Two Races, Two Sprint Finishes at 2018 Nove Mesto XCO UCI World Cup – Results

Mountain bike XCO UCI World Cup action returned again over the weekend at Nove Mesto in the Czech Republic. The race followed last weekend’s race in Albstadt, Germany and marked the third stop of the 2018 XCO World Cup series.

After a muddy slog at Albstadt, the conditions at Nove Mesto were ripe for ripping and both the Women’s and Men’s races had finishes to remember.

Langvad, Neff Have Cat and Mouse Game for the Ages

So far this season, the front of the Women’s field has had a very familiar feel for cyclocross fans who followed the 2017/18 Cyclocross World Cup circuit. 2016 mountain bike world champion Annika Langvad (Specialized) and defending world champion Jolanda Neff (Kross Racing) dipped their toes in the cyclocross waters last season and found frequent success, and former cyclocross and mountain bike world champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (Canyon-SRAM) is back on championship form.

Not surprisingly, an impressive haul of rainbow jerseys makes for great racing.

Langvad took top honors in South Africa during her hot start to the season and Neff countered by winning in the sloppy German conditions last weekend. Langvad had an uncharacteristic bad outing last weekend, so she was looking to bounce back this weekend in the Czech Republic.

This season, the XCO UCI World Cups feature a short track race on Friday with the front two rows of call-ups on the line. In Nove Mesto, Langvad, Ferrand-Prevot and Neff went 1-2-3 to earn the three top call-up spots on Sunday.

To put it plainly, Sunday’s Women’s XCO was a 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 five-alarm situation between Langvad and Neff. The two went to the front during the first lap and stayed together the next hour-plus of racing. With one to go, the two were still together with barely a tire knob of distance between them. The two swapped lead after lead in the last lap, angling for the best position heading into the finishing paved sprint.

Neff led heading into the last turn before the duo slowed to size each other up before the finishing sprint. Langvad sensed Neff’s hesitation and seized the opportunity to unleash her powerful sprint. Langvad’s initial move was too much for the World Champion, and Langvad took home her second World Cup win of the season in a thrilling finish worthy of the thrilling race between the two women.

Despite trailing by only a few seconds early on, Ferrand-Prevot was never able to bridge the gap to the two leaders. However, she did break free during the last lap to take home third place. Canadian Emily Batty (Trek Factory Racing) took fourth and American Kate Courtney (Specialized) took ninth in an another impresive performance from the young star racing her first year at the Elite level. Ellen Noble (Trek Factory Racing) continued her first World Cup campaign with a 39th-place finish after starting on the last row.

Full XCO race results are below. See redbull.tv for the tl;dr race highlights and full race replay.

Schurter Faces Down Another Kiwi Challenge

From the perspective of cyclocross fans, the 2018 XCO UCI World Cup mountain bike series has been of interest because of Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus). The Dutch cyclocross star is racing a full mountain bike schedule this season as he targets the 2020 Olympics. His efforts have gone quite well, with a fourth at Stellenbosch and a third at Albstadt. He also, perhaps not surprisingly, won the short track race at Albstadt.

The larger-scale story from the Men’s World Cup series is the efforts of Van der Poel and others’ efforts to knock Nino Schurter off his World Champion pedestal. Kiwi Sam Gaze (Specialized) beat Schurter in a thrilling sprint finish in South Africa, but Schurter bounced back to complete the double rainbow in the mud at Albstadt.

On Friday, Gaze won the short track race, with Van der Poel finishing second. Schurter took third to set the stage for an impressive front row for Sunday’s XCO main event.

Schurter did not mess around early in the XCO race, pushing the pace and drawing out the riders who could go with him. As he has done in the first two races, Van der Poel matched Schurter’s pace early on and joined Lars Forster (BMC MTB Racing Team) and Titouan Carod (BMC MTB Racing Team) in the lead group of four. On Sunday, Van der Poel’s ride at the front was short-lived. During the third lap, he crashed and then abandoned the race.

After Van der Poel’s crash, Schurter still struggled to get separation from the riders looking to knock him off, and with one to go, it was Maxime Marotte (Cannondale Factory Racing XC), Anton Cooper (Trek Factory Racing) and him at the front. Both Marotte and Cooper showed the hearts of champions after trailing the leaders by 30 seconds early in the race before battling back to get to the front.

In the last lap, Marotte fell off the pace on the climbs, and as the meters ticked down, Schurter faced another tough finish against a New Zealander in Cooper. Wheel to wheel with 100 meters to go, both Schurter and Cooper wasted no time turning on the afterburners. Schurter got the early jump, but Cooper countered and looked destined for the win. Perhaps fueled by the memory of his close loss to Gaze in South Africa, Schurter dug deep and found one last bit of effort to put his wheel across the line first in a photo finish.

Marotte finished eight seconds back to round out the podium.

Full race results are below. See redbull.tv for the highlights and full replay.

The mountain bike-sters take a break from the World Cup action before returning on July 8 at Val di Sole in Italy.

Women's Results: 2018 Nove Mesto XCO World Cup

Men's results: 2018 Nove Mesto XCO World Cup