Wiedmann forth, Keller fifth – men’s trio with positive signals

The fourth World Cup race of the season in Val di Sole (Ita) started with the short track on a new course. Luke Wiedmann (U23) in fourth and Alessandra Keller in fifth were the best results for Team Thömus maxon. Meanwhile, the three men Mathias Flückiger, Lars Forster and Vital Albin did not achieve an absolute top result, but nevertheless sent out positive signals for the XCO race on Sunday. 

The young star in the team, Luke Wiedmann, stayed in the leading group throughout the tactical U23 race. Everything was close together until the final lap. Wiedmann proved his finishing skills and only just missed out on the podium in fourth place.

In the women’s race, Alessandra Keller missed the start and dropped back from the front row to 15th place. It was not until the middle of the race that the leader in the overall XCC World Cup was able to place among the top ten riders. In the end, it was enough for Keller to finish fifth in a tactical race, the maximum on the day: “I just didn’t have the legs to win today. But I was able to make the best of it and I achieved the minimum goal; I’ll be starting from the front row on Sunday.” The race was won by Puck Pieterse from the Netherlands. With fifth place, Alessandra Keller was able to defend her lead in the overall XCC standings and even extend her lead over her direct rivals.

Flückiger solid, Forster’s race to catch up stopped

While Mathias Flückiger got off to a good start in the men’s race, Lars Forster dropped back from the second row to the back of the field. Flückiger stayed the whole race consistently around tenth position and Forster started a race to catch up. Three laps before the end, the Thömus maxon duo were in seventh and eighth place. While Flückiger just missed out on the front row of the grid in tenth place at the end, Forster crashed in the final through no fault of his own and unfortunately dropped back to 34th place. For Vital Albin, the short track was an important step on the way back to realizing his full potential. Albin finished the race two places behind Forster.

Results XCC World Cup Val di Sole

All XCO races are scheduled for Sunday.
Women Elite: 11:15 am
Men Elite: 14:00
Men U23: 16:00