Dutch rider Puck Pieterse (Alpecin Deceuninck) and Germany’s Luca Schwarzbauer (Canyon CLLCTV) were crowned overall elite UCI World Cup Short-Track champions in Canada.
Debut elite Pieterse’s fifth place ahead of Thömus Maxon’s Alessandra Keller at the final round in Mont-Sainte-Anne was enough to seal the title on a day when Laura Stigger (Specialized Factory Racing) took the win. The Austrian overhauled France’s Loana Lecomte (Canyon CLLCTV) with an explosive final-lap attack. Australian Rebecca Henderson (Primaflor Mondraker Genuins Racing Team) was third in the eighth round of the series in Quebec.
Switzerland’s Keller - who finished in 14th - ended up second behind Pieterse in the overall standings and Britain’s Evie Richards (Trek Factory Racing XC) who finished fourth in the Mont-Sainte-Anne final - was third.
Luca Schwarzbauer crossed the line seventh in the men’s final which saw him crowned overall short-track champion. Germany’s Schwarzbauer fought for the lead throughout the 10-lap final race which was won by Victor Koretzky (Specialized Factory Racing) making it three short-track victories in a row for the Frenchman. Koretzky attacked on the final lap and managed to get a small gap to France’s Jordan Sarrou (Team BMC) who crossed the finish line in second with Specialized Factory Racing’s Christopher Blevins of the USA in third.
In the overall standings Sarrou ends the season behind Schwarzbauer in second place and his fellow Frenchman Joshua Dubau (Rockrider Ford Racing Team) is third.
Full results and standings can be seen here.
The U23 racers went between the tapes on Thursday with Ronja Blöchlinger (Liv Factory Racing) and Adrien Boichis (Trinity Racing MTB) crowned overall UCI World Cup Short-Track champions.
Both racers underlined their claims to the titles by winning the final round at Mont-Sainte-Anne.
Blöchlinger’s victory in the finals means she has won an unprecedented eight out of eight rounds in the U23 short-track and becomes the only athlete in any format in the UCI Mountain Bike World Series to have gone unbeaten all season. The Swiss rider outsprinted Kiwi Samara Maxwell (Rockrider Ford) to take the win in Canada with Noëlle Buri (Bixs Performance Race Team) in third. Maxwell and Buri also finished the season second and third in the overall.
In the men’s race, Boichis managed to solo away from a group including Canada’s Carter Woods (Giant Factory Off-Road Team -XC) and Trek Factory Racing XC’s Riley Amos. Woods and the USA’s Amos took second and third in the race as they did in the overall.
Boichis's victory in the short-track is enough to also secure him the overall title in the U23 UCI Cross-country Olympic World Cup series ahead of Sunday's final race.
Full results and standings can be seen here.
The cross-country riders will be back in Olympic format action on Sunday starting with the U23 men at 9am EDT. Futher details of the weekend’s schedule are available here.
Full details of how to watch the racing are here.
