Two Perfect Weekends in One | XCO Highlights from Leogang

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.

► Tune into the full REPLAY from Leogang right here: https://win.gs/UCILeogang2021

► Who do you think will take the next XCO win this season? Place your bets with the Red Bull Medal Predictor now and be in with a chance of winning new @#RideShimano parts – https://win.gs/UCIMedalPredictor

#XCO #UCI2021 #MTB
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[Music] welcome to lia gang in austria and to the third round of the mercedes-benz uci cross country world cup as we enter the weekend a couple of the heavy hitters are missing and in women’s fields that’s kate courtney she stays back in california after fracturing her arm in navi avensto but the utter madness is she finished the race with a broken arm i don’t think anything’s broken on the men’s side matthew vanderholt opts to miss the last couple of races of the season to focus on the road which given his schedule is totally understandable and we’re without tom pidcock he broke his collarbone a couple of weeks ago and he’s back on his road bike already what this really gives you a sense of is what these athletes are putting their bodies through and just how badass they are they’re gonna need all of that mental resilience attacking this course these climbs i think it’s a good course for me because it’s a lot of climbing it’s deep climbing that’s what i like and at the same time the downhills are quite slippery and technical so i like that part as well [Music] and we are underway then the first alpine stop of 2021. [Music] forcing the pace on this opening start loop this is a daunting prospect i would say dead straight nowhere to hide the cop moving right up onto the wheel of the elite world champ a little bit of a gap now to this leading pack of five riders look at the cops the climbing of this woman is unbelievable is lecomp going to ride away again from this field [Music] oh my goodness look at that gap already i can’t believe how hard this first climb is it’s huge yeah it’s a hard one and you can see the body expression of volume for here on the climb so the chasing pack appears to be now coming back together here [Music] and there’s the gap to the chasing pack it’s huge it is absolutely huge it’s a lonely race for her no looking around they’re looking over her shoulder so stigger looking good the hometown favorite well a great race for second place here today [Music] and left now to the front of these three is she able to open that gap are you on the nap here going fast in the december well i was in front on second place and i had the cabin and i had a massive crash i like landed on my tummy on a rock and hurt my head [Music] wow look at that sticker back then and past neff suddenly yeah yolanda might have hit the ground bar i don’t know but it looks that way stiegger second place now rizved’s right there as well just rounded out the top five at the moment not far behind them it’s been a ride of solitude at the front of this one today [Music] yeah i would stand here absolutely amazing performance again generous that’s now on third place only now on fifth which speakers on second place i saw that i got closer and closer to laura and that’s the most scary part i think like to make that last call i’m a little bit afraid to commit to like go all out i am practicing that every race like to commit jenny is overtaking steeger well rich fence then the olympic champion moves up to second saves the day no problem little dab yeah pushing hard what is everyone going to do about this woman nobody so a big smile across the face of lavana the covenant it’s a hat-trick of cross-country olympic wins in 2021 she’s unstoppable the cops are absolutely in a class of her own this year yes it’s a very difficult trick but yes i love mountains i live in mountains and yes i love i only a few turns left to go though now no sprint finish i don’t think stinger won’t be able to pull this one back well jenny risman said it’s gonna take second place her first podium since that win back in 2019 and look what it means to laura stinger her best elite cross country olympic village yeah chen is a super smart rider and this was a super hard attack i tried to follow her but it was a bit too much happen you’re so angry but i’m uh yeah i couldn’t be happier about this third place oh you was going so well but on the podium again for this swiss woman pauline fran provost stays on the world cup podiums fifth place today congratulations to luana lecompte she’s been phenomenal hasn’t she talking of strong women though my heart goes out to you landon air through the tears she fought on to a fourth place finish it just goes to show her mental resolve not just yolanda though do you know what’s really cool catherine pendrell seeing her race only four months after giving birth to her baby girl and her baby girl watching on she enjoyed it she got about hungry with two laps to go needed a feed so right i’ve gotten so much positive feedback um just around racing and uh yeah it’s awesome um i yeah just for every mom to know that you can get back to whatever level you’re at before i mean obviously um we all deal with different pregnancies and different births and and everything different babies um so it takes different amount of time but um for sure it’s doable and it’s been so rewarding just getting back out here and feeling that support to be out here honestly the women in this sport guys who can’t draw inspiration from that inspiration though the men’s is happening everyone’s getting up to the tech feed zone and getting ready and preparing for this mass start there’s a few men though we need to consider mattias flutiega a track like this is seriously going to suit his skill set and he’s so keen to prove himself the number one rider in switzerland in his swiss champions jersey the guy you can’t forget is andre sink he’s a little bit of a dark horse we probably haven’t seen the best of him ever since he left for the tours of france he had heart surgery believe it or not and he’s back racing world cup gets underway then and it’s jordan sorew there in the middle and on cooper maybe for the start wow look at the pace of him on this climb it’s andre singh cooper hathaway with him and the field’s so so strung out already [Music] so flicker gun now joining the leading duo looks like milan values dropping back a little bit but [Music] he’s pushing hard here on this climb look at the tree roots [Music] so these two now have definitely gapped anton cooper tell you what sick is not stepping off the gas one bit at all through the switchbacks they come now mathias brookier goes to the front for the first time yeah an opportunity for cooper to come back i know i could have got back but at the same time probably soon after i caught them i would have been dropped and i would have been dropped quite bad and really and blown up perhaps so it was smarter for me to just kind of keep keep the tempo on and not be too surgy because those guys just had a bit extra than me today the climb of absolute brutality out of the saddle everybody here comes nina just inside the top 20. suffering [Applause] fourth and fifth spot on the podium and sing back at the front got the seat post all the way down for floating on these descents of course [Music] harsh pace where do they find the power [Music] sinks that down flicker out of the saddle it’s an attack of matias yeah you know he had a really high pace and uh i knew i had to do a like attack uh that that could make a gap and then he’s probably broken and there that gap’s pretty good now from a test floor kicker [Music] and you have to go just pull out and look ahead and not uh behind me [Applause] [Music] well it’s been a strong strong ride from anton cooper for third place matthias block higger strikes back taking the first alpine world cup win of 2021 a perfect weekend winning a short track on friday cross country today mattes looking good becomes the second rider to have a perfect weekend to do the double and a great one for this one as well for andre sink [Music] last time this man was on a podium was back in the start of 2018 so cooper signals a return to form here with a fine third place finish for the new zealander so griot leader at the moment vlad described looking like he’s trying to hide it up so griot goes dusky lou goes with him literally nowhere to be seen at the moment it’s gonna be griot close wasn’t it as they came up to the line [Applause] i knew i was the favorite but for me was just to go full coats and do my race and yeah to go for the victory and uh yeah it happened it was really cool here is a lot of strong riders and there is big fight for the like top three so i’m very happy [Music] they they were both equal in strength mathias so fast in the decency was unable to follow by singh and the way how he was pushing he put a lot of pressure on singing and luckily nobody crashed but congrats matthias with your third world cup in double weekend what did i tell you matteo’s floofy girl clearly a man riding with some form and great to see andre sink and anton cooper up on those top steps as well what a weekend we’ve had and the best news is it’s not very long until we get to do it all over again if you liked it make sure you’re leaving your comments in the box below and we will see you in france till then