The closing day of the Val di Sole MTB World Cup crowned the most awaited champions in front of 20,000 fans over four days of racing. Italian fans in awe of Berta’s emotional second place, Woods and Pedersen claim Under 23 competitions
The 2023 Val di Sole MTB World Cup couldn’t ask for a more exciting finale. Over the years, Daolasa di Commezzadura (Trentino) has established itself as a legitimate land of champions, where the best in class find the ideal terrain to stand out, and the winners of the Cross Country races at Val di Sole 2023 have lived up to such reputation. The master of Val di Sole, timeless legend Nino Schurter, keeps moving the bar and setting new records, taking his 6th win in Trentino and the 35th overall in the World Cup. Puck Pieterse extended her breakout stretch in an incredible XCO season, just months after taming the snow course in Val di Sole’s Cyclocross World Cup round.
Thousands of fans in Daolasa could also scream in celebration of Martina Berta, who secured a career-high second place in the Elite Women’s race, on an unforgettable Sunday that clinched four days of racing in Daolasa, attended by an overall 20.000 people.
SCHURTER MAKES IT SIX IN VAL DI SOLE
Six in Val di Sole, thirty-five in his career. Nino Schurter is the ultimate MTB legend, one for the ages.
The relationship between the Swiss ace and Val di Sole has always been special and today, July 2nd, in Daolasa di Commezzadura, Schurter added another gem to his crown. Here he lived the first highlight of his career by winning the Under 23 World title in 2008, wrote some unforgettable pages of his MTB path and ultimately returned to glory with his 9th Elite World title in 2021, when many thought his mojo was already over.
Schurter might be 37 years of age but has no intention of giving up on anything. He showed it again today in Val di Sole, clearly distancing each of his rivals. Second place went to fellow Swiss Mathias Fluckiger (Thomus-Maxon), like it happened at the 2021 World Champs, this time at a 27” distance. Newly-crowned European Champion Vlad Dascalu (Trek Factory) capped a solid comeback in the second half of the race with third place at 38 seconds, right ahead of Joshua Dubau (Rockrider). Rounding out the top-5 was Alan Hatherly (Cannondale Factory), 52” behind Schurter, who was also the last one to give up on the Swiss’ wake.
Twins Daniele (CS Carabinieri) and Luca Braidot (Santa Cruz Rockshox) could not make it into the top-10 in front of home fans, ending in 12th and 13th position respectively.
“In Lenzerheide I realized that I am in really great shape, and I know I really have a great setup now on my bike, and that on difficult tracks like here in Val di Sole it’s so important. From the start I felt I was strong on the climbs as well, I went smooth through those sections, and it was another insane ride in Val di Sole, I love it here in Italy,” Schurter said afterwards.
“The first part of the lap is key, it’s really technical, with plenty of ups and downs, and you need to find a good line where you can recover and get the momentum through, and I managed quite well to get a good flow in this downhill to recover, and push hard on the steep uphills. That’s what made it.”
The Swiss champ didn’t hold back and started to push from the very beginning, selecting a small group of four riders including New Zealand’s Sam Gaze, the Val di Sole Short Track winner, German Luca Schwarzbauer, and South African Hatherly. The latter was the only one to keep up with him into the second half of the race, before Schurter pushed on gas and ultimately dropped him.
As the laps went by, Gaze and Schwarzbauer lost terrain, while Fluckiger rode his way back to the top positions and was able to leave Hatherly behind in lap 5. Third place for Dascalu, who gave it all in the final and got another big result, one week after becoming European champion.
PIETERSE-SHOW IN VAL DI SOLE AHEAD OF BERTA AND HENDERSON
No matter the season, Val di Sole seems to be Puck Pieterse’s domain. Six months after her memorable success in the Cyclocross World Cup round in Vermiglio, in the iconic snow race of Val di Sole, Pieterse delivered a similarly commanding performance in Daolasa di Commezzadura on July 2nd, to claim the third World Cup win in the season (out of four rounds) among Elite Women.
Anyway, the home fans also had plenty to cheer for, as it was Martina Berta who cross the line in second place, 52” down, delivering her career-best World Cup finish, saluted by the loud enthusiasm of thousands of fans in Trentino. It was Italy’s first top-3 finish in the Elite Women’s World Cup since April 27th, 2014, when Eva Lechner won in Cairns (Australia).
Third place for Australian champion Rebecca Henderson (1’00”), followed by Austrian Laura Stigger (1’06”) and Mona Mitterwallner (1’53”), two Olympic Champions like Swiss Jolanda Neff (2’01”) and Swede Jenny Rissveds (2’30”), and World Champion Pauline Ferrand-Prèvot, eight place at 2’48”.
Pieterse (Alpecin-Deuceninck) took the lead from the start and never looked back. “I chose to ride aggressively since the beginning, and I was full gas already at the end of the first lap. Since then, I tried to go with my pace and don’t look back and well, it worked once again” – commented Pieterse.
“I made a mistake in the last lap, but I knew I had quite some gap. It happened on the toughest part of the race, where you are almost still because of the many roots on the course. In every lap I tried to keep my best focus, but my heart rate was so high that I couldn’t keep going. Since that moment I reset and started to push again on the first climb to get my pace back”, ended the Dutch champion.
In the second lap, a quartet including Ferrand-Prèvot, Berta, Keller and Stigger, later joined by Henderson, went to chase Pieterse. Martina Berta tried to up the pace and only Pauline Ferrand-Prèvot could keep up, with the duo slowly but steadily earning a few seconds on Pieterse: still not enough to get back on the leader.
In the fourth lap, Ferrand-Prèvot crashed heavily, falling behind Berta and the following chasing group. The Italian champion had to defend her second position from the charge of Henderson and Stigger in the fifth and last lap. On the finish line, it was Pieterse raising her arms once again, followed by the overwhelming joy of the Italian rider, eloquently saluted by the home fans.
“To get on the podium in Val di Sole, with the Tricolore Jersey, in front of such a crowd, is unbelievable”, said Berta on the finish line.
In the GC, Puck Pieterse keeps dominating with 1096 points, ahead of Ferrand-Prèvot (800) and Laura Stigger (680).
U23 MEN: A DOUBLE FLAT SPOILS MARTIN, WOODS WINS THE RACE
In Val di Sole XCO, Carter Woods gave an encore of his Short Track win on Friday, albeit in unexpected fashion. emerging as the unexpected winner in today's Cross Country race. Giant Factory’s Canadian prevailed in the final lap, at a time when his hopes for the first place seemed all but gone.
Indeed, Luca Martin was leading the U23 race from the early going to the final lap, having outdistanced his rivals, but a double puncture in the last lap denied him a deserved success. The French prospect finished 11th, receiving the applause of the Val di Sole public at the finish line.
Behind Woods, Frenchman Adrien Boichis (Trinity Racing) was the runner-up at 31”, as American Riley Amos (Trek Factory Racing) completed the top-3, 45” ahead of Belgian Jente Michels (Alpecin Deuceninck) and Austrian Mario Bair (Trek Future).
“It was pretty crazy, in that last lap a lot of things happened”, said Woods. – “I had a terrible start, I made my way back to the bunch, then Luca attacked and took some advantage, but that last lap was crazy and I made it!”
Boichis leads the World Cup overall standings with 486 points, ahead of Swiss Dario Lillo (470) and Woods (425).
U23 WOMEN: PEDERSEN MAKES IT FOUR IN VAL DI SOLE
Sofie Pedersen celebrated again in U23 XCO World Cup in Val di Sole on Sunday July 2nd, after winning the first three races of the season in Nove Mesto, Lenzerheide and Leogang. The Wilier-Pirelli Dane preceded New Zealand’s Sara Maxwell, second at 38”, and Swiss Ronja Blöchlinger (Liv Factory), third at 2’02”.
Blöchlinger and Pedersen went for an aggressive tactic in the first part of the race, whilst Maxwell set up a consistent pace behind the leaders. In lap 3, the Swiss slowed down, whilst Pedersen continued solo her action.
In the final lap, Maxwell reached and overtook Blöchlinger, and tried to bridge over to the head of the race. However, Pedersen managed to control her pace and finish solo on the finish line. French Noemie Garnier (Scott Creuse) and German Sina Van Thiel (Lexware) completed the day’s top 5. Pedersen extended her overall lead with 610 points, ahead of Ronja Blöchlinger (448) and Ginia Caluori (387).
“I had run out of energy in the finale”, said Pedersen. – “With Ronja, we had a speedy start, but Samara was very fast and was coming back in the last lap. I honestly don’t know where I found the energy to maintain the first place”.
RIZZI (VAL DI SOLE): “LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT ONE”
The President of Val di Sole Tourism Board and Grandi Eventi Val di Sole, Luciano Rizzi, voiced his satisfaction for the 2023 edition: “We took the new challenge brought to us by Warner Bros Discovery Sport with enthusiasm, extending our program to four racing days. We are proud of the outcome of our efforts, and we look forward to the next steps of this collaboration. Amazing crowds could be seen cheering and having fun in Val di Sole in these days, and the show reached out to every angle of the World thanks to the extensive TV coverage on Eurosport and plenty of international broadcasters, plus Youtube.”
“This edition of the World Cup has once again established Val di Sole as a technical and organizational excellence on the international Mountain Bike scene. Now we will take a few days of rest before embracing the new path towards Val di Sole’s next major cycling event: the UCI Cyclo-Cross World Cup round on the snow in Vermiglio, on December 10th, 2023,” said Fabio Sacco, Val di Sole Tourism Board and Grandi Eventi Val di Sole Director.
