th Daniel McConnell (AUS) | 1.31.45 | +2.21 |
| 7th Manuel Fumic (GER) | 1.31.49 | +2.25 |
| 8th Marco Aurelio Fontana (ITA) | 1.32.34 | +3.10 |
| 9th Maxime Marotte (FRA) | 1.32.41 | +3.17 |
| 10th Lukas Flückiger (SUI) | 1.32.53 | +3.29 |
| 12th Mathias Flückiger (SUI) | 1.33.16 | +3.52 |
| 13th Florian Vogel (SUI) | 1.33.55 | +4.31 |
| 18th Reto Indergand (SUI) | 1.34.11 | +4.47 |
| 26th Martin Gujan (SUI) | 1.34.54 | +5.30 |
| 29th Ralph Näf (SUI) | 1.35.35 | +6.11 |
| 63rd Matthias Stirnemann (SUI) | lapped | |
| 66th Gian-Carlo Sax (SUI) | lapped | |
| 75th Michael Hutter (SUI) | lapped | |
| 88th Rick Reimann (SUI) | lapped | |
| 91st Jonas Baumann (SUI) | lapped | |
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