At the start of the race, Frenchman Sarrou and his compatriot Victor Koretzky took the lead and pulled away. Koretzky, the 2011 Junior World Champion, then suffers a chain break, allowing Sarrou to ride solo to victory. Michiel van der Heijden from Holland, who came into the first singletrail in seventh place, was unable to close the gap, and even later he was unable to get any closer in the long-distance duel with Sarrou. In the penultimate of five laps, he overtakes Briton Ferguson and finishes a safe second.

Andri Frischknecht has bad luck in the start phase because a rider crashes in front of him. This forced him into a race to catch up, which brought him up to tenth position on the third of five laps. "Maybe I overdid it," he says at the finish line, commenting on the fact that things stopped moving forward from then on, adding: "On the last lap, I was just riding at idle."

The heat of around 30 degrees takes its toll and the new course at Cascade MTB Park does not forgive going over the limit.

Swedish victory for a Swiss team
Jenny Rissveds from Sweden celebrates her first World Cup victory in the U23 category. With a start-finish victory, the European Eliminator champion relegates Perrine Clauzel from France and Lisa Rabensteiner from Italy to the places of honor. Jenny Rissveds, who rides for the Scott-Odlo MTB Racing Team, used the training sessions on the course with team boss Thomas Frischknecht and showed a confident race on the technically demanding course - until the last lap. But then she allowed herself a wobble. In the infamous "Tree House" rock garden, she makes "a big mistake", as she says, but it only takes around 25 seconds off her lead of around a minute.

So Rissveds enters her name on the list of winners of the U23 Women's World Cup for the first time. Behind her, three women are fighting for second place. Rabensteiner overtakes the German Helen Grobert in the second of four laps and takes second place. Grobert stays in the lead until the fourth lap, but then Clauzel also overtakes her. The Frenchwoman has the best finish and also catches Rabensteiner, while Grobert finishes fourth.

Only twelve women lined up at the start line on Sunday morning. The low turnout is probably due to the travel costs. An onward journey to the next World Cup in Cairns would be out of the question anyway. This is why quite a number of athletes are foregoing the flight. Also in the other categories. So there is no Swiss athlete in the race. Andrea Waldis is currently preparing for her final exams.Co-favorite Yana Belomoyna from Ukraine is also not competing. She broke her wrist on the track during training on Saturday. This means that the first three U23 racers from the 2013 World Cup final in Hafjell will not be competing.www.uci.ch

Rankings World Cup 2014, #1 Pietermaritzburg RSA, U23 Women
1. Jenny Rissveds (SWE)	1.19.52	+0.00
2. Perrine Clauzel (FRA)	1.22.06	+2.14
3rd Lisa Rabensteiner (ITA)	1.22.10	+2.18
4. Helen Grobert (GER)	1.22.55	+3.03
5th Lisa Mitterbauer (AUT)	1.24.27	+4.35
6th Jovana Crnogorac (SRB)	1.26.42	+6.50
7th Ingrid Boe Jacobsen (NOR)	1.27.50	+7.58
8th Nadezhda Antonova (RUS)	1.27.51	+7.59
9th Candice Neethling (RSA)	1.28.49	+8.57
10. Kristina Kirillova (RUS)	1.29.30	+9.38
Ranking World Cup 2014, #1 Pietermaritzburg RSA, U23 Men
1. Jordan Sarrou (FRA)	1.22.58	+0.00
2. Michiel van der Heijden (NED)	1.23.56	+0.58
3rd Grant Ferguson (GBR)	1.24.20	+1.22
4. James Reid (RSA)	1.24.58	+2.00
5th Anton Cooper (NZL)	1.25.25	+2.27
6th Victor Koretzky (FRA)	1.25.50	+2.52
7th Pablo Guede Rodriguez (ESP)	1.26.21	+3.23
8th Julian Schelb (GER)	1.27.24	+4.26
9th Julien Trarieux (FRA)	1.28.35	+5.37
10th Keegan Swenson (USA)	1.29.10	+6.12
12th Andri Frischknecht (SUI)	1.29.34	+6.36
23rd Ulisse Fieschi (SUI)	1.33.53	+10.55
27th Philipp Hediger (SUI)	1.36.24	+13.26