The unbeatable Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM) has finally been beaten in Mountain Bike World Cup racing after sweeping the 2017 series, with New Zealand's Sam Gaze (Specialized) outsprinting in him in Stellenbosch, South Africa, for the opening round of 2018.
The Stellenbosch course was very dry and dusty; as might be expected from the ongoing water shortages the region is facing. This, coupled with the short, steep climbs and technical sections of the course, meant it was difficult to avoid mistakes, which could easily cost seconds.
Schurter came into the 2018 season with a perfect record for 2017 - world champion plus six out of six wins in the World Cup. However, he admitted pre-race that there were two riders he was concerned about - reigning Under-23 world champion Gaze and cyclo-cross star Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus), who had switched full time to mountain bike this season.
ADVERTISEMENT
Gaze and Schurter went to the front on the opening lap of the men's race, followed by Maxime Marotte (Cannondale Factory), Anton Cooper (Trek Factory) and Henrique Avancini (Cannondale Factory). van der Poel had a poor start position - on the eighth row - but had an incredible first lap, rocketing up to fifth by the end of the lap.
Schurter and Gaze were pushing the pace to keep clear of van der Poel and dropped the rest, with Marotte holding on to third, where he was joined by van der Poel. However, the Dutch rider had gone as high as he would go and would fade slightly in the final laps to finish fourth.
Meanwhile, Marotte kept yo-yoing behind the two leaders; just getting up to the front in time for one of them to surge, dropping the French champion again.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Race Results http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/uci-mtb-world-cup-xco-1-stellenbosch-2018/elite-men/results
No comments:
Post a Comment