Ferrand-Prevot prevails in cross-country at Windham

After placing third in Monte-Saint-Anne, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot followed up that performance with a win on the other side of the U.S./Canada border, crossing the finish line with a powerful lead at the Windham women’s cross-country race in New York State.

To many observers at the Windham UCI womens’ XCO world cup, it was surprising simply that Jolanda Neff didn’t win, despite her second place finish.

That outcome was apparent pretty early in the race, though. During the first lap of competition, the Swiss cyclist slipped out of position for the lead during the race’s first runs through the woods, the result of which saw her riding with the back as the rest of the field surged on ahead of her. After a few more laps through the dusty, hot conditions of the race, Neff’s distance from the front grew considerably. Before long, Ferrand-Prevot, riding for Team Raboliv, held a two minute gap. Suddenly, it was in question whether or not Neff would see a podium spot at all.

Ferrand-Prevot’s lead, of course, was thanks to the French rider aggressively attacking the course, standing up on the climbs and forcing herself forward. Hitting the trails as hard as she did, her gap wasn’t just comfortable by the end of the first lap, it was so evident to spectators as to be obvious.

She certainly had some fierce competition challenging that standing, though.

Among those trying to keep Ferrand-Prevot’s lead in check was Canada’s Catharine Pendrel, the cross-country powerhouse who recently finished cross-country competition at the Toront 2015 Pan Am Games with a silver medal, barely behind Emily Batty. Battling to reel the French cyclist in, Pendrel kept Ferrand-Prevot firmly in sight during the race’s early, grueling climbs, chasing her so relentlessly that closing her long, comfortable gap on the field seemed entirely possible. Unfortunately, though, other riders had the same idea. As Pendrel’s endurance waned while the race wore on, the bunch — all of them driving hard to reel in Ferrand-Prevot, too — absorbed the Canadian’s lead, eventually passing her altogether.

At that point, the race became a teeming, battling pack of dirty, dusty riders engaged in a precipitous campaign to close Ferrand-Prevot’s lead. Lea Davison, Annika Langvad, Gunn-Rita Dahle, Morath Adelheid and Blaza Klemencic were all on her tail, with Langvad, in particular, pushing hard in the hot conditions to catch up with the French rider. With Neff still over two minutes behind Ferrand-Prevot, Langvad was leading the chase group, with a second-place position looking increasingly likely.

At almost the last minute, though, Neff mounted a comeback, attacking her way out of sixth place and passing riders one after another to close Langvad. Seeing the threat from the Swiss rider, Langvad raised the tempo of her ride, trying to maintain her lead, but seemed to try too hard, ultimately. Crashing out for the second time on the rocks of the Windham trails, Langvad fell back to third place, while Neff made an impressive return to a silver medal-winning finish.

With a lead of 1:28, Ferrand-Prevot’s lead claimed her a fifth World Cup win of the 2015 season. Lea Davison finished in fourth, while Adelheid Morath claimed fifth.

Emily Batty, the leading Canadian competitor, finished 14th — 5:30 behind Ferrand-Prevot.