Falling short of the own expectations
At the Cross-Country World Cup in La Thuile, Italy, Team Thömus maxon fell well short of its own high expectations. Alessandra Keller posted the team’s best result, finishing eighth. Monique and Nicolas Halter, the two young riders of the development team, provided a ray of hope with a total of four podium finishes in La Thuile.
Alessandra Keller got off to a good start and was in a strong sixth place until halfway through the race. In the final two laps, however, the brutal heat and thin mountain air clearly took their toll on the XCC World Champion. Keller had to dig deep, lost some ground, and ultimately fell back to eighth place.
Keller’s post-race analysis was clear: “It was a really tough race. I tried to ride at my own pace, but in the last two laps I ran out of power and lost two more places. Eighth isn’t what I had in mind, but it’s not really bad either. My verdict: Medium!”
Upward trend for Albin
In the men’s race, Vital Albin confirmed the upward trend he had already hinted at in Friday’s Short Track (XCC) race. Albin rode a strong race until the halfway point and, as part of the top 20. After that, he wasn’t quite able to maintain his rhythm on the grueling course. After an intense and exhausting battle, he finally crossed the finish line in 25th place.
The race didn’t go quite as planned for Mathias Flückiger and Lars Forster. Flückiger never quite found his usual rhythm and had to settle for 29th place. Lars Forster had a day to forget: Nothing went right for the two-time European champion from the start, and he finished the race in 65th place.
Näf’s analysis and highlights from the devo team
Ralph Näf, the team manager, offered a clear analysis after the races: “We definitely expected more from ourselves today. The demanding course and the difficult conditions have ruthlessly exposed where we stand. On Friday, Alessadra achieved a strong 4th-place finish in the XCC. But as a team, we fell well short of our potential today. We need to analyse, because this isn’t where we want to be. Our standards are much higher. However, we’re aware that this is part of elite sports. We’ll stay on track and continue to work with focus.”
On the other hand, the performance of the Thömus Akros Youngstars team was encouraging. After the Halter siblings, Monique and Nicolas, had already stood on the podium in the XCC, they secured two more valuable top results on the podium with second-place finishes in the XCO.