Alessandra Keller and Mathias Flückiger take the win at the short track XCC World Cup at Vallnord
Following on from last weekend’s dramatic racing, we’re now at Vallnord in Andorra, with the the air over 20% thinner than sea level. Fast riding, massive climbs and some unfortunate crashes mean that we are cutting it close on the race for the overall.
Alessandra Keller did a repeat of her 2018 race and took the win here agin in Vallnord. That, too, with a crash in her final lap. Anne Terpstra finished second, followed by Rebecca McConnell who seems to have got her racing mojo back! The otherwise race favourites Jenny Rissveds and Pauline Ferrand Prevot had an unfortunate start to the race, after Jenny slipped her pedal and fell onto the railing just as the race started, faltering Pauline too, as a result. Despite this, Jenny being at her top form this year, finished eighth and Pauline finished tenth.
In the last few laps, it became obvious that if Keller was to win, and Terpstra was to finish second, Keller would take the overall lead. With three laps to go, she broke away from the group and stayed about eight seconds further for most part…..until she crashed in the last lap and the gap closed. At this point, McConnell and Terpstra were close enough to overtake but having taken different line choices than Keller, she came out front of them again and broke away with all her might. Needless to say, that paid off and she took the win.
As of now, McConnell still holds the leader’s jersey in XCC, in spite of her and Keller having the same points, thanks her having won more races. In the overall XC standings, Mcconnell leads by 49 points.
Italian rider Greta Seiwald had her best career finish at 6th place. Neff finished 16th. Annie Last finished 14th and Isla Short was 29th. Loana Lecomte, Evie Richards, and Kate Courtney were absent from the start.
In the men’s race, Mathias Flückiger took the win, with Alan Hatherly finishing second followed by Vlad Dascalu in third. Schurter finished 15th.
In the last few laps, Braidot broke away from the group and it was almost obvious that we would win. Fate had other ideas. His chain fell on the penultimate lap, he got caught up and ended up finishing 6th, which is still good enough for a front row start on Sunday, but not quite enough to take his first short track win! Hard luck!
Meanwhile Tom Pidcock was shaking things up at Tour de France, taking the win at the Alpe De Huez stage!
History states that Flückiger has gone on to win the XCO race every time he’s won a XCC short track race. Will we see a repeat of this or will Schurter get his record-breaking 34th XCO win?
As the drama continues, follow it live with us on Sunday!
The women’s race starts at 11:00am BST on RedBull TV and the men’s race starts right after at 13:30 BST. As with the last few races, we’ll be doing live updates right here. So, grab some snacks, watch the race live and join the cool cats to discuss it with us!
Home › Forums › Vallnord XCC World Cup Results and live XCO follow along (Spoilers!)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Spread the word:
Spread the word: