All the action from the Short Track MTB World Championships
The World Championships Cross Country Short Track (XCC) was set alight on a slippery course in Les Gets.
Photos: Jack Fletcher and Matt Rousu
Short Track (XCC) is in the World Championships for the second year. It has been part of the World Cup for a few years, adding a high impact race on the Friday evening, before the big show on Sunday in the XCO. In the World Cup, some riders still opt to sit the race out, even though they have the option of securing a start on the first two rows (from a top 16 finish) and with World Cup points and an overall point score just for XCC.
Here in Les Gets, France, at the 2022 MTB World Championships, the start chutes were a little lighter on. The calibre of the riders was high, but the depth – not as much as a World Cup. At least from an armchair critic's point of view.
Matt Rousu was track side:
'The weather would clear up for the few hours in between the eMTB races and the evening XCC, but another deluge disrupted the end of the Women’s XCC and hugely effected podium positions in the Men’s XCC.'
'Cam Ivory flew the flag for Australia in the Men’s XCC and was mixing it up really well for the first half of the race but every time up the climb by the tech/feed zone he would lose a big chunk of time, he ended up placing a respectable 43rd place. He’ll line up again on Sunday to race the longer and better suited XCO race. Nice work mate!'
The women's race saw a leading group of about 8 go, but with with a couple of laps to go Pauline Ferrand-Prevot simply rode away form everyone, winning with a 30 second lead. She rode a wave of cheers around the course from the home crowd.
In the men's, Henrique Avancini (Brazil) lead early, but Thomas Litscher was also very active at the front. Avancini got caught up in a crash when he went over the bars on a rock feature, with about 3 more riders getting involved. While he got back to the front, at end end of the penultimate lap New Zealander Sam Gaze hit the after burners.
Defending champ Chris Blevins could sort of go with it, but was throwing everything at Gaze trying to pass – until a wide line attempt on the final rock garden saw him crash, seemingly head first into a rock.
Gaze finished solo for the World Championship title.
