Mathieu van der Poel watches MTB opponent perform well in Short Race: Victor Koretzky defends title

First it was the turn of the U23s and then the women at the World Short Race Championships. Puck Pieterse was the biggest contender for Dutch success, but she was held up by a crash halfway through the race and subsequently decided to take things easy. In the end, the Dutchwoman finished tenth. Van der Poel, the other Dutchman, completed all his laps in Crans Montana on Tuesday.

The first row for the men consisted of Victor Koretzky, Mathis Azzaro (France), Lars Forster (Switzerland), Christopher Blevins (United States), Simon Andreassen (Denmark), Luca Braidot (Italy), Luca Schwarzbauer (Germany), and Sam Gaze from New Zealand: usually Van der Poel's teammate at Alpecin-Deceuninck. Incidentally, Luca Martin and Charlie Aldridge had to skip the race due to COVID-19; they hope to be fit again on Sunday.

Unlike the women's race, this first starting row – out of a total of forty participants – was determined based on a qualification race on Monday. As a result, we found two other interesting names in row two: Alan Hatherly (South Africa) and Filippo Colombo (Switzerland), for whom the first sections would therefore be particularly important.

Blevins slipped out of his pedal twice at the start. Andreassen took the lead, having just seen his Swedish girlfriend Jenny Rissveds finish second in the Short Race. Azzaro was first through the first of a total of ten laps, but the whole pack was hot on his heels. Including Blevins, who made a strong comeback attempt to regain his position at the front.

Halfway through the race, the first gaps appeared, led by Belgian Pierre de Froidmont and defending champion Koretzky at the front. In lap seven, Blevins retook the lead, while Gaze, in his All Blacks outfit, also made a good impression at the critical points. However, the group was still quite large.

In the penultimate lap, the French took the front positions with Koretzky and Azzaro, which could prove crucial heading into the final lap. Blevins then blew everyone away with an impressive acceleration, showing his good form from the start of the season. However, Koretzky still managed to get past him in the final straight with a remarkable comeback.