Becca McConnell Continues to Roll with Weekend Sweep at World Cup Albstadt
Does a big win give an athlete confidence for the rest of the season? Sure seems like it after the Elite Women's XCO World Cup in Germany
In our interview with BWR winner Alexey Vermeulen, he said the following when asked about what the win meant for his season, “I will 100% put weight in confidence from winning a race carrying on and helping make a season go well.”
This weekend at the Albstadt XCO World Cup in Germany, the Elite Women’s race provided a perfect opportunity to test if Vermeulen’s theory is true.
No one had a better weekend at the first World Cup down in Brazil than Australia’s Rebecca McConnell. After years on the scene and plenty of World Cup podiums, McConnell broke through and took her first-career Elite World Cup XCO win. Heading into the race at Albstadt, she would now be a marked woman, but she also had a victory’s worth of confidence at her back.
The weekend was also notable in the Elite Women’s field because, well, there was a full Elite Women’s field. Jolanda Neff and Evie Richards were both struck down by illness in the Southern Hemisphere and Sweden’s Jenny Rissveds was on the start line after skipping the early-season trip.
This year, a win in the XCC Short Track race counts for about 1/3 the points of an XCO win, so after McConnell took control in the last lap and held off Petropolis XCC winner Pauline Ferrand-Prevot, it’s perhaps safe to say that the statement about confidence carrying on is 1/3 true(?)
McConnell’s win on Friday set the stage for Sunday’s XCO showdown on the classic track in Germany.
Two Rise to the Top
After rain earlier in the week, the sun came out in Germany, and the track dried up nicely, making for fast racing on Sunday. The Bikepark Albstadt venue is set in southern Germany near the Alps, and the course features two climbs per lap, including the Shimano Dual Climb section that—spoiler alert—played a huge role in both Elite races on Sunday.
After missing the race in Petropolis, Jolanda Neff was back on the front row after Friday’s Short-Track race, and she wasted little time getting to the front by taking the holeshot. Buoyed by confidence, feeling good, or a combination of both, McConnell then wasted little time going to the front to lead the charge up the first climb in a way Loana Lecomte has become accustomed to doing.
Lecomte crashed out of Friday’s Short Track race, so she was shaking off the effects and relegated to a 4th-row start. She got near the front soon enough, but having to work her way through the field provided McConnell an opportunity to stretch things early on.
Laura Stigger of Switzerland, who finished 4th in Petropolis crashed early on, setting her back, and Austrian wunderkind Mona Mitterwallner, who finished 5th in Brazil, got off to a back start and was well back in the 30s. Both riders had big gaps to close from early in the race if they wanted to repeat their podium performances.
The prologue lap featured two abbreviated climbs, but that didn’t stop McConnell and Jenny Rissveds from trading turns to open up a small gap on the field. McConnell took the lead on the 2nd short climb and absolutely railed the descent to open up a small gap on a more tentative Rissveds.
After the short prologue, McConnell had a 6-second lead on Rissveds and Anne Terpstra. Neff and Lecomte were 15 seconds back, and Ferrand-Prevot, Blanka Vas, and Alessandra Keller were 19 seconds back.
“I knew I was getting a little gap on the descent, and I knew Jenny didn’t want to do any work on the start/finish straight, so tried to get a little bit of a gap so we were both working equally hard,” McConnell said about her strength on the descents.
One would have not forgiven McConnell for letting up after her blistering opening salvo, but no no no, much like how Lecomte forced the issue in Brazil early on, McConnell did the same on Sunday. The only rider to respond to her challenge was the 2016 Olympic Champion, Rissveds.
The Swede moved into a solo 2nd on the first climb, with Terpstra dropping back to a large group of 9 riders that was already chasing a 30-second gap behind McConnell at the top of the first climb. The situation for Rissveds was a super similar role reversal compared to what McConnell faced in Petropolis, as Rissveds chased 9 seconds behind McConnell.
McConnell did finally let off the gas a bit on the second climb, and Rissveds was able to bridge and make contact. It was, however, mission accomplished, as the Australian World Cup overall leader put the hurt on the field and whittled the lead group down to two after just one lap.
Meanwhile, in the chase, Lecomte, Ferrand-Prevot, and Keller were those who remained to chase for 3rd, 46 seconds back. Mitterwallner overcame her slow start and was a mere 4 seconds behind the chase crossing the line before joining up early in Lap 2.
Lecomte v. Mittens, Finally
Last year, Mitterwallner was busy dominating the U23 category while Lecomte was rolling the Elite World Cups. Needless to say, mountain bike fans were awaiting a showdown between the two. The coveted tete-a-tete was slated to occur in the U23 race at Worlds, but Lecomte missed the race and Mitterwallner won in her absence.
Sometimes you take what you can get, and at Albstadt, we finally got a duel between the French wunderkind and the Austrian wunderkind, albeit for 3rd. And with Keller and Ferrand-Prevot in the mix as well.
After letting Ferrand-Prevot set the pace, Mitterwallner made a move to the front at the top of the first climb in Lap 2. Lecomte then took over the front partway through the descent. Mitterwallner again countered to re-retake the lead. Ferrand-Prevot was hanging on through all this, while the upstart Keller was dangling on and off at the back of the group of four.
Meanwhile, at the front, McConnell continued to push the pace on the descents, and she opened up a small gap after the second descent before Rissveds closed it down. Two laps out of five down, the two leaders led the chase by 37 seconds. Staying away was not a done deal for McConnell and Rissveds, as the sparring between the two young stars took 10 seconds off the lead.
After largely letting McConnell do the work in the first two laps, Rissveds finally put her nose into the alpine wind early in Lap 3. She took the lead before the first big climb and led the ascent to the top. McConnell obliged before choosing to do the same on the second climb. With two laps to go, the duo was still at parity.
Back in the chase, Mitterwallner made an attack in the grassy section at the bottom of the mountain at the start of the lap and got a gap. She kept that gap on the first climb, and Lecomte had to put in work to bridge across. Keller dangled close by, while Ferrand-Prevot popped and dropped well off the pace.
Although the story of the chase has been about the two young megastars, Switzerland’s Keller—only 26 herself—was not about to go lightly. After scouting out the youngsters on the descents in the first half of the race, she went to the front before the second descent and exited with a decent lead on the other two. She crossed the line for two-to-go with a 5-second lead on Lecomte and Mitterwallner.
Meanwhile, the leaders’ gap stayed at 36 seconds. Any thoughts of the two young guns bringing back the two leaders were quickly fading.
Making Moves
The Shimano Dual Climb section is one of those A-line, B-line features that is more of a choose-your-own-adventure type thing. Going from right to left on the face of the mountain, the line to the right is steeper and shorter, while the line to the left is flatter and longer. Get out of the saddle and punch it quickly, or stay seated and spin through the section.
Each lap prior to Lap 4, McConnell opted for the steep high line and Rissveds took the flat low line.
In that penultimate lap, Rissveds led up the first climb and led into the Dual Climb section. Fatigued or a bit asleep at the wheel, Rissveds pedaled through the section like the two riders were vying to stay together into the bell lap.
McConnell, however, had other ideas.
The Aussie attacked the high line, accelerating up the steep entrance and then staying on the gas out of the hard-right exit. She had a multiple-bike-length lead, and then did what a rider brimming with confidence does when she sees an opportunity—she kept attacking.
Rissveds scrambled to recover to McConnell’s wheel, but the World Cup overall leader was on a mission. With the steepest part of the climb left to go, McConnell got out of the saddle and powered to the top. When she hit the top, her gap on Rissveds was already up to 9 seconds.
Earlier in the race, McConnell put pressure on Rissveds on the descents. The race leader was still seemingly riding within herself, while the Swede was well past her limit. That meant McConnell was able to press her advantage, extending her lead up to 23 seconds at the base of the second climb. Her advantage would grow to 38 seconds at the bell.
“Jenny and I have very different strengths. She can kind of play games more, but I need that more consistent speed throughout the race,” McConnell said. “I knew she was playing with me, and so I just tried to be patient. I thought, ‘Okay, now I need to give it a shot,’ and when I made that move, I was able to make it stick.”
There would be no Anything Can Happen this Sunday. McConnell was perfect in the last lap en route to a weekend sweep and her second-career World Cup win.
Does a little confidence from getting a big win carry forward? The evidence from Albstadt suggests that yes, yes it does.
“It’s just incredible,” McConnell said about the win. “This time I had a little bit of time to think about what was going on, but I had to remind myself to focus on what I was doing. There’s no words for this. The plan for today was to enjoy literally every moment. Enjoy my spin in the morning with the team, enjoy warming up. Enjoy the race, whether it went really well or really bad. Enjoy this moment wearing the leader’s jersey and having number one on the bike.”
With Rissveds hurting and Mitterwallner coming into her own as the race progressed, Rissveds’ shot at 2nd appeared to be in serious jeopardy entering the bell lap. She was 38 seconds behind McConnell and 27 seconds ahead of Mitterwallner. Mitterwallner was still riding near Lecomte at the bell, but she had begun to open up a bit of a gap.
When Mitterwallner put in a dig through the grassy section at the beginning of the lap, it was clear the much-desired wunderkind showdown was going to be a point to the Austrian on this afternoon.
Not surprisingly given her climbing prowess, Mitterwallner put a serious move into Rissveds on the first big climb. At the top, a 27-second gap was down to just 12 seconds. With two descents and a climb left to go, there was still plenty of time for 2nd place to change hands.
Second-place, however, did not change hands. Rissveds extended her gap on Mitterwallner out to 19 seconds at the start of the second climb and held on from there to take 2nd.
Mitterwallner landed on her first Elite podium proper with a 3rd-place finish. Lecomte took 4th, and Keller completed an impressive ride to talk 5th.
Results are below. Next up is Nove Mesto this coming weekend.