Schurter wins Nove Mesto cross country World Cup

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One week after both Nino Schurter (Scott Swisspower) and Julien Absalon (BMC) had their worst World Cup performances in recent memory, the duo put on an incredible show in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic for round 2 of the cross country World Cup. After dropping all other contenders, the pair went wheel to wheel for the final laps, with Schurter besting his perennial rival by a slim three seconds to take both his second consecutive win in Nove Mesto, and the overall World Cup series lead.

Absalon's BMC teammate Lukas Flückiger held on for third place while Thomas Litscher (Multivan Merida) and Max Plaxton (Sho-Air/Cannondale) finished off the podium.

"I'm really happy about the victory," said Schurter, "because this is an awesome place to race. It suits me well, the climbs are not too long and the technical sections are good. Last week did not go so well, so it was a tough week coming here."

"I had a good start today, and felt really strong, so I'm happy to be back on top."

The men's seven-lap race got off to an explosive start, with a group of eight setting the pace. In addition to Schurter and Absalon, the group included Lukas Flückiger, Thomas Litscher (Multivan Merida), Emil Lindgren (Giant Pro XC), Ondrej Cink (Multivan Merida), Fabian Giger (Giant Pro XC) and the Olympic champion, and local favourite, Jaroslav Kulhavy (Specialized Factory).

However, this group soon began to splinter under the pace set by Schurter and Absalon. After the usual shuffling at the pointy end of the race, four leaders emerged: Schurter, Absalon, Lukas Flückiger and Stephane Tempier (BH-SR Suntour-KMC). Schurter did much of the pace setting.

Crashes took out several podium favorites, including last weekend's runner-up Sergio Mantecon (Wildwolf-Trek) who injured his knee and pulled out. Home crowd favorite Kulhavy, who seemed to be not quite as strong as Schurter and Absalon, went down hard on the rocks in a technical downhill section about halfway through the race.

Then on lap 4, Tempier, who was still with the lead group, crashed hard, clearly shaking himself up in the process. He quit the race and headed to the hospital for further examination.

That left Schurter, Absalon and Flückiger at the front to battle it out for the second half of the race. Finally, even Flückiger was shed leaving just Schurter and Absalon to fight it out, as they have so many times before.

Together, two Multivan Merida teammates, Ondrej Cink and Thomas Litscher chased the top three.

Schurter led much of the last two laps, but Absalon went to the front on the penultimate lap for a time. The effort seemed to cost him as on the final lap, Schurter was back in front and in the last half lap, he started to get a small gap on Absalon.

The French man never gave up - the margin was too small and as he knew from his own experience last weekend, anything can happen. But there would be no upsets as they approached the finish. Schurter had enough time to celebrate his victory, clearly a relief after his performance in Albstadt last weekend.

The world champion was riding the technical sections better than Absalon, and on the last lap finally began to open a few second gap, but his margin of victory was just three seconds after over 90 minutes of racing. Flückiger hung on for third, with Litscher fourth, and a late charge putting Canadian national champion Plaxton into fifth.

"I recognized that Julien was always losing a little bit on the downhill sections, so I tried to race at the front there and get little gaps that made him chase and get more tired," said Schurter.

Absalon, who had to drop out in the first round with mechanical problems while leading the race, said, "It was a really nice fight. I tried, but Nino was stronger today. He is stronger on the short steep climbs, so it was not possible for me to pass him. I lost a few seconds there on the last lap and so I could not catch him for a sprint."

The men's overall standings are also tied, with Schurter and round one winner Daniel McConnell (Trek Factory Racing) both at 320 points although Schurter gets to wear the Word Cup leader's jersey. Flückiger is third with 300 points, and Plaxton fourth at 260.

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