With four individual races and a relay at CX80 WMTBOC in Czechia last week, we got a lot closer to crown the 2023 CX80 MTBO World Cup champions.
This year’s World Cup will be decided in Trentino, Italy in four weeks, where two individual races and a mixed relay serves as the World Cup final and the U23 World MTBO Championships.
Dane Nikoline Splittorff had a series of great performances in Czechia and increased her lead in the overall World Cup standings. She won the long distance, took silver in the middle race before finishing third in the mass start on Friday.
That brings her up to a total of 497 points – 121 points ahead of just crowned sprint and relay world champion Kaarina Nurminen (FIN) in second position.
Emily Benham Kvåle (GBR) won the mass start in Czechia and had three silver medals on top of that, which puts her in third position with 340 points. But the Briton announced her retirement from international MTBO racing in Czechia.
Behind her are Gabriele Andrasiuniene (LTU) 314 points, Martina Tichovska (CZE) 250 points and Veronika Kubinova (CZE) 238 points.
Czech dominance in men’s
The lead is much narrower in the men’s class, where defending World Cup champion Krystof Bogar (CZE) has 442 points after his two golds on home ground in sprint and middle.
Compatriot Vojtech Ludvik won the long and mass start last week and is just 13 points behind Bogar.
And it is a pure Czech top 3 in the World Cup standings as Vojtech Stransky holds third place with 311 points.
Andre Haga (FIN) has 249 points, Simon Hellmüller (SUI) is just one point behind in fifth place while another Finn, Samuel Pokala is in sixth position with 236 points.
The seven best scores from the nine individual World Cup races are counted in the overall standings.
Finland still leads Team competition
Finland held on to the lead in the Team World Cup in Czechia. After the win in the women’s relay and fifth place in the men’s race, Finland has a total of 51 points.
Czechia is five points behind in second spot and Switzerland is third, three points further down.
Find all the CX80 World Cup standings here.
Photo: Honza Svoboda – WMTBOC 2023