Lars Forster wins UCI Mountain Bike World Series Cross-Country Olympic World Cup
Posted : 19 June 2023
In an impressive display of timing, Lars Forster (Thömus Maxon) secured a victory at the UCI Mountain Bike World Series Cross-country Olympic World Cup in Leogang. After a closely contested race, Forster, Luca Schwarzbauer, and Ondrej Cink (Primaflor Mondraker Genuins Racing Team) were separated by just one second at the start of the final lap.
However, Forster made a decisive move at the beginning of the lap, distancing himself from his rivals and crossing the finish line in 1:17:41. This marked Forster's first win in a UCI Cross-Country World Cup Olympic race since his triumph in Snowshoe, West Virginia, in 2019.
Schwarzbauer finished 14 seconds behind Forster, securing second place, while Cink trailed 23 seconds behind the winner. Mathias Flückiger (Thömus Maxon), who seemed poised for his third consecutive victory in Leogang, suffered a puncture during the fourth lap, dashing his hopes for the win. Nevertheless, Flückiger recovered well and finished in fifth place, alongside his teammate Forster.
With this victory, Forster climbed to fourth place in the Cross-Country Olympic World Cup standings, trailing Jordan Sarrou (Team BMC), Nino Schurter (Scott-Sram MTB Racing Team), and Schwarzbauer. Despite his previous record-breaking performance in Lenzerheide, Schurter could only manage a 21st-place finish in this race.
Leogang's challenging XCO course, featuring 3.6km of ski slope ascents and technical descents, proved to be one of the toughest on the calendar.
The hot and sunny weather added an extra level of difficulty to the competition. Schwarzbauer and Cink demonstrated their strength on the early climbs, leading the majority of the race.
Flückiger joined them midway through the race, making a remarkable ascent from 34th to the top 10 in just two laps. He then went on to pick off riders in the top 10 in his pursuit of Schwarzbauer, eventually taking the lead on the climb at the start of the fourth lap.
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