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After eight weekends of racing spread across the past five months, the cross-country MTB World Cup is now finished for another year. This past weekend, in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada, the world's best took to a slick and slippery course to see who could close out the season in the best way possible.
As he has been all season, Piper Albrecht was at the racing over the weekend and captured the images you see below. We've loved Piper's work this season and we hope you have too!
It didn't take long for the riders to bear the signs of the muddy surface.Puck Pieterse had already wrapped up the overall series win a week earlier in Snowshoe. She led early on Sunday as well, but seemed to struggle in the slick conditions.A puncture at one point dropped Lecomte from second down to 11th, but the Frenchwoman fought back.It hasn't really been Kate Courtney's season. The former world champ has only cracked the top 10 twice in XCO World Cups this year.?The tricky conditions forced all riders from their bikes at times.Jolanda Neff on her way to fourth on the day.After her early mishap, Lecomte came to the fore late and rode to the victory.Pieterse would end the day in third.That's Lecomte's second XCO World Cup win this year, after winning in Lenzerheide back in June.Your overall winner of this year's World Cup, at just 21, is Puck Pieterse.Pop quiz: who's leg is this?Another win for the French champion, who also won the Paris 2024 test event a few weeks back.Martina Berta must have missed the memo about clean knicks on the podium. From left to right: Jolanda Neff (fourth), Jenny Rissveds (second), Lecomte, Pieterse (third), and Berta (fifth).Overall podium for the 2023 World Cup, from left to right: Lecomte (second), Pieterse, and Mona Mitterwallner (third).All in readiness for the elite men's race.Well, almost.British champ Charlie Aldridge got off to a great start, like he did a week ago at Snowshoe.Those rocks look sliiiiiick.World champ Tom Pidcock had two punctures that affected his chances of winning last week, but had a cleaner run in Mont-Sainte-Anne.Oceania champ Anton Cooper finds the best line on his way to 13th.As in the women's race, riders were forced off their bikes from time to time.Hard to miss Kiwi Ben Oliver in this kit.After his fast start, Aldridge rode to seventh on the day, his best result of the season.Luca Schwarzbauer rode his way to 10th.Pidcock led with Mathias Flückiger for a time, before the latter punctured out of the lead, helping Pidcock to his second World Cup win this season.Second for Flückiger despite two punctures for the day.From left to right: Titouan Carod (fourth), Flückiger (second), Pidcock, Marcel Guerrini (third), and Thomas Litscher (fifth).Yet another overall win in the MTB World Cup for Nino Schurter!
