Press releases World Cup

The Dutch Mathieu Van der Poel and the Danish Annika Langvad dominate the Val di Sole Short Track

06 luglio 2018 - 18:56

At 5:30 pm the women's competition started on a route between the XCO ring and the Four Cross and Downhill tracks: a short and steep climb and the rock garden are concentrated in 1 km with only 15 meters of vertical drop made the difference.

The Swiss Jolanda Neff starts well, second place for the leader of the series, the Danish Annika Langvad, following by the French Pauline Ferrand-Prevot. On the second lap (of 10) the French rider guides the race but all they are all close. The Swiss Indergand and Keller together with the Langvad pushed on the fourth lap, trying to make a difference on the rock garden, while Neff slipped back suffering the short but hard climb. The sixth round begins with six athletes in the lead, Langvad drives on a re-entering Ferrand-Prevot, then Alessandra Keller, the Dutch Anne Tauber and the eternal Norwegian Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa (45 years) permanently in the group at the head of the race, reduced to five protagonists.

The eighth lap sees Langvad and Keller force the pace with only Tauber that seems to be able to fill the gap of a couple of seconds. The Danish finally shows his excellence by in the penultimate lap, with Keller and Tauber detached for five seconds. The gap continues to increase for all the pursuers, with the Langvad who relaxes pedaling on the last part of the tenth lap with a smile on his lips. Anne Tauber frees herself from Alessandra Keller closing at five seconds (the Swiss at 10 "). The top five is completed by Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa (+21) and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (+31). The Italian Eva Lechner and Serena Calvetti close respectively 18^ and 25^.

At 18:15 it is the turn of the Elite Men. The Dutchman Van der Poel is second behind the New Zealander Samuel Gaze who started the whole race, but the first lap (scheduled 11) closes with the Swiss Lars Forster in the lead, which increases the advantage on the pursuers at 6 "at the end of a very hard third round. Followed by Gaze, Van der Poel, and the Swiss couple Nino Schurter and Thomas Litscher. In the fourth round the Dutchman attack on the rock garden, followed by Schurter and Litscher, more detached the French rider Titouan Carod, then Gaze at 10 seconds. But the attitude of the athletes to the ascent or descent is able to compact or lengthen the group making the situation very uncertain as well as shuffling the cards. Nino Schurter shoots halfway through the race followed by Litscher and Van der Poel.

The seventh lap instead sees the furious attack of the Dutch on the climb, the only Nino seems to be able to resist with the other Swiss Forster at third place after Litscher slipped in the rear due to a mechanical failure. When the bell rings on the last lap the gap on the second rose to 13". The only third place is uncertain. The large group of competitors is put in order by the Frenchman Maxime Marotte. The top five is completed by compatriot Jordan Sarrou and the Swiss Florian Vogel.


DOWNLOAD AREA
Press release
Photos

20180607_valdisole-0420
20180607_valdisole-0387

OFFICIAL PARTNERS

OFFICIAL SUPPLIERS

F_Acqua Pejo
Crispi
Evolve Pumptrack
Enterprise SRL
Felicetti
Montura