MTB World Cup Snowshoe: Sarrou in luck, Pidcock in bad luck

The World Cup race on Sunday, October 1, 2023, is one of the most exciting races in a long time. The Frenchman Viktor Koretzky had gained new courage after his victory in the last World Cup race in Les Gets, France, and entered the race with great expectations. He had already won the short track race on Friday. He seemed to be riding a wave of victory. The Olympic and world champion Thomas Pidcock was also there. Experience has shown that he is the top favorite when he takes part in the races. It was only his third MTB World Cup race this year. The usual suspects quickly took the lead such as Koretzky, Sarrou, Schurter, Hatherly, Flückiger, Dascalu, Braidot, Schwarzbauer, Dubau, but also lesser-known drivers like Charlie Aldridge. A long lead crew led the field for several laps. Schurter has now fallen back to 10th place. Tom Pidcock started to overtake on the third lap and took the lead on the fourth lap. He quickly broke away from the field with Koretzky and Sarrou and formed a leading trio that was difficult to crack. But as soon as the Brit thought he was on course for victory, a breakdown brought him back down to earth. A flat front tire forced him to drive to the tech zone and have the tire or wheel changed there. The whole mishap cost him about 20-30 seconds. Ambitious and combative, as we know him, the Briton started to catch up and managed to take the lead once again. But something went wrong when changing the wheel and he had to go to the tech zone again to change the front wheel. He attacked again and tried to take the lead for the third time, but the mishaps had cost him over a minute and the fightback had been exhausting. Although he caught up again, he was denied the lead until the end and ended up in fifth place. Towards the end of the race, Marcel Guerrini, Nino Schurter and Jordan Sarrou fought for the day's title. Before the last corner, Sarrou had even more reserves than Schurter, passed him and won his first World Cup title, Schurter took second place and Guerrini third. From start to finish it was a really exciting race with non-stop leadership changes and tough fights for the day's victory. At the same time, it was the farewell race for the Brazilian rider Henrique Avancini, who said goodbye to professional sport as an MTB racer.