- Filippo Colombo finishes fourth in the cross-country race of the Mountain Bike World Series in Araxa (BRA).
- Alessandra Keller also takes 4th place among the women, as she did in the short track on Saturday.
- The victories go to the Dane Simon Andreassen and the Brit Haley Batten.
In the end it got very exciting again: The Frenchman Victor Koretzky, as the confident leader, had to struggle with technical problems on the last lap. Filippo Colombo from Ticino, together with Simon Andreassen (DEN) and Alan Hatherly (RSA), was able to briefly overtake the leader.
Koretzky quickly closed the small gap again and so the 4 athletes turned into the home straight together. Colombo had to settle for the ungrateful 4th place. The victory went to the Dane, who prevailed in the final sprint just ahead of the unlucky Koretzky. Meanwhile, Hatherly held his own against the best Swiss.
Podium series breaks
Since Colombo missed out on the podium, the Swiss team had an impressive record. Since July 2022, at least one Swiss Cycling athlete has made it onto the podium in cross country over the Olympic distance 11 times in a row.
Because overall World Cup winner Nino Schurter was unable to continue this series. However, the man from Graubünden showed his best race of the season so far and finished in 6th place. Olympic silver medalist Mathias Flückiger fell back to 21st place after a committed start and therefore has to worry about his participation in Paris, as only 2 Swiss are eligible to start.
Surprisingly, Luca Schätti (19th) ranked ahead of the Bernese. The other Swiss missed out on a top ranking, for Thomas Litscher (26th), Timon Rüegg (28th), Lars Forster (31st), Fabio Püntener (34th), Simon Walter (39th) and Joris Ryf (47th). ) it was at least enough for a few World Cup points.
Strong Swiss women
In the women’s category, the Swiss achieved a strong team result. With Alessandra Keller (4th), Jolanda Neff (6th), Nicole Koller (7th) and Linda Indergand (10th), 4 of the 6 Swiss women who started ended up in the fastest 10.
Keller had been in the top group for a long time with winner Haley Batten, Mairipora winner Jenny Rissveds (2nd) and Savilia Blunk (3rd). At times she even led the rankings. Towards the end of the race, the 28-year-old lost some of her strength and Keller was ultimately 25 seconds short of the podium.
Premiere for Batten
Koller achieved her personal best in 7th place; 9th place had been her career best result so far. India, On Saturday in the short track she was back on the podium for the first time since 2021 and celebrated her first top 10 place in cross country in almost 2 years in 10th place.
At the top there was almost the same picture as at the start of the World Cup a week ago. The American Batten achieved her first World Cup victory ahead of Rissveds (SWE) and compatriot Blunk. The same 3 drivers had already taken the podium places 7 days ago.