At right, Candice Lill of South Africa leads a group of riders, including race winner Laura Stigger during Sunday’s women’s race.
(Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)
LAKE PLACID — The Union Cycliste Internationale Mountain Bike World Series at Mount Van Hoevenberg wrapped up on Sunday with back-to-back exciting races in the men’s and women’s elite division’s cross-country Olympic World Cup.
France’s Victor Koretzky won the men’s World Cup, marking his second victory of the weekend while Austria’s Laura Stigger was the overall winner in the women’s race.
Stigger sprinted to the line ahead of her teammate Sina Frei, of Switzerland, to claim victory in the women’s elite cross-country Olympic race. The two racers compete for team Specialized Factory Racing.
“It means a lot to finish one and two, with my long time teammate and a really good friend,” she said. “We understand each other very well.”
Stigger said the U.S. has been a lucky place for her — she won her first-ever Word Cup on U.S. soil at Snowshoe, West Virginia.
Switzerland’s Mathias Fluckiger leads a pack of riders during Sunday’s men’s race. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)
French rider Loana Lecomte led for most of the final two laps, before Stigger and Frei made a move past her on the biathlon course right before the finish line. Stigger said she wasn’t thinking much when she took the lead.
“I was just giving it my all,” she said. “If you start thinking, it’s too late. I just gave it my all.”
Lecomte finished in third place overall, while South Africa’s Candice Lill, who doesn’t compete for a sponsered factory team, finished in fourth.
Stigger and Frei’s teammate American Haley Batten dropped out of both races because of an injury she suffered during last week’s Cross Country Marathon World Championships in Showshoe, West Virginia. Batten, of Park City, Utah, was expected to be one of the top riders after earning a silver medal at the 2024 Olympic Summer Games in Paris.
“It’s hard to a skip a race, especially a home World Cup and I was really sad for her,” Stigger said. “I know how hard it is, but health goes first and for long term, it’s for sure better.”
The top American women’s riders on Sunday were Savilia Blunk in sixth overall; Kelsey Urban in 11th; Gwendalyn Gibson in 12th; Kate Courtney in 18th; Kim Milton in 52nd; and Isabella Robles in 53rd.
After winning the Short-Track World Cup on Saturday, Koretzky narrowly edged out a group of riders on the final home stretch to win Sunday’s race as well.
“It was a super tactical race today from the beginning to the last lap,” Koretzky said. “My goal was to manage to stay in the best position to use my strength again.”
After the second of eight laps, Koretzky held one of the top five spots in the competition and stayed with the pack for the remainder of the way, forcing a sprint race on the final stretch.
“My goal was for the sprint in the end because I knew I wasn’t fastest, but I’m also not the slowest,” he said.
The next four riders finished less than 2 seconds behind Koretzky, with South Africa’s Alan Hatherly placing second and Switzerland’s Filippo Colombo and Marcel Guerrini in third and fourth, respectively.
Hatherly, the current XCO World Cup points leader, suffered a rear flat tire on the fourth lap and had to stop at the tech zone for a replacement. After switching his tire, Hatherly was around 45 seconds from the top rider.
“It was tough one because you want to go close the cap and get back in the race, but you also have to do it in a smart way, so you have the legs to contain in the final,” he said. “I think I managed that part well to make it to the front. I just think I didn’t have the edge left and the legs to take the win in the sprint. To take (second) I’m happy, considering it’s damage control.”
The U.S. men were rounded out by Christopher Blevins in sixth; Devon Feehan in 71st; Carter Hall in 73rd; Samuel Elson in 75th; Jeremy Norris in 78th; and Cory Peterson in 79th.
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Marathon
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After a marathon 100 kilometers of racing, the UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Cup title came down to sprint finishes in the men’s and women’s competitions on a fast-paced course.
The women’s race was won by Vera Looser, who had enough left in the tank to edge Rose Van Doorn for her second UCI XCM World Cup win of the season. Simon Schneller meanwhile came out on top in the men’s race. Lake Placid native Beckett Ledger placed 34th overall in 4 hours, 37 minutes, 50 seconds.
The women were the first to set off and were faced with three laps of the punchy 33.3K course. After a fast and frantic start, a nine-strong lead group had formed by the end of the first lap.
In the end, it was the Namibian who came out on top, throwing her handlebars just at the right time to narrowly beat Van Doorn. Njemcevic meanwhile finished third, 31 seconds down.
On the men’s side, with 40 starting riders, Schneller and a pack of 17 riders jumped out to a lead after the first lap.
Gearing up for the final sprint though, Schneller had the edge in the pack — the 27-year-old German doing enough to outgun Martin Stoek to win his first UCI XCM World Cup. Fabian Rabensteiner was a close third.
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Short track
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Frei and Koretzky collected individual wins in the Cross-country Short-Track World Cup on Saturday.
The women’s race got the action underway on a dry short track course with Rio 2016 Olympic champion Jenny Risveds, of Sweden, setting the pace early. However, Frei was able to catch up and later seal the victory.
Rissveds placed second overall, while Great Brittain’s Evie Richards was third.
On the men’s side, the race came down to the wire with a group of five riders — Koretzky, Simon Andreassen, Alan Hatherly, Nino Schurter and Martins Blums — all closely together on the final lap.
Approaching the rock garden, Koretzky laid down the power, and no one else could respond. From nowhere, the Frenchman built a huge lead after the technical feature that just stretched to the finish line. Behind him, Andreassen finished second, while Hatherly outsprinted Schurter for third.
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U23 race
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On Saturday, Dario Lillo and Kira Bohm came out on top in the men’s and women’s U23 UCI Cross-country Short-Track World Cup, respectively.
Bohm and Isabella Holmgren exchanged the lead throughout, but the German surged ahead on the last lap, leaving the Canadian in her dust. Soloing to the line, she celebrated her fourth win of the season, and with it the overall series ahead of the season finale in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada, next weekend.
Lillo meanwhile left it to a last lap attack that no one could compete with to take his first XCC win of the series.
