Olympic champion Pidcock returned to the cross-country World Cup with an impressive win. The 22-year-old, who decided not to start the season in Brazil, celebrated his second World Cup victory over the Olympic distance in Albstadt in Baden-Württemberg.
Pidcock said goodbye to his rivals before half of the race and then confidently controlled the race from the front. World Champion Nino Schurter claimed his 58th World Cup podium, 20 seconds behind the Brit. Romanian Vlad Dascalu finished third, just like in Brazil at the beginning of April, a second behind the Graubünden player.
Overall management expanded
In the overall standings, Schurter, who equaled the record set by Frenchman Julien Absalon with his 33rd World Cup win a month ago in Petropolis, Brazil, is clearly in the lead after two out of nine events. The lead of the 35-year-old from Grisons over French Maxime Marotte is 177 points (538:361).
The second best Swiss in Albstadt was Filippo Colombo in eighth (1:05 minutes back). Last year’s overall World Cup winner Mathias Flückiger, on the other hand, missed the break into the top 10 again in 13th place after a flat rear tire. The man from Bern kept up with Schurter in the group until the defect in the fourth lap.
Keller as the fifth best Swiss
The Swiss cross-country riders also missed the podium in the second World Cup race of the season over the Olympic distance. Alessandra Keller was responsible for the best result in Albstadt in fifth place.
The winner in southern Germany was the same as a month ago at the opener in Petropolis, Brazil. The Australian Rebecca McConnell, who had already won the short race in Albstadt on Friday, dominated ahead of the Swede Jenny Rissveds, the 2016 Olympic champion, and the Austrian Mona Mitterwallner, the world champion in the marathon discipline.
In the battle for the top three places, the Swiss fell behind early on. At the finish, Keller was a minute and a half behind third-placed Mitterwallner. For the former U23 World Champion, it was the second-best finish in the World Cup. She had only been better four years ago, when she also finished fourth in Albstadt.
9th place for Olympic champion Neff
The current Olympic champion Jolanda Neff, who finished second in Val di Sole in Italy almost three years ago and was the last Swiss woman to finish on a World Cup podium, finished ninth ahead of short race world champion Sina Frei and Olympic bronze medalist Linda Indergand. Neff contested her first World Cup race over the normal distance this year. She had missed the start of the season in Brazil due to illness.
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