Climbs, gaps and wins – everything goes big at XCO WC Leogang (spoiler alert!)

This one’s a climber’s course. Lecomte won by almost two minutes last year. Will we see a repeat of that or will we see Rebecca McConnell have another XCO win? One thing’s for sure, with this being the home race for Mona Mitterwallner and Laura Stigger, they’re gonna be aiming for that top spot too!

The women’s race has begun! Within the first few metres, we’ve already seen a crash! Unfortunately, Mona Mitterwallner got taken down, with her handlebar all twisted. Jenny Rissveds leads for now, up the first climb!

Short lap down: Neff crossed first, Lecomte in second, Rissveds in third, McConnell in fourth and Laura Stigger in fifth.

The field is spreading out a bit now. Loana Lecomte in the lead on the first climb in the second lap. Rissveds in right behind her. A little bit of gap between them both and the next two riders. Neff has fallen significantly back.

Current standings at the end of the lap:

1: Lecomte

2: Rissveds

3: Stigger

4: Frei

5: McConnell

Lecomte has pushed hard up the first long climb and put some gap between her and Rissveds.

Rissveds blown away already 🙁

She’s pushing so hard! She has fallen back significantly now 🙁

Stigger , Frei and McConnell are well over a minute away behind Lecomte as they cross the first split of second lap.

Split two has seen Stigger and Frei cross in third and fourth, dropping McConnell further back. All still a minute back from Lecomte.

End of the second lap: Lecomte crosses in first, Rissveds in second, Stigger in third, Frei in fourth and McConnell in fifth.

Mitterwallner, who crashed in the first few seconds of the race, crossed this lap in 25th place!

Rissveds is 39 seconds behind Lecomte right now!

Current series leader McConnell has been overtaken by Terpstra and Bohé and sits in 7th at the moment!

Lecomte has managed to extend the gap between her and Rissveds to 47 seconds!

Almost an hour into racing, Lecomte is leading by 56 seconds, Rissveds is in the second, Stigger in third, Frei in fourth and Terpstra in fifth.

Going into the last lap, I’m sitting here wondering what Loana Lecomte is made of. What an absolute machine! This is a climber’s course and, clearly, it suits Loana significantly more than it does to the rest!

The current gap between Loana and Terpstra, who sits in fifth place, is 5 minutes!

Stigger has put in some distance between herself and Sina Frei…

Loana Lecomte gets her first XCO win of 2022 season. It’s a perfect weekend for her!

Jenny Rissveds finishes second by 1:13 behind Loana. Austrian rider Laura Stigger finishes third, Sina Frei fourth, and Anne Terpstra fifth!

Current series leader Rebecca McConnell finishes 7th. Olympic champion Jolanda Neff finishes 8th.

After that unfortunate pile up at the start of the race, Austrian rider Mona Mitterwallner finishes 15th!

The Men’s Race is officially underway with Dascalu and Avancini right at the front!

Schurter is leading the group at the moment, with Flueckiger in 8th place, chasing hard!

Schurter still leading into lap 2, with Alan Hatherly in second, Dascalu in third, Flückiger in 4th and Cooper in 5th!

There seems to be a considerable gap between the first four riders and the rest. Schurter leading now, with Dascalu, Hatherley, Flückiger and Cooper following.

Into the third lap, the first four riders remain the same but Marotte has overtaken Cooper to sit in the 5th place

Flückiger out on an all-out attack! Nino Schurter keeping close, stopping Flückiger from a breakaway!

There’s considerable gaps across the field now! Hatherley has managed to pull away from Dascalu too!

Going into the 4th lap, the top 5 are Flückiger, Schurter, Hatherly, Marotte and Dascalu!

Schurter is leading, and Flückiger close behind him, with a 11 second gap from Hatherley.

Standings heading into 5th lap:

1. Schurter

2. Flückiger

3. Hatherly

4. Marotte

5. Dascalu

With Flückiger leading and Nino Schurter only a couple of bike lengths back, looks like it will come down to a sprint finish….

Flückiger is absolutely going for it! He has put an attack in exactly where it counts.

And Mathias Flückiger has done it! A perfect weekend for him!

Schurter finishes second, Hatherly third, Dascalu fourth and Marotte in fifth!

I see a course like that & the lactate in my legs screams & I can taste the iron in my lungs – UUUGGHHHHH!!! LOOKED BRUTAL…..

Check out the comments section below for our live watch-along commentary, or read on for the race report. The women’s race was won by the young French …

By wheelsandwords

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Join us for the live commentary of XCO World Cup at Leogang! (spoiler alert!)