It was a tale of two World Champions,  both riding with plate number 2, at the opening round of the World Cup in Nove Mesto at the weekend.

Photo’s Michal Cerveny

In the men’s race Olympic and World Champion Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM) cruised to victory after a big attack on the third lap although he never really seemed to be under pressure.  The only rider able to stay with him was Spaniard David Valero Serrano (MMR Factory Racing Team) who came home comfortably in second ahead of a big chase group of four Frenchmen.  Riders Julien Absalon (BMC Mountainbike Racing Team),  Maxime Marotte (Cannondale Factory Racing XC), Jordan Sarrou (BH-SrSuntour-KMC) and Stephane Tempier (Bianchi Countervail) finished in that order with Absalon emerging from the back of the bunch on the last lap to claim the third step of the podium.  He had seem all but dropped at several stages but showed his experience to overpower his younger compatriots who must have felt that had done enough on several occasions.  Absalon has said he will retire at the end of the season so it will be interesting to see how he fares in his final season have beaten off Schurter last year to claim the World Cup overall.

The race got off to an unfortunate start when Schurter’s teammate and number 6 ranked rider Matthias Strinemann broke his chain in the sprint of the line, going over the bars and causing a huge pileup.  He bravely fought on and managed to finish a credible 65th having been pretty much dead last.

Speaking after the race, Schurter said “This course really suits me well, it’s a perfect course, one of my favourites. David showed a great performance. The first lap or so he attacked quite hard and made me suffer. I’m really happy to win here again. For me it is totally different this year. I have much less pressure, I had a great winter, did some good training but everything comes with less pressure, less expectations. It is going well so far and I’m really stoked.”

Meanwhile in the woman’s race World Champion Annika Langvad (Specialized Racing) led almost from start to finish with a powerful performance on the course where she won the rainbow jersey last year.  The Dane is finishing her Dentistry qualification and had no plan ahead of the race, but said she felt strong despite the lack of training.  Second place went to Germany’s Sabine Spitz riding for new South Korean bike manufacturer Wiawis Bikes Pro Team.  Spitz had announced her retirement at the end of last season but seemingly wasn’t quite ready to stop.  She tore past an unlucky Catherine Pendrel who first dropped her chain in the rock garden and then flatted putting an end to her challenge.  Third was Linda Indergand (Focus XC Team) who had briefly led the race on the start loop.

Next up is the German round in Albstadt, quite a different course to Nove Mesto which has lots of short power climbs.  The German round has more sustained climbs but that didn’t stop both Schurter and Langvad winning here last year.  Can anyone stop them?