Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Ineos Grenadiers) put on another show in the Women’s Elite UCI Cross-country Olympic World Cup in Val di Sole, Trentino. The French favourite opened a gap on UCI Cross-country Short Track (XCC) World Cup race winner Puck Pieterse (Alpecin Deceuninck) on lap two and rode away to victory by almost a minute. In the men’s race the Greatest of All Time, Nino Schurter (Scott-Sram MTB Racing Team) had more of a battle with Alan Hatherly (Cannondale Factory Racing), but raced hard from the start, sealing the win over Hatherly on the final lap. 

FERRAND-PREVOT DESTROYS THE FIELD AGAIN IN VAL DI SOLE

The women’s elite cross-country riders must have feared another PFP rout, but it was Chiara Teocchi (Orbea Factory Team) who got off to the best start. She accelerated up the inside of the immediate right hand be, with Ferrand-Prévot just behind. On the outside the course was much more slippery, and a number of riders took early tumbles. 

As they continued along the start loop, Teocchi was on the front, followed by Alessandra Keller (Thömus Maxon) and Friday’s winner Puck Pieterse. Onto the first proper lap of six, riders opted for different lines up the rocky section, borrowed from the four-track course. A few riders struggled and were forced to put feet down.

Ferrand-Prévot had slipped down the order but into the woods she was back up to 4th place. Candice Lill was looking more than up for it. 

Five minutes into the race and gaps were already opening up between a top five and the rest, with a few of the riders struggling to negotiate the technical rooty sections, some of which were made more difficult by being off camber. After a long stretch of climbing it was back onto the faster, sweeping section of four-cross that allowed them to gather and take a breath.

Before long they were back onto the second climb which had been torn up by the earlier women’s U23 race after a lot of rain fell on the course on Saturday night. That was where Pieterse put in the hurt, as she had repeatedly in Friday’s XCC race.

Towards the end of the first lap, Loana Lecompte (Canyon CLLCTV XCO), Pieterse and Ferrand-Prévot had pulled clear of the field. A second group of chasers including Alessandra Keller, Savilia Blunk (Decathlon Ford Racing Team), Lill and Teocchi had formed behind. Ferrand-Prévot was determined to prevent them from coming back, pushing hard out of the saddle at every opportunity, which served to gap Lecompte. It was all Pieterse could do to hold her wheel.

The Frenchwoman seemed to have the advantage on the climbs, which Pieterse was able to even it out on with superior technical proficiency on those sections of the course. Heart rates were tipping towards their maximums as they negotiated the Red Bull Roots & Rolls.

Ferrand-Prévot continued to make it hard for Pieterse and a small gap between them became a measurable one, already growing to 13 seconds as they arrived at the second climb of the lap. Lecompte formed an alliance with Lill a further 20 seconds back, with everyone outside the top ten more than a minute in arrears.

Ferrand-Prévot took a gel as she rode solo onto the third lap, separated from Pieterse by almost the entire length of the straight. Evie Richards (Trek Factory Racing - Pirelli) suffered a crash in the feed zone when she missed a bottle snatch.

Half an hour in and Ferrand-Prévot was riding away with the race as she did in Nové Město Na Moravě. Pieterse had second in the bag if she could pace herself sensibly.

Lill and Lecompte were in a tussle for the final podium spot with Blunk a bridgeable and steady ten seconds down the track. The approach of lap four revealed that Lill had been able to dispense with Lecompte with big time gaps opening up, showing how selective the Val di Sole course can be - only made more so by the rain which caused both long climb to become even longer.

Pieterse managed to stabilise her deficit to Ferrand-Prévot at around 30 seconds, and even eat into it a little in places. Whether that was because she was fatiguing relatively less or Ferrand-Prévot was just taking her foot off slightly was an open question.

Two thirds of the race - 16km - completed and the race had blown apart. The time between Ferrand-Prévot in 1st and Keller in 10th was north of three minutes. Lill, for her part, was having the ride of her life and even closing in on Pieterse who had herself dropped ten seconds to the leader over the fourth lap.

An hour of racing completed, Pieterse had been able to re-establish her advantage, even as the WHOOP data showed her heart was pounding at upwards of 185 BPM.

As she took the bell and a final bottle, Ferrand-Prévot was out of sight, but with her lead not as solid as it had been. A single crash-causing drop of concentration on the final lap would be all it took to evaporate the 30 seconds to Pieterse. No other rider was within a minute of the UCI World Champion.

Pieterse began to pay for her effort to keep in touch with the leader on the last lap. She had to work hard and fight her bike on the second climb, as the gap to Ferrand-Prévot ballooned back out to nearly a minute. She was in no danger of losing second place, but the strength of the French rider was irrepressible.

Ferrand-Prévot high fived her mechanic as she came to the line, punching the sky to celebrate a second dominant UCI Cross-country Olympic World Cup win in a row. In second Pieterse took plaudits too and could be pleased with her own improvement.

Candice Lill was as happy as anyone with her podium, marking herself out as a potential medalist in Paris. Fourth place went to Loana Lecompte, with US national champion Savilia Blunk filling the final step on the podium.

As straightforward as the victory looked, “it was not an easy one,” said Ferrand-Prévot afterwards.

“Today I was a bit tired, but I was able to take the front and stay in the lead so I’m quite happy with that. It was just about focusing on my own pace and my own tempo and go as fast as possible.” 

Lill couldn’t have been happier with her own result. “It’s been a long time coming for me,” she said. “Today feels really triumphant for me and all the people who believed in me.”

Haley Batten (Specialized Factory Racing) finished in 8th place to pick up 110 points. She continues to lead the overall competition by 158 points from Keller. Despite only riding two of the four rounds this year Ferrand-Prévot is already up into the top 5.

NINO SCHURTER IN CONTROL FROM START TO FINISH IN VAL DI SOLE

Seven-time winner in Val di Sole Nino Schurter (Scott Sram MTB Racing Team) promised before the race to “go hard from the start.”

UCI Cross-country Short Track World Cup winner on Friday, Sam Gaze (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was a little less ebullient. He would “just ride my own race [and] get from point A to point B as fast as possible.” It would serve, he said, as “a steppingstone to July to see what I can do.”

Gaze got a good fast start down the centre, but it was Schurter who was indeed leading through the start loop from Jordan Sarrou (Team BMC) and Alan Hatherly (Cannondale Factory Racing). Schurter roared up the hill, stringing out the field which fought to remain in contact going into the woods. 

Martín Vidaurre (Specialized Factory Racing) was another rider who had made a good start to hold onto the three ahead of him, while Gaze had dropped down to 12th. Onto the first proper lap and four riders, Schurter, Sarou, Hatherly and Vidaurre were escaping up the course, with a chase group, containing Gaze, already ten seconds down. Fourth in Nové Město Na Moravě (Czechia), Charlie Aldridge (Cannondale Factory Racing) was struggling on the climbs and down to 50th place.

The race was more than 12 minutes old before Schurter looked behind and allowed anyone else to come through to take a pull.

Early on the second lap Filippo Colombo (Scott-Sram MTB Racing Team) was riding strongly to claw the chasers back into contention, though their presence caused the front quartet to put the hammer down and draw the gap out again.

After two laps the front group was twice as large, as Colombo, Mathis Azzaro (Decathlon Ford Racing Team), Jens Schuermans (Giant Factory Off-Road Team-XC) and first Italian Luca Braidot (Santa Cruz Rockshox Pro Team) made contact with the Schurter-led four. The Swiss great didn’t like that and applied the pressure on the very first climb of lap three.

He went even harder on the next and Hatherly was the only rider willing and/or able to go with him. In a flash they had opened out a double-digit lead on Vidaurre with the rest only going backwards.

By Lap 4, Braidot had moved into “best of the rest” position, fighting it out with Forster and Azzaro for third. 20 seconds ahead and rising Hatherly was matching Schurter stroke for stroke. Until he wasn’t. 

Schurter attacked through the feedzone to get a bit of a gap which he carried onto the first climb and extended in the woods. Hatherly seemed to opt to ride tempo rather than blow up by burying himself with an effort to bring Schurter back.

Third place to 11th were 48 seconds down but engaged in a very real race of their own for placings. Gaze and Luca Schwarzbauer (Canyon CLLCTV XCO) were the biggest name riders to have missed out.

Two laps to go and Schurter was on his way, but not out of sight of Hatherly and not able to ease off. He made it count the most on the climb, drawing out his advantage to 17 seconds, but the South African hadn’t left his legs in the bus either.

The main group had been whittled down to six. Into the last fifteen minutes and Hatherly was looking more labored than he had all day, more psychologically beaten than physically. Still, at the bell he was less than 20 seconds behind Schurter.

The Italian champion looked to crack the chasing group on the final ascent of the shorter of the two climbs. Only Colombo had enough in the tank to stay with him.

Schurter took on the very last climb with his lead being dented, dropping a few seconds here and there but with enough in hand to showboat his way to the finish. Enjoying himself he executed a couple of tail whips on his way to an impressive first UCI World Cup win of the year, eighth career win in Val di Sole.

Hatherly came in safely for second. Three riders sprinted for third, of them Azzaro having the fastest kick with Braidot 4th and Colombo 5th.

“I’m super happy about this victory,” a smiling Schurter said afterwards. “It’s a really cool course - tactical but also physical… It’s nice to still be able to win at 38, great to still be at the top. It’s a track where riding in the group doesn’t help you very much so my plan was to make it hard from the start.”

For Hatherly, “it was quite a wild one. The crucial point was when Nino went when I was in the feedzone taking a bottle. At that point I thought I’d ride at my own steady pace and get back. It ended up being a time trial - Nino versus me. Unfortunately I came off second best, but a close second. I’m really happy, at this point in the season with the [Olympic] Games not far away.”

UCI Cross-country Olympic World Cup leader, Victor Koretzky (Specialized Factory Racing) finished in 25th place.

THIRD U23 WORLD CUP WIN OF THE SEASON FOR HOLMGREN, SEVENTH FOR RILEY

The women’s U23 UCI Cross-country Olympic World Cup was a similarly one-sided affair, as Canada’s Isabella Holmgren won by 1’26 from Olivia Onesti (Trinx Factory Team) and Elina Benoit of Switzerland.

“It was a super tough race today with a lot of strong girls,” said Holmgren, “so I’m really happy to come away with the win. I didn’t come in with any expectations. It was a bit more slippery than the rest of the week, so I just really tried to stay focused on the descents, take my time, and stay safe while smashing the climbs.”

Despite finding it more difficult, series leader and Friday’s UCI Cross-country Short Track World Cup race winner Kira Böhm (Cube Factory Racing) was “really proud” of her personal performance and final result.

“Today was super super hard,” she said. “I had a feeling I couldn’t push to the limit today but on the last lap I could do it. I think I went from 10th to 5th.” 

A tight, hard fought men's race ended with series leader Riley Amos (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli) taking his second win of the weekend, after Friday's XCC. It was another American 1-2 with Bjorn Riley (Trek Future Racing) runner-up again, and Finn Treudler (Cube Factory Racing) in third.

Amos counted himself lucky to come out on top for the 7th time this season: “Every time it's been by the smallest of margins that I've got it,” he said. “I'm so lucky that everything’s gone according to plan, no mechanicals and with great legs every time.”

The racing, he added, “was so hard early. Luca (Martin) was so close to getting it last year I think he just went out with a vengeance today, driving the pace so hard. I settled the pace down for a couple of laps then Finn (Treudler) tried to slide up and block us into the downhill, so I had to match him over the top of one of the climbs and that was the split that drove it. Then I had a small gap and when you're given a gap you have to take it.”

Next weekend, the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series heads to a new venue. Located in the stunning Swiss canton of Valais, Crans-Montana is a special stop this season, with the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Valais just over a year away. Its vineyards, forests, lakes and waterfalls will provide a scenic backdrop for a new round of the UCI Cross-country World Cups.