Van der Poel and Courtney take Short Track openers at Les Gets World Cup
13 July 2019 07:44
The Mountain Bike World Cup moved to the French Alps in Les Gets for round four on Friday. While not as high as last week's races in Andorra, riders still had to contend with an altitude of 1,200 metres and dry, dusty conditions on a rough grass track with steep climbing. Racing began with the XCC (Short Track), and the women's race was whittled down to a lead group of 10 riders with two laps to go in the seven-lap race, when world champion and World Cup leader Kate Courtney (Scott-SRAM) attacked on the first climb of the second-to-last lap. Pauline Ferrand Prevot (Canyon Factory), Germany's Elizabeth Brandau and Jolanda Neff (Trek Factory) formed the chase group, but could not make any headway on the seven-second gap Courtney opened on her way to winning her second XCC of the season, extending her lead in the overall standings.ADVERTISEMENT Ferrand Prevot took second in front of a delighted French crowd, with Brandau pipping Neff on the line for third. Courtney didn't have a set plan for when she would attack: "In these races, you have to respond to what's happening, and we have had so many strong girls at the front that it's unpredictable. "Today, my plan was to embrace the moment; you have to be willing to 'risk big to win big', and I'm really happy it worked out today," she said. Van der Poel returns
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