XCO Highlights From Leogang
Win a GO3 Camera by Insta360 this issue in our FREE subscriber prize draw.
Austria hosted the third round of the UCI Cross-Country World Cup at Leogang. The new stop on the XCO World Cup circuit boasted a draining, steep course that suited the climbers.
Both Loana Lecomte and Mathias Flückiger took their very first XCC wins on a short track course in Leogang that was unlike any other, with the long climb favouring good climbers.
Sealing a hat-trick of XCO wins from the three World Cups so far, Loana Lecomte really is proving to be an unstoppable force in the women’s cross-country scene. The young French rider built a lead from lap one and forced the rest of the field to play catch up.
As mentioned, the Leogang cross-country course featured some serious climbs, probably the longest on the World Cup circuit. They weren’t particularly technical, but they did suit riders who could sustain long efforts while ascending. The Czech, Ondřej Cink, was one such rider as he was chosen by a professional road team to ride the Tour de France for that ability. Mathias Flückiger also had form on these type of courses. The elastic between the two was finally broken in the penultimate lap, with Flückiger proving the strongest.
