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The moments from the XCO World Cup at Lenzerheide that got everyone talking
The fifth round of the 2022 Mercedes-Benz UCI Mountain Bike Cross-Country World Cup in Switzerland is a wrap. Catch up on the key moments in the race action here.
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The beautiful setting of Lenzerheide in the Swiss Alps hosted the fifth round of the Mercedes-Benz UCI Mountain Bike Cross-Country World Cup. Recap on all the action in the replay links below.
12 min
XCO finals – Lenzerheide
Watch the XCO battle in the forests of Switzerland, where Loana Lecomte and Luca Braidot took the victories.
Get the results from the cross-country racing in Lenzerheide and the latest World Cup overall standings here. Scroll down for things you might have missed from the Swiss racing weekend.
01
There was a dramatic end to the men’s XCO race and an unexpected winner
Italy’s Luca Braidot managed to hold off South African Alan Hatherly in a sprint finish to take his first World Cup win. A sprint finish is exciting enough though this doesn’t quite tell the story of the dramatic sixth and final lap that had seen Braidot, Hatherly, Mathias Flückiger and Nino Schurter racing as a lead group on that lap.
That sprint finish
© Bartek Wolinski/@wolisphoto
Pure emotion from Braidot
© Bartek Wolinski/@wolisphoto
The group's lead was exchanged several times between Braidot, Flückiger and Schurter as the lap progressed, and it seemed that Flückiger and Schurter had broken away from the other two and would fight it out for the win. However, unseen by the TV cameras covering the event, Flückiger and Schurter had a coming together. When the group came back into view of the cameras, Braidot and Hatherly were ahead of Flückiger and Schurter.
Schurter, Fluckiger, Braidot and Hathlery battle it out
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
Braidot goes toe to toe with Schurter and Flückiger
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
There were chaotic scenes in the finish area at the end of the race. Braidot was overcome with the emotion of his win, as was Schurter, who had come in fourth. Schurter was visibly upset at how the race had ended. Everyone wanted to know what happened between Flückiger and Schurter and tried to make sense of what had just gone on in the last few minutes of the race.
Taking the win in Luca
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
Schurter was upset and furious in the immediate aftermath of the race
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
That's my boy
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
02
The Flückiger and Schurter rivalry is set to go up a notch after this race
In recent years, Flückiger has emerged from the shadow of his fellow Swiss countryman Schurter. Flückiger has won four World Cups since the start of 2019 and is just as much a household name as Schurter is in Switzerland, where cross-country racing is revered as a sport. The two are often battling it out at the business end of races and outwardly are friendly, but there have been tensions. After last year’s World Championships in Val di Sole, Flückiger was critical of a move by Schurter to overtake him in one of the last corners on the course. That move ultimately gave Schurter the edge in the final stretch.
Schurter and Flückiger never give an inch when they race together
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
Their coming together in this race will further fuel those tensions, with Schurter, in an interview with Swiss TV, blaming Flückiger for trying to overtake in a place where he claimed it was impossible to get past. In this case, no one ended up happy, and it may take some time for this to be smoothed over between the two.
A penny for Schurter's thoughts at the podium ceremony?
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
The Swiss still had plenty to celebrate with three men on the podium
© Bartek Wolinski/@wolisphoto
03
Loana Lecomte stole the leader's jersey by just one point
Lecomte sets the pace in Lenzerheide
© Bartek Wolinkski/@wolisphoto
French rider Loana Lecomte is back to her track-dominating best, with two back-to-back XCO wins to her name, it seems like the second half of the season is going to be Lecomte's prime. In the lead pack from the beginning, Lecomte was joined by Jenny Rissveds and Alessandra Keller up until lap four, when she made a quick and aggressive attack on the climb. It wasn't an easy victory for Lecomte, though; she had to maintain an aggressive front position as the chasing duo did not relent.
Lecomte is now the overall series leader
© Bartek Wolinkski/@wolisphoto
After the attack on the climb Lecomte was unstoppable
© Bartek Wolinkski/@wolisphoto
The win today secured Lecomte just enough points in the overall - by one – to take the overall leader's jersey from Rebecca Mcconnell. At the end of the race, it was Lecomte with 1204 points and Mcconnell with 1203 points.
04
Alessandra Keller used the crowds to claim 'fastest Swiss'
Pushing through the pain with the help of the crowd
© Bartek Wolinkski/@wolisphoto
Alessandra Keller was the first Swiss rider over the line in Lenzerheide, taking a career-best third place. Giving it all she had throughout the race, Keller managed to maintain a position in the leading pack and fought valiantly to try and close the gap that lead rider Lecomte had made. Evidently pushing through exhaustion, the Swiss rider used the energy of the hometown crowd to buoy her on. "The crowd was so crazy... I gave it all... I fought until the finish line," she said after the race.
Keller riding on the edge!
© Bartek Wolinkski/@wolisphoto
Keller was the only Swiss on the podium and got a career-best 3rd place
© Bartek Wolinkski/@wolisphoto
05
There have been five different winners in the men's XCC World Cup this season so far
Switzerland's Filippo Colombo upstaged his more well-known countrymen – Mathias Flückiger and Nino Schurter – to take the win in the men's XCC. Colombo's maiden win continued the remarkable trend in this season's men's competition of producing different winners at every round so far. The others being Alan Hatherly, Sam Gaze, Luca Schwarzbauer and Mathias Flückiger. It's made for an unpredictable season and is why the race for the overall XCC World Cup is very much open.
Colombo heads the lead group on the last lap
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
Colombo has been in good XCC form having won the Swiss nationals recently
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
A Swiss victory was very much welcomed by the crowd
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
Colombo, Flückiger, Schurter and South African Alan Hatherly were all involved in a final lap scrap for the victory, but it was Colombo who led out of the last corner into the finish straight. He managed to hold off Flückiger as the finish line approached. Hatherly got the better of Schurter.
1 min
Men's XCC finish – Lenzerheide
Find out who put the power down hardest to win the men's XCC race at the Lenzerheide Cross-Country World Cup.
06
Consistency is driving Alan Hatherly forwards
Alan Hatherly followed up on his impressive third-place result in the XCC race with a second place in the main XCO race. He nearly overcame Braidot in the sprint finish, but the line, in the end, came too soon. It’s been the South African’s best season yet on the World Cup circuit. The Cannondale rider won the opening XCC race in Petrópolis, Brazil, and in all the XCO rounds this season has not finished outside the top 10. In Nové Město he finished fifth, and at the last stop in Leogang, he finished third.
Hatherly moves up to second in the overall
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
Those results have propelled him to be second in the overall World Cup title behind Schurter. While a World Cup win is important, Hatherly is within a very real chance of placing well in the overall and will be fighting for every position in the remaining World Cup races.
Hatherly should be satisfied with his weekend's work
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
07
Jenny Rissveds just loves racing at Lenzerheide
Sweden's Jenny Rissveds put in an emphatic display in the women's XCC race to take her third career XCC win. One of her other previous XCC victories also came in Lenzerheide in 2021. While she also won the main Olympic race at the Swiss venue in 2016 and 2019, finished third in the 2021 XCO race, and, as you've seen above, finished second in the 2022 edition.
7 min
XCC recap – Lenzerheide
Find out who earned a place at the front of the grid for Sunday’s XCO in the XCC race at Lenzerheide.
In the XCC race, Rissveds went clear of the field on lap six of nine, building an impressive lead that was over 30 seconds at one point. Alessandra Keller and Jolanda Neff gave the Swiss crowd plenty to cheer about as they chased down the Swede on the final lap but had to settle for second and third, respectively.
Rissveds had enough of a lead on the last lap to hold on to the win
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
The chasing group of Keller, Neff, Lecomte and Ferrand-Prevot
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
Rissveds justs loves riding her bike, winning is of secondary importance
© Bartek Woliński/@wolisphoto
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