- Jordan Sarrou snatches the cross-country victory from Nino Schurter in Snowshoe (USA). Marcel Guerrini finished third and reached his first World Cup podium.
- Schurter maintains his lead in the overall World Cup before the final race weekend in Mont-Sainte-Anne.
- In the women’s race, Jolanda Neff achieved her best result of the season in 5th place. The overall World Cup goes to Puck Pieterse early.
The Swiss mountain bikers impressed in the US state of West Virginia with two podium places and a strong team result. In Snowshoe the only thing missing from a perfect result was victory. In the end, Nino Schurter narrowly lost out in the duel with Jordan Sarrou and missed his 36th success in the World Cup. The Frenchman Sarrou, on the other hand, celebrated his first victory.
Marcel Guerrini, who finished 4th on the podium in Les Gets in September, made it into the top 3 for the first time. Mathias Flückiger (4th), Filippo Colombo (9th) and Joel Roth (16th) contributed to this extremely positive overall Swiss impression.
Schurter is tackling the last two races next weekend in Mont-Sainte-Anne (as usual live on SRF) with a lead of 89 points over Sarrou, who is now second overall. Flückiger is still in third place. His mortgage on Schurter increased from 117 to 167 points.
Pieterse secures overall World Cup
A 6th place was enough for Puck Pieterse to win the overall World Cup early in the women’s race. The 21-year-old Dutchwoman crossed the finish line directly behind Jolanda Neff.
Neff was 5th, better than ever this year and the best Swiss woman. Sina Frei (14th), Alessandra Keller (15th) and Linda Indergand (17th) also made it into the top 20, but lost a lot of time to the day’s winner Laura Stigger. The Austrian celebrated her first-ever World Cup victory over the Olympic distance in the second-to-last race of the season.
One week before the last World Cup stop, Pieterse can no longer be pushed off the top of the rankings. She is the successor to Keller, who was the most complete driver last season.