UCI E-XCO World Championships Val di Sole

I waited a long time for this race and prepared seriously for it. In the preparation everything went perfectly until I had a heavy crash at the Proffix Swiss Bike Cup in Muttenz less than a week before the race. Thanks to the support of the physiotherapy in Magglingen and my sports doctor, I still made it to the start of the World Championship reasonably fit and without much pain.

I was one of the favorites on the front row and the last difficult days were forgotten. I showed a good race and fought until the end against Christopher Blevins (XCC World Champion 2021) for the 3th place. Until the last climb I could put him under pressure. However, on the very last climb a small gap opened up and I had to watch him get the last medal just four seconds ahead of me.

It was clearly my goal to win the World Championship title, but after missing out on the medals as well, my disappointment was even greater. Even after a deep race analysis, I still can't say why I couldn't keep up with Gilloux, Pigeon & Blevins. Now I have to look ahead and forget this race as soon as possible. Fortunately, there are still two titles to be won this season. In less than three weeks we will race in Disentis in the E-XCO for the first Swiss Championship title and there are also three World Cup races to come. There, the title of overall World Cup winner is still within reach.