OKBET CYCLING : Swiss runner Nino Schurter takes home his record-setting tenth XCO World Championship in the top men’s division

Sunday was the last race of the 2022 Mountain Bike World Championships, and the unbeatable Swiss racer Nino Schurter took home his tenth elite men’s XCO World title. Frenchman Julien Absalon, his closest competitor, has won four.

Silver went to David Valero of Spain and bronze to Luca Braidot of Italy, both of whom crossed the finish line nine and twenty seconds behind the winner, respectively. British athlete Tom Pidcock came in at #4.

Schurter won the Junior World Championship in Les Gets in 2004. It wasn’t easy for him to triumph this time.

Olympic champion Pidcock, Olympic bronze medalist Valero, recent World Cup winner Braidot, and 2020 World champion Jordan Sarrou were among the formidable competitors that Schurter had to face in front of his local audience.

Within the first lap, a five-car leading pack consisting of Schurter, Valero, Braidot, Sarrou, and Alan Hatherly had already formed (South Africa). Starting near the back of the pack due to his low UCI mountain bike ranking (Pidcock has been riding mostly on the road this season), he eventually caught up to the leaders at the beginning of the third circuit.

The first two riders to fall behind were Sarrou and Hatherly on lap four as Pidcock pressed the pace, eventually pulling ahead of Schurter when the Swiss rider suffered a minor collision. On the fifth lap, everyone was back together, but Pidcock was beginning to show symptoms of exhaustion by falling to the rear and having to repeatedly catch up.

Nino Schurter

Pidcock was eliminated from contention on the sixth-to-last lap and would suffer a minor collision and just hold on to fourth place. Schurter and Valero broke away from Braidot, who stayed within ten to fifteen seconds of them but ultimately fell short.

There was zero gap between Schurter and Valero up front. Despite Valero’s repeated attempts to pass him, Schurter constantly managed to increase his speed and stay ahead. Schurter only managed to get ahead of the Spanish competitor by nine seconds in the last kilometer thanks to a solo breakaway in one of the race’s tough sectors; Braidot finished 29 seconds behind.

“I can’t believe it,” Schurter said. It was a tough race, and by the time Valero and I were left, I took my chance to try and force him to make mistakes, and luckily he did make one, in one of the last technical bits, and I was able to get away and I just went full gas. “I couldn’t believe it when I crossed the finish line that I did it again. I really tried it from the start, to make it a hard race so that Pidcock couldn’t get too easy to the front.

“This is a magical arena; I won my first championship here, and now, at the age of 69, I have won it again.

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