Koretzky Doubles Up At Lake Placid As Stigger Claims XCO UCI MTB World Series Win

Frenchman boosts title hopes with superb weekend at penultimate stop as Keller wraps up women's XCC title.

Victor Koretzky doubled up at Lake Placid with back-to-back XCC and XCO victories at the penultimate UCI Mountain Bike World Series stop as Alessandra Keller secured the XCC title and Austrian Laura Stigger won the women's XCO race on Sunday. Here is all you need to know:

- In the women's XCC race, Swiss rider Sina Frei edged out Swede Jenny Rissveds and new XCC world champion Evie Richards by just three and four seconds respectively to claim the win, the 110 points that Swiss Keller banked in eighth seeing her crowned XCC World Series champion.

- In the men's XCC race, Frenchman Koretzky continued his excellent season with a two-second victory over the trio of Dane Simon Andreassen, South African Alan Hatherly and Latvian Mārtiņš Blūms - a result that means the title race goes to the last stop with Kiwi Sam Gaze and Hatherly still able to catch new XCC world champion Koretzy who leads by 154 points from Gaze and 170 from Hatherly.

- At Sunday's XCO women's race, Stigger fended off Frei in a sprint finish to win with France's Loana Lecomte in third place after edging out South African Candice Lill four seconds back. Keller's ninth place and 100 points was not quite enough to see her clinch the XCO title for the second time.

- Lill featured at the front for most of the race with Stigger looking like she was spent on the penultimate lap, however she dug deep with Frei to bridge the gap to Lill and Lecomte then just got the edge on her team-mate on the final lap to win as the French rider came in third.

- Stigger, 24, said: "It's amazing. Racing here in America must be a lucky place for me. I tried to give it all from the feed zone until the end, I saw tactics from Sina from yesterday and thought I needed to try the same. Sina and I are such good friends. It's amazing to have such a teammate."

- The men's race was even tighter with just seven seconds separating winner Koretzky, who doubled up over the weekend by outsprinting Hatherly plus Swiss duo Filippo Colombo and Marcel Guerrini with Switzerland's Mathias Flückiger, American Christopher Blevins and Italian Luca Braidot also just behind. The result sees Hatherly's XCO title lead cut to 259 points to Koretzky with Colombo 293 behind.

- An early crash involving Chilean Martín Vidaurre nearly took out Koretzky, then Hatherly got a rear flat tyre in the middle of lap four with nine riders still in contention at the beginning of the final lap as Koretzky found something in his legs to sprint past the field for the victory.

- Koretzky, 30, said: "The last time I did the double was in Les Gets one year ago, so it's amazing. It was almost impossible to know who was the strongest. I rode super patient all race because it was super-fast and on the wheel it was a bit more easier, but I couldn't ride on the front."

- The last 2024 UCI Mountain Bike World Series stop at Mont-Sainte-Anne in Canada next weekend will see DH, XCC and XCO action.