Final Results from the Nove Mesto XC World Cup 2022
The third XC World Cup of 2022 provided the goods with some amazing moments and massive wins. The Elite Women’s race saw another dominant performance from Rebecca McConnell who proved again that she is unstoppable this season. Nove Mesto wouldn’t be an easy win with Loana Lecomte and Jenny Rissveds staying in sight for most of the race. The last two laps would knock both chasing riders out of contention with Loana Lecomte the only rider coming within one minute of the hard-charging Australian.
In the Elite Men’s race, it was an incredibly close race with no rider really launching an attack until the last lap of the race. In the end it was a sprint between Vlad Dascalu and Thomas Pidcock but it was the Olympic champion who got to the line fastest and won another World Cup in 2022. The performance of the day goes to Nino Schurter who did the impossible and fought back over a minute of time after a rear flat tire. Despite the massive disadvantage Nino Schurter rode back to the front of the race and crossed the line in third place.
Check out the full results.
The U23 riders took on the tough climbs of this weekend’s course yesterday, you can check out the results here.
Results:
1st. Rebecca McConnell: 1:21:17
2nd. Loana Lecomte: +40
3rd. Jenny Rissveds: +1:17
4th. Jolanda Neff: +2:22
5th. Caroline Bohé: +2:22
1st. Thomas Pidcock: 1:21:19
2nd. Vlad Dascalu: +1
3rd. Nino Schurter: +30
4th. Anton Cooper: +33
5th. Alan Hatherly: +33
Full Results:
Elite Women
Elite Men
Live Race Updates:
The Women’s racing kicks off on Red Bull TV at: 11:00am CEST (2:00am PDT, 5:00am EDT, 10:00am BST, 9:00pm NZST)
The Men will start on Red Bull TV at: 15:00pm CEST (6:00am PDT, 9:00am EDT, 14:00pm BST, 1:00am +day NZST)
The Elite Women are off as Jenny Rissveds leads the race ahead of the start loop before six laps.
It is now Rebecca McConnell who takes the lead as the riders get to the first section of singletrack. Can she make it three in a row?
After the first shortened loop the top six Elite Women are:
1st. Rebecca McConnell: 7:44
2nd. Jenny Rissveds: +2
3rd. Haley Batten: +12
4th. Loana Lecomte: +13
5th. Jolanda Neff: +13
6th. Sina Frei: +13
Jenny Rissveds has caught up with Rebecca McConnell at the start of lap one with a nine-second gap back to the chasing group.
Rebecca McConnell must have done something big on the first climb of lap one as a gap of five seconds has formed to Jenny Rissveds in 2nd.
The chasing group has now caught 2nd-placed Jenny Rissveds, can these riders now work together to pull back the 16-second gap to Rebecca McConnell.
After lap two the top eight Elite Women are:
1st. Rebecca McConnell: 19:52
2nd. Jenny Rissveds: +21
3rd. Loana Lecomte: +25
4th. Alessandra Keller: +25
5th. Sina Frei: +48
6th. Haley Batten: +49
7th. Jolanda Neff: +49
8th. Evie Richards: +49
A small mistake through the feed zone causes Sina Frei to crash, this drops her back to seventh place.
After lap three the top five Elite Women are:
1st. Rebecca McConnell: 32:10
2nd. Loana Lecomte: +21
3rd. Jenny Rissveds: +22
4th. Alessandra Keller: +42
5th. Jolanda Neff: +58
Disaster for Alessandra Keller as she has a rear flat tire, it looks like has now dropped back to 6th place, 1:24 off the leader.
Loana Lecomte and Jenny Rissveds seem to be catching up with Rebecca McConnell with the gap getting down to around 15 seconds.
After lap four the top five Elite Women are:
1st. Rebecca McConnell: 44:29
2nd. Loana Lecomte: +20
3rd. Jenny Rissveds: +20
4th. Jolanda Neff: +1:15
5th. Haley Batten: +1:41
A flat rear tire for Evie Richards drops her back to 29th position.
After lap five the top five Elite Women are:
1st. Rebecca McConnell: 56:44
2nd. Loana Lecomte: +21
3rd. Jenny Rissveds: +22
4th. Jolanda Neff: +1:40
5th. Caroline Bohé: +2:02
Loana Lecomte is hunting down Rebecca McConnell with the gap closing to just 13 seconds. Jenny Rissveds has massively dropped back with a 40-second gap to the leader.
Going into the Final lap the top five Elite Women are:
1st. Rebecca McConnell: 1:09:04
2nd. Loana Lecomte: +17
3rd. Jenny Rissveds: +47
4th. Jolanda Neff: +2:09
5th. Caroline Bohé: +2:15
Rebecca McConnell has upped the pace again extending the gap to Loana Lecomte to 30 seconds.
Rebecca McConnell wins her third World Cup of 2022!
The top five Elite Women are:
1st. Rebecca McConnell: 1:21:17
2nd. Loana Lecomte: +40
3rd. Jenny Rissveds: +1:17
4th. Jolanda Neff: +2:22
5th. Caroline Bohé: +2:22
Henrique Avancini is the fastest off the line and leads the Elite Men into a start loop followed by seven full laps.
After the first shortened loop the top seven Elite Men are:
1st. Vlad Dascalu: 6:47
2nd. Sam Gaze: +1
3rd. Jose Gerardo Ulloa Arevalo: +1
4th. Alan Hatherly: +1
5th. Filippo Colombo: +2
6th. Nino Schurter: +2
7th. Henrique Avancini: +2
Filippo Colombo now takes the lead with a top 10 separated by around 11 seconds.
Thomas Pidcock now leads the chasing group who are hunting down the six riders at the front of the race.
Pidcock flies through to the front of the race pulling in over 10 seconds since the start of the lap.
After the second lap the top six Elite Men are:
1st. Thomas Pidcock: 17:20
2nd. Filippo Colombo: +0
3rd. Nino Schurter: +1
4th. Vlad Dascalu: +7
5th. Henrique Avancini: +7
6th. Alan Hatherly: +7
A breakaway group of four riders has formed at the front with Nino Schurter, Thomas Pidcock, Alan Hatherly and Vlad Dascalu pulling 17 seconds ahead.
After the third lap the top six Elite Men are:
1st. Vlad Dascalu: 28:08
2nd. Thomas Pidcock: +1
3rd. Nino Schurter: +1
4th. Alan Hatherly: +1
5th. Mathias Flückiger: +5
6th. Luca Schwarzbauer: +6
The chasing group has caught the leaders and we now have 10 riders at the front of the race.
There is now a group of five riders at the front with Nino Schurter, Vlad Dascalu, Thomas Pidcock, Alan Hatherly and Mathias Flückiger setting a rapid pace.
After the fourth lap the top five Elite Men are:
1st. Vlad Dascalu: 38:44
2nd. Nino Schurter: +0
3rd. Thomas Pidcock: +0
4th. Mathias Flückiger: +1
5th. Alan Hatherly: +1
Nino Schurter is picking up the pace again at the start of lap five. It’s looking like Alan Hatherly is starting to struggle to match the speed at the front.
A flat rear tire for Nino, he was looking very strong today but he is quite far from the tech zone so this will cost a lot of time.
Nino Schurter is back with a fresh wheel but he is over a minute back from the leaders.
After the fifth lap the top six Elite Men are:
1st. Mathias Flückiger: 49:27
2nd. Vlad Dascalu: +0
3rd. Thomas Pidcock: +1
4th. Alan Hatherly: +1
5th. Luca Schwarzbauer: +25
6th. Anton Cooper: +25
Nino Schurter has already closed the gap to the leaders down to 46 seconds. It will be very tough to fully shut this down but taking back 20 seconds in less than half a lap is a good sign.
On just the first uphill of lap six Nino Schurter pulled back 10 seconds. It does look like the front riders are slowing down as no one seems to want to set the pace.
Nino Schurter is flying through the pack as he passes multiple riders up the super steep climb. Without a flat tire he would have surely been the favourite for the win today.
Thomas Pidcock has accelerated to the front of the race. Impressively in the space of a lap Nino Schurter has gone from 1:10 back during his wheel change to just under 40 seconds off the pace.
Vlad Dascalu is the only rider who can match Thomas Pidcock’s speed at the front. With two laps to go, it might be too early for any big attacks.
After the sixth lap the top five Elite Men are:
1st. Thomas Pidcock: 1:00:06
2nd. Vlad Dascalu: +1
3rd. Mathias Flückiger: +1
4th. Alan Hatherly: +2
5th. Anton Cooper: +26
Nino Schurter has shrunk the gap down to just 23 seconds at the start of lap seven. He won’t be able to win today but he could be in for a podium finish if he pushes hard.
Nino Schurter is only 18 seconds back! He was 47 seconds off the leaders at the start of the lap.
Going into the final lap the top six Elite Men are:
1st. Vlad Dascalu: 1:11:18
2nd. Mathias Flückiger: +0
3rd. Alan Hatherly: +0
4th. Thomas Pidcock: +0
5th. Anton Cooper: +0
6th. Nino Schurter: +3
Vlad Dascalu has launched an attack but Nino Schurter is right on his rear wheel.
Vlad Dascalu is really pushing hard up the last big climb. What have Nino Schurter and Thomas Pidcock got left?
Thomas Pidcock closes in on Vlad Dascalu and it is now between them as Nino Schurter falls 13 seconds back.
We are in for a massive sprint between Vlad Dascalu and Thomas Pidcock.
Thomas Pidcock wins back to back World Cups!
The top five Elite Men are:
1st. Thomas Pidcock: 1:21:19
2nd. Vlad Dascalu: +1
3rd. Nino Schurter: +30
4th. Anton Cooper: +33
5th. Alan Hatherly: +33
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