XCO Highlights: Two Perfect Weekends in Austria

With three events in one weekend, Leogang World Cup was a bit of a blur. Red Bull’s slowing things down to look back and see just what happened in Sunday’s elite men’s and elite women’s XCO finals.

And woah, did a lot happen. Jolanda Neff made her return to the sharp end of the field, toughing out a broken hand for a podium finish. Loana Lecomte showed she’s still untouchable in the women’s racing. While a new star shone for Switzerland in the men’s cross country race, as Schurter continued to struggle.

Relive it all, then start counting down the days to the next World Cup in Les Gets, France on July 3-4.

Two Perfect Weekends in One: XCO Highlights from Leogang

Red Bull:

Austria hosted the third round of the UCI Cross-Country World Cup at Leogang. The new stop on the XCO World Cup circuit boasted a draining, steep course that suited the climbers. Recap on all the action in the links below and scroll down for highlights from the weekend.

Both Loana Lecomte and Mathias Flückiger took their very first XCC wins on a short track course in Leogang that was unlike any other, with the long climb favouring good climbers.

Sealing a hat-trick of XCO wins from the three World Cups so far, Loana Lecomte really is proving to be an unstoppable force in the women’s cross-country scene. The young French rider built a lead from lap one and forced the rest of the field to play catch up.

As mentioned, the Leogang cross-country course featured some serious climbs, probably the longest on the World Cup circuit. They weren’t particularly technical, but they did suit riders who could sustain long efforts while ascending. The Czech, Ondřej Cink, was one such rider as he was chosen by a professional road team to ride the Tour de France for that ability. Mathias Flückiger also had form on these type of courses. The elastic between the two was finally broken in the penultimate lap, with Flückiger proving the strongest.