The day dedicated to the XCO began with the Under 23 races, with the girls started at 8:30, 54 athletes from 19 nations who competed along the four laps - plus the launch - of the 4.2 km long ring and with 150 m of drop.
It was a monologue by the Swiss Sina Frei, who forced the pace during the second round, far from the British Evie Richards (+0: 26) and even more from the Danish Marlene Degn (+1: 47). Sina Frei - second last year at the Val di Sole Cup finals - is increasingly leading the Cup with 340 points ahead of Degn and Richards (280 and 200).
At 10.15 the 108 boys of the Under 23 Men started - 30 nations represented - for six laps plus the launch. During the first round a quintet was formed with the Norwegian Petter Fegerhaug (leader of the Cup), the Swiss Filippo Colombo, the Australian Ben Oliver, the American Cristopher Blevins, the French Joshua Dubau, a little more detached the Romanian Vlad Dascalu. The next transit on the line saw the consolidation of the first positions with only Dubau and Blevins who seemed to resist the rhythm of the Norwegian, even if detached by just over 10 seconds, while Ben Oliver and Filippo Colombo, 4th and 5th, fell about 50" of detachment. Fagerhaug has slowed the pace after the initial forcing, but the situation has not changed, with the couple more and more detached to just over 30". The last two laps were just a formality for Fegerhaug, instead Blevins lost ground from Dubau - the only one to turn in the Norwegian time - until it was reached and overtaken by a wild Duscalu. The Norwegian closed his triumphant race in 1:16:40, Joshua Dubau and Vlad Dascalu, respectively at 24 and 26 seconds, were on the lower steps of the podium.
Now the attentions is on the last two races of the UCI World Cup XCO 2018 in Val di Sole, the Elite Women and Elite Men competitions, scheduled at 12:30 and 14:50 respectively.
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