(Photos and Story by Rob Jones)
Thomas Litscher (Switzerland) went to the front and stayed there
Thomas Litscher gave host country Switzerland their second cross-country gold medal of the Mountain Bike World Championships in the Under23 Men's race with a dominating performance.
Thomas Litscher (Switzerland) wins
Marek Konwa (Poland) took the silver medal and Henk Jaap Moorlag of the Netherlands held off two chasing Swiss riders to take bronze.
Marek Konwa (Poland)
Litscher came into the race as the favorite, after racing to multiple top-15 placings among the Elite field at the World Cup. He broke away on the start loop, and was not seriously challenged for the rest of the six lap race, setting the fastest splits in all but one lap. Under 23 World Cup champion Gerhard Kerschbaumer (Italy) attempted to stay with Litscher through the start loop and first lap, which may have been a mistake - when other riders bridged up to him in the middle of the race, he had nothing left to follow when they attacked on the climbs.
Gerhard Kerschbaumer (Italy)
Konwa spent the early part of the race in fifth and sixth place and suffered a mechanical that required a pit stop, before surging mid-race with a strong effort in laps three and four - the second fastest split on lap three and the fastest on lap four. He had moved up with Moorlag, but the Dutch rider couldn't match his speed on lap four, although both caught and dropped Kerschbaumer on that lap.
Henk Jaap Moorlag (Netherlands) caught and passed a tiring Gerhard Kerschbaumer
"I broke my seatpost on the downhill before the feed zone," said Konwa. "I went without a seatpost for a bit and then they changed it very fast. My legs felt very good so I passed the three riders. I am very happy because I always have a mechanical problem but I was able to overcome this one."
Thomas Litscher starts his last lap
The medal positions were set by the start of lap five, and Litscher rolled into a packed arena of Swiss fans to take the Under 23 title, in his final year in the category.
“My goal for the start loop was to not go too fast but to go in the front", explained Litscher, "because when you're behind there's much more risk for crashes. I felt strong and the Swiss crowds were so crazy and loud I barely felt my legs. I was first in the downhill and I got a gap after the first downhill. I waited for Kerschbaumer because alone it's very hard on this course. I thought Kerschbaumer could follow me on the technical sections but after the second downhill I was alone and then I went off alone and concentrated very hard throughout all the technical sections and built a lead up that way."
Results (U23 Men, 31.8 km, start loop + 6 laps):
1 Thomas Litscher (Switzerland) 1:32:30
2 Marek Konwa (Poland) at 1:42
3 Henk Jaap Moorlag (Netherlands) 2:13
4 Matthias Stirnemann (Switzerland) 3:33
5 Reto Indergand (Switzerland) 4:17
6 Gerhard Kerschbaumer (Italy) 5:00
7 Markus Schulte-Luenzum (Germany) 5:13
8 Diego Rosa (Italy) 5:27
9 Sebastien Carabin (Belgium) 5:35
10 Jordan Sarrou (France) 6:03
11 Michiel Van Der Heijden (Netherlands) 6:46
12 Ruben Scheire (Belgium) 7:05
13 Timofei Ivanov (Russian Federation) 7:13
14 Nicholas Pettina (Italy) 7:42
15 Paul Van Der Ploeg (Australia) 7:58
16 Andy Eyring (Germany) 8:06
17 Luca Braidot (Italy) 8:34
18 Piotr Brzozka (Poland) 8:46
19 Jérémy Huguenin (Switzerland) 9:07
20 Marcel Fleschhut (Germany) 9:14
21 Marek Rauchfuss (Czech Republic) 9:29
22 Zsolt Juhasz (Hungary) 9:33
23 Fabien Canal (France) 9:46
24 Sherman Paiva (Brazil) 10:04
25 Henrique Avancini (Brazil) 10:12
26 Kenta Gallagher (Great Britain) 10:14
27 Dmytro Titarenko (Ukraine) 10:41
28 Shlomi Haimy (Israel) 10:42
29 Leandre Bouchard (Canada) 10:48
30 Matej Nepustil (Czech Republic) 11:02
31 Rourke Croeser (South Africa) 11:09
32 James Reid (South Africa) 11:10
33 Kerry Werner (United States of America) 11:11
34 Jan Nesvadba (Czech Republic) 11:27
35 Tomas Paprstka (Czech Republic) 11:44
36 Dirk Peters (New Zealand) 11:51
37 Pavel Priadein (Russian Federation) 12:03
38 Markus Bauer (Germany) 12:18
39 Ivan Smirnov (Russian Federation) 12:35
40 Julian Schelb (Germany) 12:58
41 Jack Hinkens (United States of America) 13:11
42 Jeremy Martin (Canada) 13:52
43 Mario Luis Miranda Costa (Portugal) 14:53
44 Marc Metzler (Switzerland) -1 Lap
45 Kornel Osicki (Poland) -1 Lap
46 Trenton Day (Australia) -1 Lap
47 Jonas Pedersen (Denmark) -1 Lap
48 Daniel Eymann (Switzerland) -1 Lap
49 Olof Jonsson (Sweden) -1 Lap
50 Mitchell Bailey (Canada) -1 Lap