The 22-year-old Italian rider Iris Aurora Pecorari won her first World Cup race today, whilst last year’s World Cup leader Vojtech Ludvik, Czechia had a tight victory by 15 seconds.
Pecorari, who starred with three gold medals at her final Junior World MTBO Championships in 2024, is now becoming well established at senior level. In the end she took a convincing victory by 35 seconds ahead of Elvira Larsson, Sweden, who is enjoying an impressive first round – she was third yesterday in the Sprint. Nikoline Splittorff, Denmark had to content herself with third place today, 47 seconds down on Pecorari.
Larsson led by 40 seconds at the first timing point, with Splittorff in fourth place and Pecorari in fifth here, 38 and 40 seconds down respectively. To the next split, Splittorff lost two places whilst Pecorari had her best section of the race, coming through to lead by 9 seconds. She soon extended this to 36 seconds and held this margin to the end of the race.
Ludvik led throughout in the men’s race with a strong and steady race; just a half-minute error in the late stages. After 10 minutes, the French rider Antoine Lesquer was only 2 seconds down, but from there he fell away as the race progressed. Second-placed Hannes Hnilica, Austria was 49 seconds down, ten minutes before the Finish, but came in just 15 seconds slower than Ludvik.
Vojtech Ludvik – back to winning ways
Third place went to the consistent Italian rider Fabiano Bettega, but the gap was much bigger: 1.22 down on Ludvik’s time.
Just as happened in the Sprint, five different nations were represented in the top six finishers in both the women’s and the men’s races. Sweden had second and fourth in the women’s, and Lithuania took fifth and sixth places in the men’s.
The final race of this round, over Long Distance, is tomorrow starting at 0900 CEST. Again, the race can be followed with GPS tracking and live results including split times.
CX80 MTBO World Cup leading results, Middle Distance
Women
- Iris Aurora Pecorari ITA 52:02
- Elvira Larsson SWE 52:37
- Nikoline Splittorff DEN 52:49
- Gabriella Gustafsson SWE 53:21
- Constance Devillers FRA 53:29
- Ruska Saarela FIN 53:53
Men
- Vojtech Ludvik CZE 51:28
- Hannes Hnilica AUT 51:43
- Fabiano Bettega ITA 52:50
- Noah Rieder SUI 53:30
- Jonas Maiselis LTU 53:46
- Ignas Ambrazas LTU 54:01