UCI Mountain Bike World Cup 9, Women's XC Final, - - BikeRadar

Women's XC final: - km

World Cup women's XC: Wloszczowska takes maiden win

Wloszczowska was surprised at her win, but happy nonetheless (Luke Webber)

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Maja Wloszczowska was the surprise package in the final World Cup of 2008, coming from behind in Schladming to take the win ahead of Irina Kalentieva in an ever-changing race.

The first split was made on the brutally steep climb on lap one where Marga Fullana and Marie Helene Premont danced away from their rivals. By lap two Fullana had distanced herself once more, but on such a short course there was never opportunity to gain a big lead and fifteen seconds was as big as it got.

Premont and Kalentieva were chasing, soon to be joined by a charging Wloszczowska, recovering valiantly from a bad start.

By lap four Premont was fading and at one stage moved as low as fifth.

Rosara Joseph – returning after an injury for the first half of 2008 – also showed great potential mixing it with the top five.

The big story now though was the battle between the Pole and the Spaniard. Both riders were duelling for the final win and in a race which was short at under one and a half hours, every second would count.

Posting the fastest lap times since lap two it was Wloszczowska who got the better of a weakening Fullana who slipped to fourth behind Kalentieva and Premont who assured herself the overall win.

Speaking after the race Wloszczowska was happy with her first ever win – which came as much as a surprise to her as it did to her rivals.

“Finally I come first!” she said.

“I was second here in 2004, but after the Olympics I did not expect to win here. I haven’t trained as much as I would have liked and that showed in the start, I did not get away well. But from then I could get faster and faster, when I saw Marga it gave me the extra power to push on and win the race, it was a great motivation.”

For Premont the race was a little too short to make an impact on the top positions, but collecting the prize for the World Cup winner went some way to making up for that.

“The track was not so technical but very fast and hard to drink on,” said Premont.

“Today it was cold and hard to breathe. My strategy was to start fast but on the third lap I could not keep up but by the last lap I came round to finish on a high.

“Winning the overall was a goal at the start of the year so it is great to accomplish that and I am very happy with how the season has unfolded.”

WOMEN'S XC FINAL RESULTS

For full results see Cyclingnews.com