With titles at stake, the world’s best endurance mountain bikers held nothing back as they took on a gruelling and slippery 100km course in Snowshoe, USA for the final round of the UCI Mountain Bike Cross-country marathon World Cup.
As well as featuring 2,275m of climbing, several days of drizzle and fog had left swathes of the course muddy and super-technical.
In the women’s race it was a home nation win for Hannah Otto (Pivot/DT Swiss) who soloed home with a five-minute gap after riding Canada’s Haley Smith off her wheel with around 10 miles to go. Lithuania’s Katazina Sosna (Torpado Factory Team) came in third.
Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Lejla Njemcevic crossed the line in fourth place which was enough to land her the 2023 champion’s title.
In the men’s race it was a three-way sprint finish for the line with Germany’s Simon Stiebjahn (Singer Racing Team) finding the power to take the win. France’s Axel Roudil-Cortinat (Team Bulls) and Switzerland’s Casey South (Torpado Factory Team) had to settle for second and third respectively.
Italy’s Fabian Rabensteiner (Wilier-Pirelli Factory Team MX) came home in fifth to claim the 2023 World Cup champion’s title after four rounds.
Full results are here
World Cup racing continues on Thursday with the Junior Downhill qualifying and the U23 Short-track races.
