Middle golds to Denmark and Switzerland

Nikoline Splittorff, Denmark and Simon Braendli, Switzerland are the Middle Distance champions, winning by 16 seconds and 2.02 respectively. This is 22-year-old Splittorff’s first individual win at international level; for 31-year-old Braendli, his first since 2016.

“The map was challenging and the course had some controls that were difficult,” said Splittorff of today’s race in Portugal, who successfully read the finer detail on the map and took the gold. Silver medalist in the women’s class is Gabriele Andrasiuniene, Lithuania, with Denmark’s Camilla Søgaard taking the bronze, 17 seconds slower than the Lithuanian. Both gained a lot on the winner in the last section of the race, but not enough to match her time.

Braendli was fastest throughout in the men’s race. Grigory Medvedev, Russia came up from fourth to second in the last part of the race, but was still well down on Braendli’s time. The gap to the bronze medalist, the Czech rider Vojtech Stransky, was only two seconds, however. The Czech team riders also took fourth and fifth places in the race.

Tomorrow it is the Long Distance, with course lengths around double of those today. The M21 course is 39.5 km with 830 m of climb, and the women’s is 32.0 km/650 m climb. Tough!

The Long Distance is also the last individual competition of the CX80 MTBO World Cup. There is a tight battle in the women’s class with Svetlana Foliforova (RUS) leading with 210 points ahead of Marika Hara (FIN) with 186 points and Camilla Søgaard (DEN) with 185. In the men’s class Simon Braendli (SUI) has a commanding lead of 205 points over Krystof Bogar (CZE) at 167 points. Samuel Pökälä (FIN) currently in third in the standings is not competing this weekend. The competition can be followed on the organisers Live page.

Best Junior and Youth athletes after two races are Yaroslav Shvedov RUS (M17) and Iris Aurora Pecorari ITA (W17): both have won one gold and one silver medal.

Leading results, Middle Distance

W21

1. Nikoline Splittorff DEN 44:55
2. Gabriele Andrasiuniene LTU 45:11
3. Camilla Søgaard DEN 45:28
4. Svetlana Foliforova RUS 46:13
5. Marika Hara FIN 47:16
6. Henna Saarinen FIN 47:18

M21

1. Simon Braendli SUI 45:07
2. Grigory Medvedev RUS 47:09
3. Vojtech Stransky CZE 47:11
4. Krystof Bogar CZE 47:36
5. Vojtech Ludvik CZE 48:07
6. Andreas Waldmann AUT 48:40

Junior and Youth medalists – Middle

M20

1. Bartosz Niebielski POL 40:45
2. Matej Tuma CZE 41:10
3. Mikkel Brunstedt Nørgaard DEN 41:22

W20

1. Maria Costa POR 33:54
2. Lucie Nedomlelova CZE 36:18
3. Ekaterina Landgraf RUS 36:45

M17

1. Yaroslav Shvedov RUS 27:00
2. Artur Mendonca POR 27:16
3. Nicolas Lopez Gonzalez ESP 28:15

W17

1. Gertrud Riis Madsen DEN 24:42
2. Iris Aurora Pecorari ITA 27:48
3. Maria Kupriyanova RUS 28:10

Junior and Youth medalists – Sprint (Thursday)

M20

1. Mikkel Brunstedt Nørgaard DEN 16:42
2. Felix Silver SWE 17:08
3. Noah Rieder SUI 17:16

W20

1. Alena Aksenova RUS 15:52
2. Lucie Nedomlelova CZE 16:12
3. Kaarina Nurminen FIN 16:13

M17

1. Hannes Hnilica AUT 13:49

2= Nicolas Lopez Gonzalez ESP & Yaroslav Shvedov RUS  14:08

W17

1. Iris Aurora Pecorari ITA 15:21
2. Margaux Leclerc FRA 16:20
3. Anna Vakhitova RUS 16:23

CX80 MTBO World Cup – Standings after 5 of 6 competitions

Women

Men

Link to full CX80 World Cup standings