Day four of the 2021 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships saw high emotion and history made in cross-country Olympic (XCO). Mona Mitterwallner of Austria stepped up from Junior to U23 UCI World Champion aged just 19; Martin Vidaurre Kossmann is Chile’s first UCI World Champion and Evie Richards becomes Great Britain’s first Elite Woman to win the XCO rainbow jersey… all that before Switzerland’s Nino Schurter sent the excitement off the scale with a record 9th Men Elite title, making him both the youngest ever and the now oldest XCO UCI World Champion.
No stranger to the UCI World Champion’s rainbow stripes, having earned the Junior title last year, Mona Mitterwallner made an emphatic statement as she won the Under-23 Women’s UCI World title for XCO by a margin of more than 2 minutes from her fellow Austrian Laura Stigger. She took the lead on the first of four laps and never looked back. Mitterwallner has won all four U23 UCI World Cups this year and today’s bronze medalist Caroline Bohe (SUI) has also podiumed at all of them.
Home rider Marika Tovo was fourth, with Kata Blanka Vas (HUN), anotherUCI World Cup podium regular, on her tail, a day after her top-10 E-MTB finish, and second place in the U23 UCI World Championships in 2020. Last year’s U23 winner Loana Lecomte (FRA) did not start.
Martin Vidaurre Kossmann imposed himself over the 98-strong Men U23 field to take Chile’s first medal of the week and first ever UCI World Champion’s jersey.
A tight pack swapped the early lead, with 2020 bronze medalist Joel Roth (SUI), the U23 winner at the most recent UCI World Cup in Les Gets, France, Simone Avondetto (ITA), Vidaurre Kossmann, Riley Amos (USA) – who won the U23 World Cup at Leogang, Austria in June – and Juri Zanotti (ITA). They were joined by No 2 ranked Jofre Cullell Estape (ESP) who came through the pack to lead after lap 1.
It was the Chilean (6th in 2020) who pulled out a 30-second lead over the four chasers at the half-way mark, with Zanotti settling into second.
The 21-year-old from Santiago – 2nd at both the last two UCI World Cup races – had timed his fitness peak and this ride perfectly, extending his advantage to 1 minute on lap 4, and coming home in 1:10:31. Zanotti took silver (+1:03) and Roth won the battle for bronze from his countryman Luca Schaetti.
After the 1.96km start loop Olympic Champion Jolanda Neff led a pack with Richards, Eva Lechner (ITA), No 2 in the UCI World Rankings Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (FRA), Rebecca McConnell (AUS), 2018 UCI World Champion Kate Courtney (USA) and Sina Frei, Swiss winner of the first ever UCI cross-country Short Track (XCC) world title earlier this week.
On the first full lap of five, defending UCI World Champion Ferrand-Prévot hit the turbo button. Richards (winner of two 2020 UCI World Cups and silver medalist in Thursday’s XCC) and Frei were locked together 30 seconds behind the French leader with the chase quartet another 20 seconds back: Neff, World No 3 McConnell, Anne Terpstra (NED), and 2010 UCI World Champion Maja Wloszczowska (POL).
2016 and 2018 U23 cyclo-cross UCI World Champion Richards pulled time back as Frei slipped behind. The 24-year-old Englishwoman took the lead on a lap 2 climb and had forced a 38-sec gap by lap 4, as Terpstra split from the chasers, passing the UCI World Champion.
Onto the final lap with Richards’ lead close to 1 minute, Frei, Wloszczowska, then Neff joined and dropped Ferrand-Prévot in the group that would produce the bronze medalist. As light rain started the Pole slipped, allowing the Swiss duo to chase bronze.
2015 Junior XCO silver medalist Richards turned her Tokyo 2020 7th place into an emphatic victory at the 2021 UCI World Championships, winning in 1:23:52 to become Britain’s first Elite Women XCO UCI World Champion in front of Terpstra. Frei out-sprinted Neff for third while Wloszczowska finished a respectful 5th in her last race. Ferrand-Prévot finished 6th.
“I can’t believe it, I’m really shocked. I said I’d shine one day and obviously today is my time to shine,” said Richards, “When I’m happy I race well!”
Nino Schurter chiselled his name permanently into mountain bike history with an astonishing 9th Elite Men’s XCO UCI World title.
Henrique Avancini (BRA) – second in Thursday’s XCC – took a flier on the start loop’s early climb, then the Czech Republic’s Ondrej Cink (4th in the XCC) assumed the lead before eight-time XCO UCI World Champion Schurter (SUI) went ahead on the first of six laps, and the pair exploded away.
They initially gapped Avancini, Victor Koretzky and Titouan Carod (both FRA), Mathias Flückiger and Filippo Colombo (both SUI) by more than 10 seconds before being joined by Vlad Dascalu (ROM) and forming a train of seven. Reigning UCI World Champion Jordan Sarrou (FRA), Alan Hatherly (RSA), Lars Forster (SUI) and Max Brandl (GER) formed a chasing group.
Schurter and Flückiger, winner of the last two UCI XCO World Cups and second at Tokyo 2020, pulled away with a 40-sec lead after 3 laps. 2012 U23 UCI World Champion Cink nudged 10 seconds ahead of 2019 U23 UCI World Champion Dascalu and Koretzky gapped an Avancini-led group, as Sarrou faded to 20th.
On the penultimate lap, the leading duo were in control, 1 min ahead as the Frenchman passed the Czech and the Romanian was caught by Brandl (bronze in Thursday’s XCC). They both passed Cink, who had an issue with his transmission.
The Swiss pair looked inseparable despite tentative attacks from 32-year-old Flückiger who hit the final descent first, but 35-year-old Schurter sneaked inside on the last tight left-hander to make history. The 2011 Junior XCO UCI World Champion Koretzky, who has two silver medals at U23 level, added a bronze to his collection.
“It’s insane. I’m super happy and super proud,” said Schurter, “I wasn’t sure myself if I could do it. It’s really good!”