Ondřej Cink (Dice) delivered a shock victory within the muddy situations of Leogang’s cross-country Olympic (XCO) races within the fourth spherical of the Whoop UCI Mountain Bike World Sequence, whereas world champion Puck Pieterse (Alpecin-Deceuninck) doubled up after having taken the short-track victory on Friday.
Pieterse rode off the entrance early within the slippery Austrian spherical, which examined bikes and riders alike.
“It’s been a purpose of mine to have the right weekend and till now it didn’t work out, however I’m tremendous blissful in the present day on this observe. I possibly was a bit too desperate to get to the entrance immediately, I’m not good at ready so I made a decision to go for it,” stated Pieterse, who rode her first spherical of the 2025 World Sequence in Nové Město and has gained three of 4 races to date.
A flat in XCO within the final spherical stymied her probabilities to make it 4 from 4 and whereas there have been no flawless runs in Sunday’s situations, Pieterse did not have any main obstacle to curtail her run this time.
“No person had an ideal race with out unclipping or a small tumble or something,” stated Pieterse. “I had some troubles on the higher a part of the observe however I knew others would make errors in addition to properly so so long as it solely occurred as soon as it’s not a giant downside.”
The Dutch rider crossed the road on the finish of the six lap race with a 16-second margin to Samara Maxwell (Decathlon-Ford), the rider from New Zealand rebounding from a tough begin which left her working her method again from mid discipline. The second-place end forward of Nicole Koller (Ghost Manufacturing unit Racing) was sufficient to maintain the constant Maxwell – who took her first World Cup win in Brazil’s spherical 1 and has clinched the runner-up spot in each spherical since – comfortably within the total sequence lead.
The favourites might have dominated within the ladies’s race however within the males’s 7 lap occasion it was a whole shake up, with the 34-year previous Cink’s rise to the highest an surprising flip in Austria for the rider who introduced his signing with Dice firstly of this season after the closure of his former crew Primaflor Mondraker.
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Cink had appeared like he could also be reeled in late within the race with the hole falling to as little as 11 seconds, however the Czech rider dug deep to take his first elite World Cup win.
“I’m tremendous blissful, I used to be ready for a very long time for this, I used to be second many instances and I actually like this place, I used to be U23 world champion right here in Saalfeden [in 2012],” stated Cink. “I used to be considering as soon as that my profession is already over as a result of I’m one of many oldest right here so I don’t have phrases for that.
“This course fits me very properly however the situations probably not, I don’t just like the muddy situations, slippery however I don’t know what occurred in the present day, I simply did it. With two laps I began to really feel actually dangerous however once I noticed I opened the hole a bit of bit I bought some energy once more and I pushed the restrict within the final climb.”
Ultimately Cink crossed the road 18 seconds forward of the 2 Swiss riders in pursuit, with Mathias Flückiger (Thömus Maxon) managing to get the higher of third-placed privateer Fabio Püntener (Bike Crew Solothurn).
It was, however, a tricky day for among the favourites, significantly for rider from Specialised, the crew that has to date dominated the sequence. Victor Koretzky stepped off the bike after two laps, scuffling with sickness and the impression of a crash in coaching however held onto his second within the sequence. Christopher Blevins, who saved his run of wins going on the short-track on Friday, got here seventeenth within the XCO race. Nonetheless there was as soon as once more no menace to the sequence lead for the winner of the final two XCO rounds, not given his stellar begin to the season.
Outcomes
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