Bike
Bike
6 talking points from the cross-country World Cup in Albstadt
Racing at the second round of the Mercedes-Benz UCI MTB Cross-Country World Cup in Germany is done – catch up on what caught our attention in Albstadt here.
Part of this story
Following the sojourn to the exotic surroundings of Brazil back in March, the Mercedes-Benz UCI Cross-country Mountain Bike World Cup resumed back in Europe for the second round. If you missed any of the action, catch up on all the racing here, and if you missed the action, the full replay of the races can be watched via the links below.
12 min
XCO final highlights – Albstadt
Here’s what went down on the hillside of Albstadt for the second UCI XCO battle of 2022.
Get the 2022 Cross-Country Olympic (XCO) results from Albstadt and the latest World Cup overall standings here and scroll down for things you might have missed from the racing weekend:
01
Tom Pidcock is pretty special, isn’t he?
The British multi-disciplinary cyclist cantered to an easy win in the main XCO race in Albstadt, Germany, his second World Cup win after his victory in Nové Město last year. Like that race win in the Czech Republic, Tom Pidcock took a hold of this race midway through, getting away from Nino Schurter and Mathias Flückiger on the Shimano Dual Climb on lap 3, and at one point had a 48-second lead over his chasers.
More from the Mercedes-Benz UCI Mountain Bike World Cup
Pidcock, who had been racing on the road just a few weeks ago, turned up to Albstadt with little mountain biking training in his legs but was immediately competitive. It must be maddening for his fellow competitors how easy it seems to be for the 22-year-old biking ace. The current Olympic cross-country champion will race Nové Město next week before returning to the road, but that’s not the end of his cross-country mountain bike journey this season. He’s targeting European and World Championships glory later in the year.
Pidcock had the Olympic bling on show with his kit and the golden shoes
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
There was no let-up in the pressure from Pidcock even when well ahead
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
Celebrating in style at the finish
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
02
Rebecca McConnell is on a roll
The 2022 World Cup season is one that Rebecca McConnell is likely to remember for a long, long time. After taking her first-ever World Cup win in Pétropolis just last month, she’s gone on to score a perfect weekend in Albstadt. Taking the win in both the cross-country short track (XCC) and the XCO on the same weekend is something only four women have done before her.
McConnell has taken three out of four wins during the 2022 World Cup season
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
McConnell out front is becoming an increasingly common sight
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
Riders are elbow to elbow during most of the 20-minute sprint that is XCC
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
McConnell carried that momentum with her into Sunday’s XCO race, where she showed that she meant business from the get-go. Creating a healthy gap down to the rest of the field already in the opening lap, only Jenny Rissveds managed to stay with her. A well-timed attack from the Australian on the penultimate lap created a big gap down to second place, and eventually crossed the line in first, 48 seconds ahead of the Swede.
Will we see more top steps for McConnell this season?
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
After around 70 world cups and 22 podiums, McConnell seems to have found the missing piece to the puzzle this season.
03
Sam Gaze continued Alpecin-Fenix’s domination of the XCC men’s race
There was no Mathieu van der Poel racing here at Albstadt, but Sam Gaze made sure that Alpecin-Fenix (and the team under its previous name incarnations) remains the only team to have won the Short Track (XCC) race in Albstadt since the format was introduced in 2018. Gaze like his team-mate van der Poel can put in an explosive burst of power that no one can live with, and he was able to use that ability to good effect on the last lap of the XCC race to break away from the field and hold off chasers Jordan Sarrou and Nino Schurter in the race to the line.
6 min
XC short track recap – Albstadt
Find out who did best at the XC short track competition at Albstadt.
Gaze has had a few rough years after breaking through in 2018 with Specialized Factory Racing. In 2018, we saw him take an XCO World Cup win in Stellenbosch and two XCC World Cup wins in Nove Mesto and Mont-Sainte-Anne. Nothing seemed to go right with injuries even after he moved to Alpecin-Fenix in 2020, but the Belgian team have stuck with him, believing in his talent, and he rewarded them here in Albstadt.
Sam Gaze is the man
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
Explosive power from Gaze saw him eventually pull away from the field
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
It was a contented Gaze who spoke to the press after his win
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
04
The strongest man in the XCO was probably Vlad Dascălu
Dascălu is now consistently at the front end of races
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
Not bad after a fourth row start. However, disaster struck on the latter end of that lap when he suffered a seat dropper post failure. A visit to the pits saw him drop down the field and 40 seconds down on the lead group at one point. He battled back over the remaining laps to eventually catch up with Nino Schurter and Titouan Carod on the last lap.
The crowds were back in some number for the first time since 2019
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
Like Pidcock, Victor Koretzky was returning to XCO racing from the road
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
Dascălu chasing Schurter for second place on the last lap
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
It was quite the effort from Dascălu to come back from where he was, and he might have been in contention for the race win had he not had his mechanical, given how strong he was.
That trophy was well deserved after the race Dascălu had
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
05
Living up to the hype – Mona Mitterwallner is the real deal
There’s been a lot of talk around the young Austrian rider coming into the season. Having had a clean sweep of the U23 category last year as well as winning the elite UCI Marathon Mountain Bike World Championships, the question was how Mona Mitterwallner would perform against a stacked elite XCO field.
Albstadt is a climber's track, suiting Mitterwallner perfectly
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
We'll be seeing more of 20-year-old Mitterwallner in the future
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
Already in Pétropolis, she flexed her strength, scoring fifth place and stepping onto the podium. This weekend, she followed that up by climbing two more steps up the ladder. Despite a shaky start, she quickly made her way through the pack overtaking riders on every climb. By lap two, she’d caught up with the chasing pack. No one could match her once she put her pedals down on the last lap, and she secured her first third place spot. With her eyes set on a world cup win, the rest of the field better watch out for this young, hungry rider.
06
The Brazilian butterfly effect
The saying goes, a butterfly flapping its wings somewhere in the world can create a tornado weeks later, somewhere completely different. Now, whether or not that is possible, we won’t dive into it here, but it’s safe to say that this weekend's World Cup had its own little butterfly effect going on. We're referring to riders having gone, or not gone, to Brazil a couple of weeks ago and the effects it had on their race here in Albstadt.
Evie Richards fighting a bad back as well as Albstadt's steep climbs
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
Both the current Olympic Champion Jolanda Neff and the current World Champion Evie Richards caught a stomach bug in Brazil, missing out on the race as well as valuable training sessions ahead of Albstadt. With Richards suffering from a bad back on top of things, it’s safe to say, neither of them had the best preparation ahead of this World Cup. Both were off their usual pace this weekend and will be looking for more at the next rounds.
Rissveds starting her 2022 World Cup season with a bang
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
"I'm just happy to be here racing today," Neff said before the start
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
One rider who decided not to go to Brazil was Jenny Rissveds. An off-season full of health issues saw her skip the first World Cup to focus on her training instead. The decision seems to have paid off, looking strong all weekend and coming away from Albstadt with a third place in XCC and second in XCO.
Next weekend the UCI MTB World Cup goes to Nové Město in the Czech Republic. Tune in to Red Bull TV for live coverage May 13-15, 2022.
Part of this story
