Courtney Wins Worlds, Blevins, Van der Poel, Harnden Podium at MTB XCO Worlds

The UCI XCO mountain bike World Championships took place in Lenzerheide, Switzerland over the weekend.

The races brought results that were exciting for fans of cyclocross, American cycling, American cyclocross and English cyclocross. Phew. There’s a lot to cover.

Kate Courtney Wins Worlds

Even though Kate Courtney does not race cyclocross, we are not going to bury the lede here.

Twenty-two-year-old Kate Courtney of California turned in the ride of her young career to win the Elite Women’s World Championship on Saturday.

Courtney took the lead early in the last lap when Denmark’s Annika Langvad dismounted in a rooty, technical section. Once in front, Courtney did not look back en route to winning the first U.S. XCO world championship since six-time U.S. cyclocross national champion Alison Dunlap accomplished the feat in 2001 in Vail, Colorado.

Courtney got her start in the sport via her high school’s mountain bike team. With the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) growing in leaps and bounds in the U.S., Courtney’s win at Worlds is hopefully the harbinger of future success of the Junior developmental program in the U.S.

Langvad, who raced the U.S. cyclocross World Cups last year, finished second, and Canada’s Emily Batty, who will be at the Trek CX Cup next weekend, finished third.

Home country favorite Jolanda Neff took 4th, Elisabeth Brandau of Germany placed 8th and America’s Erin Huck, who occasionally races ’cross finished 12th.

A replay of the race is available from redbull.tv. Results are below.

Christopher Blevins Takes U23 Second

On Friday, Christopher Blevins, who won U23 Cyclocross Nationals in Reno, put his name on the Worlds map with a second-place ride in the U23 XCO race in Lenzerheide. Blevins went into the bell lap even with Alan Hatherly of South Africa before taking home a second-place finish.

We will hopefully see Blevins on the cyclocross course this fall, once he takes a little break from his long mountain bike season, of course.

Van der Poel Takes Third

Throughout the mountain bike World Cups this year, Mathieu van der Poel has been near the front of the races. Van der Poel did not win a race outright, but he still finished second overall in the World Cup standings.

On Saturday, Van der Poel capped his first full year of racing on his mountain bike with a third-place finish at Worlds. Not bad for a season that also saw him finish second at the European Road Championships and unify the Dutch National Road, Cyclocross and Mountain Bike jerseys.

Swiss legend Nino Schurter took home his record-setting sixth Worlds title in front of the home country fans. Schurter’s 6th title gives him 1 more than Frenchman Julien Absalon and 2 more than the ageless Norweigan legend Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesja, who won a World Cup earlier this year at age 45.

A replay of the race is available from redbull.tv. Results are below.

Harnden Takes Junior Bronze

Earlier this year, young English rider Harriet Harnden stole the show at U23 Worlds in Valkenburg-Limburg when she finished finishing fourth in her first World Championships at age 16.

In Lenzerheide, Harnden got the chance to race her first XCO Worlds and made the most of it with a third-place finish.

With the apparent correlation between mountain bike and cyclocross success, we feel somewhat validated in our argument that mountain biking is good for developing cyclocross bike handling skills. For more on why, you can listen to our recent interview with Ellen Noble, who was selected for the Team USA contingent in Lenzerheide.

Elite Women's Results: 2018 XCO World Championships

Rank	Last Name	First Name	Country	Result
1	COURTNEY	Kate	USA	1:34:55
2	LANGVAD	Annika	DEN	+0:47
3	BATTY	Emily	CAN	+1:58
4	NEFF	Jolanda	SUI	+2:13
5	WLOSZCZOWSKA	Maja	POL	+3:15
6	SMITH	Haley	CAN	+3:39
7	TAUBER	Anne	NED	+4:08
8	BRANDAU	Elisabeth	GER	+4:20
9	DAHLE FLESJAA	Gunn-Rita	NOR	+4:29
10	KALENTYEVA	Irina	RUS	+4:47
11	MICHIELS	Githa	BEL	+4:52
12	HUCK	Erin	USA	+5:05
13	INDERGAND	Linda	SUI	+5:13
14	PENDREL	Catharine	CAN	+5:57
15	CAMPUZANO CHAVEZ PEON	Daniela	MEX	+6:50
16	BENKÓ	Barbara	HUN	+6:55
17	SOLUS-MISKOWICZ	Katarzyna	POL	+6:56
18	ŠKARNITZLOVÁ	Jitka	CZE	+7:07
19	STRAUSS	Mariske	RSA	+7:09
20	LAST	Annie	GBR	+7:53
21	WALTER	Sandra	CAN	+7:58
22	CRNOGORAC	Jovana	SRB	+8:18
23	FORCHINI	Ramona	SUI	+8:38
24	DAVISON	Lea	USA	+8:53
25	LECHNER	Eva	ITA	+9:15
26	BRESSET	Julie	FRA	+9:48
27	ŠTĚPÁNOVÁ	Karla	CZE	+10:38
28	STIRNEMANN	Kathrin	SUI	+12:14
29	GOULAO HENRIQUE	Raiza	BRA	LAP
30	ABRIL RESTREPO	Laura Valentina	COL	LAP
31	MONTAMBAULT	Cindy	CAN	LAP
32	QUINTERO PINEDA	Yosiana Fareidy	COL	LAP
33	ENAUX	Sabrina	FRA	LAP
34	SCHAUS	Fabienne	LUX	LAP
35	LILL	Candice	RSA	LAP
36	MOURAO	Jaqueline	BRA	LAP
37	ŽAKELJ	Tanja	SLO	LAP
38	NIEUWOLD	Elyse	CAN	LAP
39	POPOVA	Iryna	UKR	LAP
40	LÕIV	Janika	EST	LAP
41	APAZA	Agustina Maria	ARG	LAP
42	FLEURY	Catherine	CAN	LAP
43	HARRIS	Holly	AUS	LAP
44	VORSTER	Michelle	NAM	LAP
45	JEŽKOVÁ	Hana	CZE	LAP
46	GOMEZ VILLAFANE	Sofia	ARG	LAP
47	GALICIA CORTINA	Claudia	ESP	LAP
48	REDECKER	Cherie	RSA	LAP
49	PARTOAZAR	Faranak	IRI	LAP
50	TERENTYEVA	Olga	RUS	LAP
51	KESEG STEVKOVA	Janka	SVK	LAP
52	SMITH	Imogen	AUS	LAP
53	MUÑOZ JARAMILLO	Evelyn Denisse	CHI	LAP
54	SILAPAT	Kittika	THA	LAP
55	RILEY	Sarah	AUS	LAP
56	CASTRO GONZALEZ	Maria Fernanda	CHI	LAP
57	WARAPIANG	Siriluck	THA	LAP
58	AKINYI	Nancy	KEN	LAP
DNF	PODGORSKA	Aleksandra	POL
DNF	FERRAND PREVOT	Pauline	FRA
DNF	WALDIS	Andrea	SUI
DNF	MORATH	Adelheid	GER
DNF	TERPSTRA	Anne	NED
DNF	OSL	Elisabeth	AUT

Elite Men's Results: 2018 XCO World Championships

Rank	Last Name	First Name	Country	Result
1	SCHURTER	Nino	SUI	1:29:21
2	KERSCHBAUMER	Gerhard	ITA	+0:11
3	VAN DER POEL	Mathieu	NED	+1:14
4	AVANCINI	Henrique	BRA	+1:53
5	VOGEL	Florian	SUI	+1:54
6	FLUECKIGER	Mathias	SUI	+2:00
7	CAROD	Titouan	FRA	+2:16
8	SARROU	Jordan	FRA	+2:38
9	BRAIDOT	Daniele	ITA	+2:45
10	LITSCHER	Thomas	SUI	+3:04
11	TEMPIER	Stephane	FRA	+3:36
12	BRAIDOT	Luca	ITA	+3:44
13	FRISCHKNECHT	Andri	SUI	+3:47
14	MAROTTE	Maxime	FRA	+4:02
15	GROTTS	Howard	USA	+4:24
16	CINK	Ondrej	CZE	+4:25
17	SCHUERMANS	Jens	BEL	+4:30
18	COLOMA NICOLAS	Carlos	ESP	+4:30
19	PANHUYZEN	Kevin	BEL	+4:31
20	ŠKARNITZL	Jan	CZE	+4:31
21	KORETZKY	Victor	FRA	+4:47
22	MARKT	Karl	AUT	+4:48
23	FOIDL	Maximilian	AUT	+4:50
24	RAGGL	Gregor	AUT	+4:52
25	SINTSOV	Anton	RUS	+4:53
26	BOUCHARD	Leandre	CAN	+4:53
27	SOTO	Catriel	ARG	+5:12
28	BERTOLINI	Gioele	ITA	+5:19
29	INDERGAND	Reto	SUI	+5:23
30	ZWIEHOFF	Ben	GER	+5:33
31	COOPER	Anton	NZL	+5:51
32	MANTECON GUTIERREZ	Sergio	ESP	+6:06
33	EGGER	Georg	GER	+6:15
34	TIBERI	Andrea	ITA	+6:16
35	LOO	Martin	EST	+6:29
36	FORSTER	Lars	SUI	+6:41
37	HERRERA ARROYO	Carlos	CRC	+6:51
38	PARTI	András	HUN	+6:59
39	ROHRBACH	Nicola	SUI	+7:16
40	WAWAK	Bartlomiej	POL	+7:24
41	DRECHOU	Hugo	FRA	+7:34
42	GOTARDELO MULLER	Guilherme	BRA	+7:36
43	KONWA	Marek	POL	+7:37
44	KULHAVÝ	Jaroslav	CZE	+7:37
45	BLUMS	Martins	LAT	+7:47
46	VROUWENVELDER	Luke	USA	+7:47
47	SWENSON	Keegan	USA	+7:48
48	GAGNE	Raphael	CAN	+7:56
49	DISERA	Peter	CAN	+7:56
50	YAMAMOTO	Kohei	JPN	+7:57
51	VALERO SERRANO	David	ESP	+8:35
52	FUMIC	Manuel	GER	+8:47
53	GLUTH	Martin	GER	+9:08
54	COLLEDANI	Nadir	ITA	+9:42
55	FONTANA	Marco Aurelio	ITA	+10:17
56	HAIMY	Shlomi	ISR	LAP
57	CASTAÑEDA MONSALVE	Fabio Hernando	COL	LAP
58	FERGUSON	Grant	GBR	LAP
59	IVANOV	Timofei	RUS	LAP
60	L'ESPERANCE	Andrew	CAN	LAP
61	COCUZZI	Luiz Henrique	BRA	LAP
62	BOTERO VILLEGAS	Jhonatan	COL	LAP
63	MCCONNELL	Daniel	AUS	LAP
64	WENGELIN	Matthias	SWE	LAP
65	SESSLER	Guy	ISR	LAP
66	MONROY	Juan Fernando	COL	LAP
67	OLSSON	Michael	SWE	LAP
68	SELEDKOV	Ivan	RUS	LAP
69	MIRANDA MALDONADO	Sebastian Alejandro	CHI	LAP
70	MACIAS	Jorge Alvaro	ARG	LAP
71	COSTA	Mário	POR	LAP
72	HARING	Martin	SVK	LAP
73	JAYNE	Sebastian	AUS	LAP
74	CARSTENSEN	Sebastian Fini	DEN	LAP
75	GASCO	Dario	ARG	LAP
76	LOGIGAN	Lucian	ROU	LAP
77	FARIAS DIAZ	Patricio Maximiliano	CHI	LAP
78	MARQUES DE ALMEIDA	Jose Gabriel	BRA	LAP
79	HIRANO	Seiya	JPN	LAP
80	ASTUDILLO GALLARDO	Eyair Francisco	CHI	LAP
81	DROBISCH	Till	NAM	LAP
82	SUKPRASART	Keerati	THA	LAP
83	MCKEE	Gareth	IRL	LAP
84	CHAWCHIANGKWANG	Peerapol	THA	LAP
DNF	VASTL	Jan	CZE
DNF	PETERSONS	Arnis	LAT
DNF	KAZANTSEV	Kirill	KAZ
DNF	OMARSSON	Ingvar	ISL