Julien Absalon (BMC) came back from a disappointing Olympics to win his 33rd World Cup and take the seventh World Cup overall title of his career on Sunday, at the World Cup final in Andorra.
Riders faced vastly different conditions than the ones they had trained on, when heavy rain overnight made the rocks and roots very slippery. The altitude, at over 1800 metres, also proved to be a significant factor, with many riders hitting the wall after a fast start.
Carlos Coloma (MMR Factory) led out of the start loop, but was soon supplanted by Ondrej Cink (Multivan Merida), closely followed by Absalon and Olympic champion Nino Schurter (Scott Odlo). Absalon and Schurter made their way up to Cink by the fourth lap, but Schurter suffered a slow leak and was dropped when Absalon attacked. By the end of the fifth lap Absalon had 17 seconds on Cink, and increased that to 43 seconds by the finish line. Pablo Rodriguez (MMR Factory) took third in a sprint with Maxime Marotte (BH-SR Suntour-KMC).
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"After the Olympics I was really disappointed," said Absalon, "so the first goal was to win the overall and then the race today. My legs were perfect, and I was really motivated to do a good race, so the plan was to stay with Nino at the beginning of the race and after to attack him at the end. The fast pace at the start was a surprise, because here you don't want to go over the limit, because it is really high [altitude], but I was always in a good rhythm."
Absalon finishes the season with 1310 points and three World Cup victories. Schurter, despite missing one round, finishes second with three victories also, and 980 points. Marotte is third with 948 points.
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