(Photos and Story by Rob Jones)
Day two of the Mountain Bike World Championships in Champery, Switzerland was France Day, with the rouge, blanc et bleu tri-color taking both cross-country world titles contested. Julie Bresset, as expected, easily took the Under 23 Women's title, while Victor Koretzky was an unexpected champion in the Junior Men's competition, after the top favorites all struggled.
Victor Koretzky (France) enjoyed the muddy condition
Junior Men
Rain overnight had soaked the extremely technical course, and it made the numerous rooty sections treacherous, particularly in the Junior race, which went first. On the opening lap, riders were crashing and sliding through the course. One rider who wasn't was Koretzky, who took the lead on the first lap after the start loop.
Andrey Fonseca took the first ever World Championships medal for Costa Rica
Koretzky was clearly enjoying the muddy conditions, setting the fastest lap times for the first three laps of the four lap race. He had been a member of the gold medal winning Team Relay squad less than 24 hours earlier. He was chased initially by team mate Maxime Urruty and Costa Rica's Andrey Fonseca, until Urruty suffered mechanical problems on the third lap and had to run half a lap to the pits.
Fonseca moved into second behind Koretzky after the start loop and looked to have a lock on the silver medal, however, one of the favorites was chasing furiously behind. Anton Cooper, the young revelation from New Zealand who won the last two World Cup races for Juniors, had shaken off a poor start that saw him fall into the 20s and was sprinting up through the field.
He moved into 13th after lap one, then eighth, sixth and fifth by the start of the last lap. At this point he was 28 seconds behind Fonseca and 2:06 behind Koretzky. Koretzky rolled into the finish arena to loud cheers from the large French contingent.
Victor Koretzky (France) wins
"When I saw my lap time from yesterday's relay it was encouraging for today’s race," commented Koretzky. "It was not an easy ride. I didn't have a great start and I was only seventh or eighth after the start loop. So I was really back and I had to fight my way back up in the standings. I gained time in the technical parts of the course and then I took off on my own."
While the French team celebrated, everyone else turned their attention to the battle for silver. Less than 90 seconds later, Cooper and Fonseca burst into view together, with Cooper out sprinting the Costa Rican in the final 50 meters to take the silver medal.
Anton Cooper (New Zealand) had a bad start and charged his way up to 2nd
"I'm not sure where I was after the first lap, I hear around twenty-first," explained Cooper. "It's not ideal to be there at World Champs. So it was a fight right from the start. I did have a good start out in the front straight but then riders came from everywhere and I was just sitting in the middle up that climb a few rows back and then it strung out in the single track. Not an ideal start but it's probably the best race I've ever ridden in terms of how I fought to come back and I'm pretty proud of that."
For Fonseca, it was disappointing to lose the battle for silver, but also exhilarating to take the first ever mountain bike medal for his country. "I'm not able to express what I'm feeling. It's amazing. I'm so emotional. You cannot imagine what it means for our country and our federation. To be on the podium at all is a great moment for me. It's really wonderful and I'm very proud of my country. It's the first time we're on the podium for mountain biking."
USA's Howard Grotts finished 8th
Top North American was Team USA's Howard Grotts in eighth place, at his first world championships. "I had a really good start and then I made some mistakes here and there, and then I caught back up again. So I was just yo-yoing back and forth. But I'm pretty happy with my race."
Julie Bresset (France)
Less than an hour after the conclusion of the Junior Men, it was time for the Under 23 Women to do five laps, plus a start loop. To no one's surprise, Bresset, who had just won the Elite World Cup a week earlier and the Team Relay title the day before, pulled away from the field by the end of the start loop, setting the fastest splits for every lap of the race. The only rider to keep her in sight for the opening lap was Great Britain's Annie Last, also a top-ten finisher on the Elite World Cup circuit. Riding alone in third was the Under 23 World Cup champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot of France.
Annie Last (Great Britain)
Bresset pushed her lead out over a minute by the halfway mark, but Last fought back to bring it below a minute with two laps to go, only to see her rival increase it again to 90 seconds by the finish. Behind them, Ferrand-Prevot was a distant 5:47 off the pace of Bresset for the bronze medal. only 14 riders finished on the same lap as the winner, out of 44 starters.
Pauline Ferrand Prevot (France)
"After yesterday's success in the team relay I managed to refocus and get really into this race," explained Bresset. "A race is never won before the finish so I really had to focus. I was completely concentrated right until I passed the finish line. You can't think about other things during the race. I only allowed myself to relax as I crossed the finish line."
Canadian Andreanne Pichette was the top North American, in 22nd place, four spots ahead of Canadian national champion Mikaela Kofman, who competed despite a broken nose and fractured rib, suffered in a training crash earlier in the week.
Results:
Podium: Anton Cooper, Victor Koretzky, Andrey Fonseca
Junior Men, 22.2 km (start loop + 4 laps)
1 Victor Koretzky (France)
2 Anton Cooper (New Zealand)
3 Andrey Fonseca (Costa Rica)
4 Grant Ferguson (Great Britain)
5 Dominic Zumstein (Switzerland)
6 Kevin Panhuyzen (Belgium)
7 Lorenzo Samparisi (Italy)
8 Howard Grotts (United States of America)
9 Maxime Urruty (France)
10 Christian Pfäffle (Germany)
11 Thibault Geneste (France)
12 Lars Forster (Switzerland)
13 Loic Doubey (France)
14 Andri Frischknecht (Switzerland)
15 Fredrik Fang Liland (Norway)
16 Michael Mayer (Austria)
17 Ben Zwiehoff (Germany)
18 Edoardo Bonetto (Italy)
19 Boris Cara (Belgium)
20 Rok Korosec (Slovenia)
21 Florian Chenaux (Switzerland)
22 Matteo Olivotto (Italy)
23 Brendon Davids (South Africa)
24 Luis Rojas (Argentina)
25 Romain Seigle (France)
26 Martin Frey (Germany)
27 Mathew Waghorn (New Zealand)
28 Sondre Kristiansen (Norway)
29 Fabien Doubey (France)
30 Louis Wolf (Germany)
31 Tom Bradshaw (New Zealand)
32 Pablo Rodriguez Guede (Spain)
33 Gert Heyns (South Africa)
34 Nicolas Scheire (Belgium)
35 Frantisek Lami (Slovakia)
36 Thomas Neron (Canada)
37 Pieter Geluykens (Belgium)
38 Miguel Londono Naranjo (Colombia)
39 Nigel Mcdowell (New Zealand)
40 Alexey Krylov (Russian Federation)
41 Tobias Spescha (Switzerland)
42 Jack Haig (Australia)
43 Andres Alpizar (Costa Rica)
44 Artem Shevtsov (Ukraine)
45 William Alexi (Brazil)
46 Didier Bats (Belgium)
47 Guy Niv (Israel)
48 Thijs Zuurbier (Netherlands)
49 Alexandre Vialle (Canada)
50 Mark Kuyan (Russian Federation)
51 Kevin Ingratta (Argentina)
52 Jozef Bebcak (Slovakia)
53 Karl Henrik Nordbakken (Norway)
54 Toki Sawada (Japan)
55 Egor Kropachev (Russian Federation)
56 Martin Stosek (Czech Republic)
57 Milan Dolezal (Czech Republic)
58 Peteris Janevics (Latvia)
59 Richard Cypress Gorry (United States of America)
60 Billy Sewell (Australia)
61 Emil Linde (Sweden)
62 Valentin Berset (Switzerland)
63 Michal Kowalczyk (Poland)
64 Aaron Beck (Germany)
65 Dmitry Andreev (Russian Federation)
66 Alexander Meyland (Australia)
67 Christoph Mick (Austria)
68 Gregor Dimic (Slovenia)
69 Gonçalo Duarte Basilio Amado (Portugal)
70 Peter Fenyvesi (Hungary)
71 Ruslan Boredskiy (Russian Federation)
72 Omer Shubi (Israel)
73 Nikita Chubukov (Russian Federation)
74 Sebastian Anguita (Chile)
75 Marc-Antoine Nadon (Canada)
76 Casey Williams (United States of America)
77 Diogo Andre Figueiredo (Portugal)
78 Robi Sujevic (Croatia)
79 Gergo Meggyesi (Hungary)
80 Konrad Gorzelak (Poland)
81 Christos Loizou (Cyprus)
82 Daniel Mcdonald (Australia)
83 Felipe Rodrigo Garry Rojas (Chile)
84 Radim Kovar (Czech Republic)
85 Christopher Aitken (Australia)
DNF Jens Schuermans (Belgium)
DNF Keegan Swenson (United States of America)
DNF Luke Roberts (South Africa)
DNF Luiz Cocuzzi (Brazil)
DNF Matthew Sumpton (Great Britain)
DNF Malte Finke (Germany)
DNF Nicolas Sessler (Brazil)
DNF Bartlomiej Wawak (Poland)
DNF Antonio Santos Ridao (Spain)
DNF Jochen Weisenseel (Germany)
DNF Elias Hagspiel (Austria)
DNF Bence Szalontay (Hungary)
DNS Sandro Munoz (Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela)
Medal winners: Annie Last, Julie Bresset, Pauline Ferrand Prevot
U23 Women, 27 km (start loop + 5 laps)
1 Julie Bresset (France)
2 Annie Last (Great Britain)
3 Pauline Ferrand Prevot (France)
4 Helen Grobert (Germany)
5 Anne Terpstra (Netherlands)
6 Yana Belomoyna (Ukraine)
7 Vivienne Meyer (Switzerland)
8 Lisa Mitterbauer (Austria)
9 Fanny Bourdon (France)
10 Lorraine Truong (Switzerland)
11 Kajsa Snihs (Sweden)
12 Ekaterina Anoshina (Russian Federation)
13 Jitka Skarnitzlova (Czech Republic)
14 Elisabeth Sveum (Norway)
15 Katherine O'Neill (New Zealand)
16 Mona Eiberweiser (Germany)
17 Kseniya Kirillova (Russian Federation)
18 Mariske Strauss (South Africa)
19 Noga Korem (Israel)
20 Rebecca Henderson (Australia)
21 Michelle Hediger (Switzerland)
22 Andréanne Pichette (Canada)
23 Karolina Kalasova (Czech Republic)
24 Yue Bai (People's Republic of China)
25 Sabrina Maurer (Switzerland)
26 Mikaela Kofman (Canada)
27 Paula Gorycka (Poland)
28 Marta Tereshchuk (Ukraine)
29 Candice Neethling (South Africa)
30 Laura Valentina Abril Restrepo (Colombia)
31 Jill Behlen (United States of America)
32 Weronika Rybarczyk (Poland)
33 Laura Bietola (Canada)
34 Irina Slobodyan (Ukraine)
35 Ines Carolina Gutiérrez (Argentina)
36 Minyan Hang (People's Republic of China)
37 Daniela Rojas (Chile)
38 Raiza Goulao Henrique (Brazil)
39 Luana Machado (Brazil)
40 Kaila Hart (United States of America)
DNF Barbara Benko (Hungary)
DNF Kathrin Stirnemann (Switzerland)
DNF Serena Calvetti (Italy)
DNF Samara Sheppard (New Zealand)
DNS Jovana Crnogorac (Serbia)
DNS Rebecca Beaumont (Canada)
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