Schurter takes UCI World Cup lead after XCO win in Andorra
Van der Poel chooses to skip third round of competition
World champion Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM), after getting blanked in the first two rounds of the Elite men's cross-country World Cup, finally took the 31st win of his career on Sunday, at Vallnord, Andorra. With his win, Schurter also moved into the overall series lead, after former World Cup leader Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon Circus) elected to skip the high-altitude race.
Hot, dry and dusty conditions added to the difficulty of this extremely demanding circuit, with rough descents causing numerous crashes, and steep climbs made worse by the thin air at 2,000 metres.
Brazil's Henrique Avancini (Cannondale Factory), winner of the Short Track on Friday evening, attacked out of the small lead group on the steep 'Wall' climb on the first lap, opening a gap. Ondrej Cink (Kross Racing) took up the chase, joining Avancini on the second lap and then riding clear on the third lap.
Schurter was mired back in fourth after crashing on a descent, and had to work his way back to Avancini on lap 4, joined by round 1 winner Mathias Fluckiger (Thomus RN). The trio were 37 seconds down on Cink at this point, who was riding strongly and looked to be in control, until a lap later, when the Czech rider abruptly slowed and was caught by the three chasers before pulling into the pit, tapping his chest and appearing to be in physical distress.
"I had a heart arrhythmia; my computer said I had a 230 [beats per minute] heart rate. I don't know what happened, but I stopped in the feedzone and tried to breath, and after one minute my heart rate was back down and I decided to continue." Cink dropped to the low 20s, but eventually recovered to finish 10th.
At the front, Schurter, Fluckiger and Avancini were riding together, with the Swiss riders starting to launch attacks as they began the final two laps. Avancini couldn't respond to the sudden accelerations, but clawed his way back each time until the last lap, when Schurter attacked and only Fluckiger could respond. The two Swiss riders continued to test each other, until Schurter attacked again with 300 metres to go, opening a few metres on his rival to win by two seconds, with Avancini taking third.
In the absence of Van der Poel, Schurter moves into the series lead with 835 points, followed by Fluckiger at 755 and Van der Poel at 700.
"It was a super tough one," said Schurter. "I had a stupid mistake on the first descent; I crashed, and then it took me a while to get into my rhythm again. I think this is the hardest race, at the high altitude, as you are always suffering. I attacked as hard as I could [at the start of the last lap], but I could see that he [Fluckiger] was still with me, so I knew it was going to be a hard one to win. I tried again, and it worked out, but it was very hard."
Full Results
# | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
---|---|---|
1 | Nino Schurter | 1:19:34 |
2 | Mathias Flueckiger | 0:00:02 |
3 | Henrique Avancini | 0:00:12 |
4 | Gerhard Kerschbaumer | 0:00:27 |
5 | Jordan Sarrou | 0:00:45 |
6 | Jose Gerardo Ulloa Arevalo | 0:00:53 |
7 | Anton Cooper | Row 6 - Cell 2 |
8 | Anton Sintsov | 0:01:19 |
9 | Victor Koretzky | 0:01:23 |
10 | Ondrej Cink | 0:01:31 |
11 | Peter Disera | 0:01:33 |
12 | Stephane Tempier | 0:01:37 |
13 | Florian Vogel | 0:01:46 |
14 | Jens Schuermans | 0:01:51 |
15 | David Valero Serrano | Row 14 - Cell 2 |
16 | Nadir Colledani | 0:02:00 |
17 | Thomas Litscher | 0:02:12 |
18 | Keegan Swenson | 0:02:16 |
19 | Kevin Panhuyzen | 0:02:34 |
20 | Andri Frischknecht | 0:02:42 |
21 | Titouan Carod | 0:02:49 |
22 | Matthias Stirnemann | 0:02:55 |
23 | Thomas Griot | 0:03:02 |
24 | Pablo Rodriguez Guede | 0:03:13 |
25 | Milan Vader | 0:03:19 |
26 | Karl Markt | 0:03:25 |
27 | Alan Hatherly | 0:03:27 |
28 | Manuel Fumic | 0:03:37 |
29 | Lars Forster | Row 28 - Cell 2 |
30 | Gioele Bertolini | 0:04:16 |
31 | Fabian Giger | Row 30 - Cell 2 |
32 | Pettina' Nicholas | 0:04:39 |
33 | Leandre Bouchard | 0:04:40 |
34 | Reto Indergand | 0:04:41 |
35 | Sergio Mantecon Gutierrez | 0:04:42 |
36 | Andrea Tiberi | 0:04:44 |
37 | Luiz Henrique Cocuzzi | 0:05:17 |
38 | Markus Schulte-lunzum | 0:05:23 |
39 | Hugo Drechou | 0:05:28 |
40 | Florian Chenaux | 0:05:30 |
41 | Joshua Dubau | 0:05:42 |
42 | Maxime Marotte | 0:05:50 |
43 | Jan Vastl | 0:05:54 |
44 | Wout Alleman | 0:06:00 |
45 | Lukas Flueckiger | 0:06:12 |
46 | Martins Blums | 0:06:20 |
47 | Carlos Coloma Nicolas | 0:06:31 |
48 | Jakub Zamrozniak | 0:06:32 |
49 | Jan Skarnitzl | 0:06:55 |
50 | Severin Disch | 0:06:58 |
51 | Georg Egger | 0:07:04 |
52 | Simon Vitzthum | 0:07:26 |
53 | Raphael Gagne | 0:07:32 |
54 | Martin Fanger | 0:07:37 |
55 | Gregor Raggl | 0:07:58 |
56 | Martin Loo | 0:08:17 |
57 | Sebastian Fini Carstensen | 0:08:44 |
58 | Maximilian Foidl | 0:08:48 |
59 | Arnold Jeannesson | 0:08:57 |
60 | Erik Haegstad | 0:09:13 |
61 | Adelino Moll Mut | 0:09:23 |
62 | Guy Sessler | 0:09:36 |
63 | Leo Lhomme | 0:10:01 |
64 | Ben Oliver | 0:11:41 |
65 | Lorenzo Pellegrini | Row 64 - Cell 2 |
66 | Mario Costa | Row 65 - Cell 2 |
67 | Thibaud Saint Guilhem | Row 66 - Cell 2 |
68 | Ivan Filatov | Row 67 - Cell 2 |
69 | Mario Sinues Mico | Row 68 - Cell 2 |
70 | Maxime Loret | Row 69 - Cell 2 |
71 | Jaime Miranda Jaime | Row 70 - Cell 2 |
72 | Rob Vanden Haesevelde | Row 71 - Cell 2 |
73 | Simon Laurent | Row 72 - Cell 2 |
74 | Zdenek Vobecky | Row 73 - Cell 2 |
75 | Xavier Pijuan Porcel | Row 74 - Cell 2 |
76 | Roberto Ferreira | Row 75 - Cell 2 |
77 | David Rosa | Row 76 - Cell 2 |
78 | Marc Andre Fortier | Row 77 - Cell 2 |
79 | Erno Mccrae | Row 78 - Cell 2 |
80 | Andrew l'Esperance | Row 79 - Cell 2 |
81 | Victor Selles Pardo | Row 80 - Cell 2 |
82 | Lucas Dubau | Row 81 - Cell 2 |
83 | Samuel Gaze | Row 82 - Cell 2 |
84 | Grant Ferguson | Row 83 - Cell 2 |
85 | Manuel Sanchez Aldeguer | Row 84 - Cell 2 |
86 | Pedro Rodriguez Mesa | Row 85 - Cell 2 |
87 | Salvador Moll Mut | Row 86 - Cell 2 |
88 | Pau Romero Barcelo | Row 87 - Cell 2 |
89 | Jesus Torres Perez | Row 88 - Cell 2 |
90 | Guy Diaz Grollier | Row 89 - Cell 2 |
91 | Edoardo Bonetto | Row 90 - Cell 2 |
92 | Sergi Oller Piferrer | Row 91 - Cell 2 |
93 | Cristofer Bosque Ruano | Row 92 - Cell 2 |
94 | Sebastian Jayne | Row 93 - Cell 2 |
95 | Xavi Calaf Garcia | Row 94 - Cell 2 |
96 | Rodolphe Lestievent | Row 95 - Cell 2 |
97 | Fabio Ribeiro | Row 96 - Cell 2 |
98 | Arthur Tropardy | Row 97 - Cell 2 |
99 | Adria Noguera Soldevila | Row 98 - Cell 2 |
100 | Jorge Gomez Mora | Row 99 - Cell 2 |
101 | Clement Noel | Row 100 - Cell 2 |
102 | Camilo Jesus Espinosa Ozaez | Row 101 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Ben Zwiehoff | Row 102 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Nicola Rohrbach | Row 103 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Daniele Braidot | Row 104 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Carlos Jimenez Serrano | Row 105 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Daniel James Mcconnell | Row 106 - Cell 2 |
DNF | Bartlomiej Wawak | Row 107 - Cell 2 |
DNS | Tom Bell | Row 108 - Cell 2 |
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