Insatiable Nino Schurter.
At 35, the Swiss won a ninth world gold medal in cross-country mountain biking, in Val di Sole in Italy, where the Briton Evie Richards, 24, surprised in the women's race.
In the absence of Olympic mountain biking champion, Briton Thomas Pidcock, competing in the Vuelta, and Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel, injured in the back, the men's race gave rise to a duel between Nino Schurter and his younger brother and compatriot. , Mathias Flückiger (32). Frenchman Victor Koretzky (27), fifth at the Tokyo Olympics, slipped on the podium behind the Swiss duo, while his compatriot Jordan Sarrou, crowned at the Worlds last year, took only the 26th square.
On the course of Trentino, where the rain did not finally invite, the two Swiss, took control of the race from the first lap to never let them go. Flückiger tried unsuccessfully to sideline his older brother in the last of the six laps, but it was Schurter who carried the fatal attack 200m from the line and edged his compatriot in the sprint.
A few weeks after a frustrating fourth place at the Olympics, Schurter console himself in the most beautiful way with a ninth world title, two years after the last.
"It's incredible.
I felt Mathias was stronger.
We were together, it was really good.
I tried my luck by accelerating at the end.
I am really happy to be able to win a ninth time in these World Championships ”
, reacted the 2016 Olympic champion, very moved, at the microphone of Eurosport.
Flückiger still has to be content with money, as at the 2019 and 2020 Worlds and the Tokyo Olympics.
Hot comeback for Richards, Ferrand-Prévot empty-handed
In the ladies, the Briton Evie Richards thwarted the forecasts which predicted a Franco-Swiss duel.
The young runner won ahead of the Dutch Anne Terpstra and the Swiss Sina Frei, silver medalist at the Games.
Sacred in Tokyo, the other Swiss Jolanda Neff took 4th place.
After a whirlwind start, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, reigning world champion, broke down.
While she was almost 30 seconds ahead, the French suffered the impressive comeback of Evie Richards in the second round and finally took only sixth place.
Second Wednesday in the short-track, a new event at the Worlds, Richards finished third in Les Gets in the World Cup in early July, before taking seventh place at the Tokyo Games.
“I can't really believe it. I was confident, I tried my luck on the climb. It's incredible. I didn't think I could show that today, but I trained hard, ”
savored the young Richards at the Eurosport microphone, after being congratulated by Pauline Ferrand-Prévot.