Olympic and world champion Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM) finished an unprecedented perfect World Cup season on Sunday when he completed his sweep of all six rounds of the 2017 Mountain Bike World Cup series in Val di Sole, Italy.
Schurter came into the final round having already assured himself of the World Cup title with five straight wins - a record for the cross-country World Cup. However, winning the final round would further cement his status as the top male mountain biker in the world.
The men raced a start loop plus seven laps of the four kilometre circuit, and Schurter immediately went to the front, joined by Manuel Fumic (Cannondale Factory). The duo had opened a gap on the chasers by the start of the first lap, however, Fumic suffered a drivetrain problem on the opening lap and fell out of contention.
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Stephane Tempier (Bianchi Countervail) bridged up from the chase group to join Schurter at the front on the second lap, and the pair rode away from the rest of the field. Schurter was content to ride on Tempier's wheel for most of the race, before attacking on the final climb of the last lap to open a four second gap and take the title.
The chase group began with 11 riders and was gradually whittled down over the laps. 2012 Olympic champion Jaroslav Kulhavy (Specialized) did much of the work at the front of the group, before he was joined by two-time Olympic champion Julien Absalon (BMC), who bridged up to the group on the fourth lap. Absalon, the defending World Cup champion, was out of contention for the overall title after breaking his collarbone and missing two rounds, however, he showed that he is rapidly returning to form with a strong third place finish, just ahead of Kulhavy.
"It's amazing and unbelievable," admitted Schurter. "I have an awesome team around me and that's a big part of this success. It's impossible to get through the whole season without them. I wasn't too fresh this race; I'm starting to feel the long season, so I couldn't get away [from Tempier]. I just tried to stay with him. So I did the same as two years ago when I attacked [Julien] Absalon on that section before the downhill and it worked."
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