UCI Mountain Bike World Cup #2, Cross Country Olympic Women, - - BikeRadar

Cross Country Olympic Women: - km

MTB World Cup 2 women: Kalentieva comes back

Irina Kalentieva loved the drops and made good time in the singletrack (Luke Webber)

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World Champion Irina Kalentieva is back on top of the World Cup following an emphatic victory today at a hot and dry Offenburg.

Tackling six full laps and a start loop, over 100 elite women took to the line which at first resembled an off road crit.

Georgia Gould led out from the start and by the first singletrack an endless line of riders fired through something that typified the course – anyone with a poor start would be queuing and making the best of minimal overtaking opportunities.

One of these riders was last week's winner Ren Chengyuan who was down in the thirties following a poor start. Following a soft tyre last week, Marie-Helene Premont was taking no chances in the early stages, leading in the singletrack and eventually moving away to form a select group of four riders.

One casualty of this hot early pace was Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesja who had been suffering with a cold before the race. Not wanting to risk any further illness and wary of what happened the previous year here, she stopped the race after two laps, preferring to stay healthy and keep hopes alive for events later in the year.

Without Dahle the group of four containing Fullana, Kalentieva, Premont and Ying were allowed to get a gap while Gould was paying the price for her early effort. Soon Ying would also fade and the group was only three strong before Fullana was dropped on the fourth lap.

Just Premont and Kalentieva remained and when the World Champion got a slight gap, she needed no invitation to attack. She opened a lead through the fifth and final lap, coming home alone to win by 33 seconds over Premont, who was surprised with her form.

"We had a lot of snow over winter in Quebec and I haven't done much riding - only jogging - so to be up in the company of the top riders and to feel so good is something of a surprise."

Performance of the day however went to Ren Chengyuan. Despite a singletrack loop she took every possible risk – even crashing and cutting her lip on the final lap – to recover and finish third. It was not enough however to hold her lead in the series which is taken by Kalentieva.

Despite leading for a short time Georgia Gould recorded the best American result finishing 13th, three up on Mary McConneloug. Lene Byberg is also regaining top race form, placing seventh and at one time in the lead group.

For full results, visit Cyclingnews.com.

CROSS COUNTRY OLYMPIC WOMEN RESULTS