This article was originally published on Cyclingnews.com.
In the final round of the UCI cross country World Cup in Val d'Isere, France, Nino Schurter (Scott-Swisspower) earned his fourth win of the season, as many riders put the final touches on their form for the Olympic Games coming up in two weeks. Schurter took his second World Cup series title with his victory.
Schurter, who skipped the previous round in Windham, New York, for Olympic preparation, showed that his form is better than ever by leading the men's race from start to finish. The newly titled national Swiss champion rocketed off the front of the field on the first lap, opening up a gap on a chase group containing teammate Florian Vogel, Marco Fontana (Cannondale), Ralf Naef (Multivan-Merida), Sergio Gutierrez (Wildwolf-Trek), Windham winner Burry Stander (Specialized) and Julien Absalon (Orbea).
Vogel and Fontana steadily began to gain ground on Schurter, while the others fell back, with Absalon struggling in particular in the muddy conditions, eventually pulling into the pit to change tires and then abandoning.
Fontana and Vogel bridged up to Schurter by mid-race, but Vogel was gapped after crashing and never regained the leaders. Lukas Flückiger (Trek World Racing) moved forward into third and Fontana's teammate Manuel Fumic into fourth as others faded from the intense pace. On the final lap, Schurter attacked again to solo in for victory, while Flückiger caught the fading Fontana for second.
"My tactic today was to start really fast," said Schurter, "Because Burry always has problems at the beginning of the race when it's really fast, as does Absalon. So I decided to start very fast and that strategy was quite good. Neither Burry nor Absalon were in the leading group after the first lap. It was a perfect race for me. With Marco (Fontana) and Flo (Florian Vogel) together, we were a strong group in the lead."
"It is awesome for me to win the World Cup in an Olympic year," said Schurter. " It gives me a good feeling now for the upcoming Olympic Games. It was not my biggest target to win the World Cup, but now I am super happy; it is a bit of a surprise for me."
Schurter finishes the season with 1200 points to Stander's 1058, with defending champion Jaroslav Kulhavy (Specialized) third at 865 points.
Looking ahead to the Olympic race in two weeks, for which Schurter is the obvious favorite by virtue of recent race performances, he said, "The Olympics will be different than here. It was a hard race here because of the altitude. The Olympics will be a much faster race, and I hope I can perform as well as here."
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