At the first World Cup of the season in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, I had a good and a bad day. While I achieved a strong fourth place in the short track, I didn’t perform as well as I would have liked in the cross-country competition today. I placed seventh, below my expectations.
Let’s start with the good part, the Short Track on Friday. The track doesn’t really suit my abilities and yet I was able to deliver a great race. It was very intense and I was able to stay in front all the time. In the final sprint only Pidcock, Gaze and Schwarzbauer were faster than me. Never before I was so far in front in Nove Mesto in the Short Track.
I definitely had better races this year
I started the XCO race very confident. The start was perfect and I was in the leading group. But the longer the race lasted, the less I was doing well. I lacked a bit of punch and I really didn’t ride well technically. I was even on the ground a few times. I’ve definitely had better races this year. There are no excuses, I was technically not up to par and there were just a few riders better.
It was not my day. But I’m already looking ahead because I know I’m in a great shape.
Great team performance
Nevertheless, there was one big highlight. Because Lars (8th) and Vital (11th) showed strong performances, we won the team ranking. With this we wrote team history with Thömus maxon. For the first time we could win this award in the men’s category.
