Nikoline Splittorff DEN, current World Cup leader and last year’s Middle Distance champion, and Vojtech Ludvik CZE, silver medallist 2 days ago, were today’s winners at the end of a gruelling Long Distance race with winning times just under 2 hours.
Last year’s Long Distance champion Emily Benham Kvåle GBR was determined to retain the women’s title and started strongly, setting up a 0.38 lead after 2.5 km of the 32.9 km course. This had changed to being 0.41 down to Splittorff after 8.5 km., and although she pulled this back to only 25 seconds at one point, she was unable to make up more and finished 0.58 down to take her second silver medal of the championships. Bronze went to the Lithuanian Gabriele Andrasiuniene, who was 3.38 down on the lead after 2.5 km, in 22ndplace, but pulled up well through the rest of the course whilst others made mistakes, poor route choices or simply became tired, to finish 3.05 down.
In the men’s race we saw a master class from Vojtech Ludvik who had the fastest time throughout, ending 2.04 ahead of Simon Hellmüller SUI, whose best result this is in international MTBO. Vojtech Stransky CZE, disqualified in the Sprint, was 10thafter 3.7 km and then quickly pulled up to third, finishing 3.55 down on the winner.
Vojtech Ludvik on his way to victory Photo: presskit-long-cz
家国家Czechia结束,四个讲台解放军ces in the senior races, plus a women’s Junior champion – Sofie Stranska, who won by 19 seconds short of 5 minutes. Here, silver and gold went to Gertrud Riis Madsen and Tilda Palm, Denmark and Sweden respectively. Finland’s Eemil Koskinen won the Junior men’s race by just 5 seconds; the Austrian Hannes Hnilica can, for sure, easily find the 6 seconds that deprived him of victory. Flurin Schnyder SUI, silver medallist in Sprint, was bronze medallist today.
Competitors encountered many different types of terrain Photo: Haza Svoboda
Tomorrow the Middle Distance race takes place, where the defending champions are Nikoline Splittorff and Krystof Bogar – two riders who have already featured prominently this year. Follow all the action on IOF Live! Racing starts at 09.30 CEST.
CX 80 WMTBOC Long Distance – leading results
Women, 32.9 km
- Nikoline Splittorff DEN 1:54:19
- Emily Benham Kvåle GBR 1:55:17
- Gabriele Andrasiuniene LTU 1:57:24
- Kaarina Nurminen FIN 1:58:49
- Ingrid Stengård FIN 2:00:44
- Martina Tichovska CZE 2:01:18
Men, 38.5 km
- Vojtech Ludvik CZE 1:53:16
- Simon Hellmüller SUI 1:55:20
- Vojtech Stransky CZE 1:57:11
- Krystof Bogar CZE 1:59:03
- Morten Örnhagen DEN 1:59:26
- Andreas Waldmann AUT 1:59:36
Junior Women (W20), 21.8 km
- Sofie Stranska CZE 1:20:58
- Gertrud Riis Madsen DEN 1:25:39
- Tilda Palm SWE 1:27:32
Junior Men (M20), 28.9 km
- Eemil Koskinen FIN 1:31:57
- Hannes Hnilica AUT 1:32:02
- Flurin Schnyder SUI 1:36:03