August 2/19 13:09 pm - Van der Poel Takes Fourth Short Track Victory, Bouchard 17th

Posted by Editoress on 08/2/19
 

Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon-Circus) took his fourth short track win of the year on Friday at Round 5 of the Mountain Bike World Cup in Val di Sole, Italy. For the first time in the history of the short track, riders faced wet conditions, with steady day-long rain making the 1.1 kilometre circuit very muddy and slippery.

Despite starting well back on the grid, Leandre Bouchard (Pivot Cycles-OTE) rode well in the muddy conditions to finish 17th, two spots ahead of Canadian champion Peter Disera (Norco Factory).

By the second lap, this had become a two rider race, between van der Poel and Henrique Avancini (Cannondale Factory), the only other rider to have won a short track this season, albeit in Round 3 when van der Poel was absent.

The pair initially opened a small gap on the muddy climb, with world champion and World Cup leader Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM) leading the chase group. The gap to the two leaders grew steadily, to 17 seconds by the start of the eighth lap, but a lap later, as the riders began their last lap, it was down to nine seconds, and van der Poel decided it was time to go, dropping Avancini like a stone on the last climb. The new European champion increased his lead on the descent to cruise across the line five seconds ahead of his rival, with Belgian champion Jens Schuermans (Scott Creuse Oxygene Gueret) winning the sprint for third.

Cyclo-cross world champion van der Poel admitted that the muddy conditions were to his liking, "I think it doesn't get much better than this for me. It's actually harder to ride in the mud on a mountain bike than on a cyclo-cross bike, but I enjoy these conditions. I think Henrique is my biggest opponent in the short track; he is very explosive and very strong on the not so long climbs. He is deadly to fight against, he is always willing to pull at the front of the race."

Van der Poel's win moved him up to second in the overall standings ahead of Avancini, 206 points behind Series leader Schurter. Disera dropped out of the top ten, to 11th, after Schuerman's third moved the Belgian up to ninth. Bouchard moves up to 45th from 48th.

Results