2022 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships: Halter and Schehl win Junior cross-country gold

The second day of competition at the 2022 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Les Gets, France, saw rainbow jerseys presented to Monique Halter of Switzerland and Paul Schehl of Germany in the Junior cross-country Olympic (XCO) races.

In the Women Junior event, Monique Halter covered the four laps fastest, in a time of 59.37. Her Swiss compatriot Lea Huber took the silver medal and Natalia Grzegorzewska (POL) the bronze.

Paul Schehl won the five-lap Men Junior UCI World title in 1:02.48, followed by Switzerland’s Jan Christen, then Paul Magnier (France) in third.

Women Junior: dominant Halter

Sixty-two riders took to the start, many of them having already competed in Wednesday’s cross-country team relay (XCR). Tatiana Tournut, who rode so bravely for France in the team event despite suffering a mechanical, did not start.

The Swiss trio of Halter, Huber and Anina Hutter (UCI world ranked 1, 4 and 7 respectively), got away quickly, followed by a group including Grzegorzewska, Ella MacLean-Howell (GBR) and Valentina Corvi (ITA). At the end of lap 1, Halter had pulled a margin of almost 30 seconds over the five chasers as the Italian started to fade.

By half distance it was beginning to feel like a dominant display from the European and double Swiss Champion, who extended her advantage to almost 1 minute over MacLean-Howell and Grzegorzewska (both had ridden the team relay on Wednesday) and Huber. Antonia Weeger (GER) was battling for 5th place ahead of Corvi, already a silver medalist in the cross-country team relay.

Halter held her consistent pace, almost 1:30 ahead of the battle for the remaining medals. It was Huber (+1:16) who held off the three-time Polish Champion Grzegorzewska (+1:26) with Weeger (ranked 19th in the world) taking fourth and British Champion MacLean-Howell fifth.

Men Junior: Schehl in the mix from the start

With 113 starters from 40 countries, the Men Junior race was both an amazing competition and an international spectacle.

Schehl (GER), Christen (SUI) and Jack Spranger (USA) got off to the fastest starts with Gustav Pedersen (DEN) and the French pair of Paul Magnier and Melvin Crommelinck in close company. It was the young German Champion and the double Swiss Champion together as they crossed the finish line the first of five times – and they would not lose sight of each other for the rest of the race.

The French duo worked together to close a gap before Crommelinck tired and lost his fourth place to Rens Teunissen van Manen (part of the Netherlands team from Wednesday’s XCR). Then came the German pair of Benjamin Krüger and National Champion on the road Emil Herzog, who was on a charge.

At half distance Herzog hit the front along with Schehl, Christen and Magnier. Gaps appeared behind the four leaders and Teunissen van Manen held station in 5th ahead of Krüger. But on the penultimate lap Herzog dropped off the lead, falling back steadily, and at the bell there was nothing between Schehl, Magnier and Christen.

As the German – ranked number 2 in the world but looking every bit the number 1 on the day – wound up the pace it was the Frenchman who felt it most and couldn’t quite stay with the lead pair. Christen took the fight to Schehl at every opportunity but it was a fall in the final section that made the difference.

Schehl won for Germany with Christen (+0.18) second and Magnier (+0.24) third. A minute back Teunissen van Manen took fourth for the Netherlands with the German pair of Kr!uger and Herzog behind.

The 2022 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships continue on Friday with the E-mountain bike cross-country (E-MTB) in the morning followed by the cross-country short track (XCC) in the early evening.