October 2/23 8:32 am - Carter Woods Wins Snowshoe World Cup
Posted by Editoress on 10/2/23
Canadian Under-23 men's champion Carter Woods (Giant Factory) took his second XCO World Cup victory of the season on Sunday, to go with his second place in the XCC on Thursday, at Snowshoe, West Virginia. Together, the results were enough to move him up one spot in the overall standings, to second place. In other Canadian XCO results, Emilly Johnston (Trek Future) was fifth in Under-23 women, Gunnar Holmgren (Pivot Cycles - OTE) was 15th in Elite men, and Jenn Jackson (Liv Factory) was 23rd in Elite women.
Under-23 Men
Woods and World Cup leader Adrien Boichis (Trinity Racing) were clearly the class of the field, riding away from everyone else on the first lap to battle for the win. The two were together into the final lap, when Boichis launched an attack. However, Woods responded and then counterattacked, setting the fastest lap of the race and winning by 15 seconds. Thursday's XCC winner, Riley Amos (Trek Factory) was third, nearly a minute back. In other Canadian results, Owen Clark was 26th, Dylan Kerr 47th, Simon Ruelland (Pivot Cycles - OTE) 50th, Xavier Roy 53rd, Zachary Brunelle 54th, Matt Leliveld 57th and Jack Ciotlos 63rd. Noah Ramsay did not finish.
In the overall World Cup standings, with just Mont-Ste-Anne remaining, Boichis leads Woods by 160 points - technically, if Woods won everything next week and Boichis got no points, the Canadian could take the overall title, but it is unlikely. The battle is for second, with Dario Lilllo (Scott Davos) 44 points behind Woods, and Amos 75 points back.
Under-23 Women
New Zealand's Samara Maxwell continues to dominate in the latter half of the season, winning the world title and now taking her second consecutive World Cup win. Maxwell led from the gun to win by over a minute ahead of World Cup leader Ronja Blöchlinger (Liv Factory), with Ginia Caluori (Thömus Akros - Youngstars) in third. Johnston, after falling back to the mid-teens on the start loop, steadily made her way forward through the rest of the race; up to seventh after Lap 1, then sixth a lap later and to fifth by Lap 3, which she held for the remaining two laps. Other Canadian results were Ella Myers in 24th, Lea Bouchard in 27th, Juliette Larose Gingras in 29th and Lea Drouin in 30th.
"Yeah, I missed my pedal completely at the start and got caught at the back," explains Johnston. "I managed to catch up and keep a consistent pace throughout the race. Was super happy with how my legs felt and really looking forward to getting to race in Canada next weekend!"
In the overall standings, Blöchlinger takes over the top spot from Heby Sofie Pedersen (Wilier - Pirelli Factory) who struggled all race to finish 25th, after opening the season with four consecutive victories. Blöchlinger leads Pedersen by 41, and Maxwell is only 75 points back so this battle is not over. Johnston remains ninth overall, but is only nine points out of seventh and 62 points out of sixth.
Elite Women
Laura Stigger (Specialized Factory) took the first Elite World Cup win of her career with a dominant performance. A group of seven came out of the start loop in the lead, which was whittled down to four after the first lap, and by the end of the second lap, Stigger was away on her own, steadily building her lead. Her gap over Loana Lecomte (Canyon Collective) and Martina Berta (Santa Cruz Rockshox) reached over 30 seconds, before Lecomte managed to pull it back to 23 seconds in the final lap, with Berta finishing third at 32 seconds. Jackson rode consistently all race in the low 20s. Other Canadian results were Laurie Arseneault (Pittstop Racing) in 41st, Roxane Vermette 47th, Emma Olsen 48th and Juliette Tetreault 50th.
"I think this is one of my best World Cup performances!," says Jackson. "Last year I was 14th, which by placing is my best result, but also 7.5 minutes down, and this year I was 23rd inside 5 minutes - so more competitive and against a much more complete field of racers.
"I'm happy with how I'm riding and my head says I still have more in the legs, but just working through some fit/back discomfort this year."
In the overall standings, Puck Pieterse (Alpecin-Deceuninck) continues to lead despite finishing sixth, with an insurmountable lead that gives her the title with one race still remaining. Mona Mitterwallner (Cannondale Factory) holds onto to second despite finishing tenth, while Lecomte moves up to third from fifth. Jackson moves up one spot, to 31st, with 27th still within reach for the final event.
Elite Men
The Elite men's race was impacted by flat tires to two of the leading riders, but that does not take away from Jordan Sarrou (BMC) winning his first ever Elite World Cup race with a strong and consistent ride. World champion Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) made his patented ride up through the field to the front, only to suffer two front flats; he nevertheless managed two impressive comebacks to finish fifth, only 13 seconds behind Sarrou. Similarly, Luca Schwarzbauer (Canyon Collective), third in the overall standings, was with the lead group when he suffered a rear flat, eventually finishing 11th. At the front - and avoiding problems - Sarrou, World Cup leader Nino Schurter (Scott SRAM), Marcel Guerrini (Bixs Performance) and Matthias Flückiger (Thömus Maxon) rode together for the first half of the race before Sarrou made the winning attack on lap 5. His lead reached a maximum of 17 seconds before they began to reel him in, in the final two laps, with Sarrou just holding off Schurter in the final sprint, and Guerrini at three seconds.
Holmgren was in the mid-20s after the start loop and then began moving up into the 'teens, yo-yoing between 16th and 19th until the final lap, when he made a surge to move up to 15th at the finish.
In other Canadian results, Raphael Auclair (Pivot Cycles - OTE) was 47th, Tyler Orschel 54th, Leandre Bouchard (Foresco Holding Proco RL) 55th, Sean Fincham (Berria Vittoria Factory) 59th, Quinton Disera (Pivot Cycles - OTE) 63rd, Victor Verreault (Foresco Holding Proco RL) 66th, Peter Disera (Pivot Cycles - OTE), Tyler Clark 70th, Malcolm Barton 74th, Logan Sadesky 76th and William Maltais Pilote 80th.
In the overall standings, Schurter holds onto the lead with 1433 points, while Sarrou moves into second from fourth, 89 points back. Flückiger drops one place to third and Schwarzbauer drops to fourth. Sarrou is the only one with a mathematical chance of catching Schurter for the title, and he is in a three way battle for second and third with Flückiger and Schwarzbauer. Holmgren moves into the top-30, from 33rd to 28th, and has a strong opportunity to move up to the top-25 in the final round.
World Cup Snowshoe: U23 and Elite XCO results
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