UCI MTB World Cup: Dascălu holds on to claim Les Gets podium
Romanian excels after Briton Richards takes XCC second spot on Friday.
Vlad Dascălu emptied his tank on Sunday at the Les Gets stop of the 2023 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup season to claim a gutsy XCO podium after Briton Evie Richards earned XCC second.
Romanian Dascălu fought hard, however he could not bridge the gap to Victor Koretzky – who came out on top in Friday’s XCC from compatriot Jordan Sarrou and German Luca Schwarzbauer – with the Frenchman winning by 17 seconds from Swiss Nino Schurter with Dascălu third.
After Dutch rider Puck Pieterse edged out Richards and Swiss Alessandra Keller in Friday’s XCC race, Austrian Mona Mitterwallner won her second UCI MTB World Cup XCO race in a row on Sunday from Pieterse with France’s Pauline Ferrand-Prévot rounding out the podium.
Schurter now leads fellow Swiss rider Mathias Flückiger by just 98 points overall heading into the final three stops as Pieterse leads Mitterwallner by a larger margin of 321 points in the title race.
In the men’s superb downhill on Saturday, Frenchman Benoit Coulanges edged out Austrian Andreas Kolb by just 0.160s for victory with France’s Loris Vergier third, Canadian Jackstone Goldstone fourth and five-time world champion Loïc Bruni in fifth – all five within a second of the winner.
The women’s downhill saw France’s Marine Cabirou ease to victory with Slovenian Monika Hrastnik second and German Nina Hoffman third with Briton Tahnée Seagrave seventh and reigning back-to-back world champion Valentina “Vali” Höll back in 10th after a difficult afternoon.
Bruni leads Goldstone by just 57 points heading into the last two downhill stops with Canadian Finn Iles in fourth place as Höll still leads the women’s title race by a huge 424-point margin from Hoffman.
