Finland won Sunday’s mixed relay at the CX80 MTBO World Cup Round in Bulgaria, which was also the last race of the season in the international MTBO calendar.
The MTBO athletes returned to the town of Yagoda and the arena used for Friday’s sprint on Sunday morning. And today’s relay courses went in the nearby hilly forest with a final loop in the urban terrain, which was also used for the sprint.
Of the 29 starting teams, it was the home team Bulgaria 1, with Marco Pelov, who was the fastest through the first leg, with the teams from Poland and Estonia, who also started with a man on the first lap, behind them.
After the second lap, Fabiano Bettega (ITA) had a lead of 36 seconds to Poland, while the teams from France and Finland were 39 seconds behind at the changeover.
Tomi Nykänen brought Finland to tied third place after the second leg. Photo: World Cup Round 3
After them, the gap down to Denmark in fifth place was more than a minute.
This meant that the fight for gold would be between Finland, France and Italy, which Samuel Pökälä decided in Finland’s favor.
Already after the first handful of controls, the Finn had closed the Italian lead, and when Paul Debray (FRA) lost time at control, only Riccardo Rosseto (ITA) and Pökälä was left in the lead.
Armel Berthaud raced second leg for France’s bronze team. Photo: World Cup Round 3
The Finn was the best at keeping his cool at the decisive controls in the city, and therefore it was gold for Finland, silver for Italy and bronze for France.
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Mixed relay podium. Photo: Zoran Milovanovic
Mixed Relay, Top 3
1 Finland (Ruska Saarela, Tomi Nykänen, Samuel Pökälä) 2.21.21
2 Italy (Iris Aurora Pecorari, Fabiano Bettega, Riccardo Rossetto) +0:12
3 France (Lou Garcin, Armel Berthaud, Paul Debray) +0:56
Despite the Finnish success and a Czech fifth place today, Czechia could not be caught in the Team World Cup standings after three victories in the first competitions of the year.
Here Czechia won ahead of Finland and France.
Team World Cup 2025, Final standings
1 Czechia, 73 points
2 Finland, 63 points
3 France, 52 points
4 Lithuania, 49 points
5 Italy, 44 points
6 Switzerland, 41 points
CX80 2025 MTBO World Cup Women’s podium: 1. Nikoline Splittorff (DEN), 2. Ruska Saarela (FIN), 3. Camilla Søgaard (DEN)
CX80 2025 MTBO World Cup Men’s podium: 1. Vojtech Ludvik (CZE), 2. Krystof Bogar (CZE), 3. Fabiano Bettega (ITA).
Go to CX80 MTBO World Cup standings