Lecomte Goes Back to the Future, Dominates World Cup Leogang Again
The French star executed her game plan perfectly on the climby alpine course to win her first XCO World Cup of 2022
Anyone who’s played Madden or watched football knows that being successful in sport is as much about executing your game plan as it is about stopping your opponent from doing what they want to do.
Last season, France’s Loana Lecomte made it pretty clear what her preferred game plan is—go as hard as possible on the climbs early in the race and essentially clinch the win early on. Perhaps the best example of things going right was Lecomte’s 1:48 win over Jenny Rissveds and Laura Stigger on the rather climby track in Leogang, Austria.
In the first three rounds of the UCI XCO World Cup during her impressive run of three wins, Rebecca McConnell was reasonably successful in throwing Lecomte off her game. Lecomte was seemingly bound for a win at Petropolis before a mistake in a rock garden allowed McConnell to get back to the front and take the win. At Albstadt, McConnell took advantage of Lecomte’s bad grid position after a crash in the short track race to earn an early gap and put Lecomte on her back foot. And at Nove Mesto, McConnell just took control of the race in the opening lap and did not look back.
With the course at Leogang seemingly built for Lecomte, the young Frenchwoman had her playbook scripted for Sunday’s race. After Jolanda Neff controlled the prologue lap, Lecomte immediately went to the front at the start of the first full lap. Only Jenny Rissveds could follow her on the first big climb and the duo soon had a sizeable gap over the rest of the field. Rissveds was in the position at Albstadt, sticking McConnell’s wheel during the initial move, but she came away with a 2nd-place finish at that race.
It was in the second lap on the aptly named “Hell Climb” that Lecomte returned to her winning ways. She attacked the steep pitch right away, and Rissveds could not follow her up the Hell Climb (I just want to write Hell Climb as many times as possible, tbh). A 20-second lead grew to 38 seconds at the start of the lap’s second climb, and from there, Lecomte was gone to a dominating victory. John Madden (RIP) would be proud, if like, he watched cycling.
Home Cooking for Some, Miniature Austrian Flags for Others
One cool aspect of the Mountain Bike World Cups is the events are spread across different (mostly European) countries and not concentrated in one small country with a population of just 11.5 million (*cough cough* cyclocross). As such, a large number of the competitors get to race on home soil and target those races where they will have that home-country support. One need look no further than Christopher Blevins’ win at Snowshoe last year to see how cool AF this dynamic can be.
Similar to Lecomte, the Leogang course seemed tailor-made for Austrian wunderkind Mona Mitterwallner. Mitterwallner won her U23 race at Leogang last year by a minute over Blanka Vas, so she entered Sunday’s race with high hopes.
Those hopes were dashed in the first sweeping corner when Mitterwallner was involved in a sizeable pile-up caused by someone slipping out on the lower part of the course that turned quite dusty after rains earlier in the week. Mitterwallner’s bars got twisted, and she eventually made the decision to run to the tech zone to get things sorted out.
There really is no amazing comeback story here for Mitterwallner. She ended up finishing 15th, although she did get some Hero Cam time while riding through the Scrub Zone, so respect?
One of the big question marks for the Elite Women’s field coming into this season was where Jolanda “Sendy Poof” Neff (I am also going to keep writing Sendy Poof because it apparently amuses some of THE PEOPLE) would be at. Yes, she won the Olympics, but she also was not really a major player in the World Cups last season.
After a DNF at Petropolis and a middling 9th at Albstadt, Neff bounced back by winning the Short Track race and finishing 4th in the XCO race at Nove Mesto , suggesting good things were to come for the former World Champ and current MTB golden girl. In the first lap of Sunday’s race, it appeared Neff was truly back on form on the cross-country circuit.
Neff took control of the front in the prologue lap and ripped down the descent, earning a small gap at times. There was even a moment where Lecomte tried to stand up and accelerated around Neff, but the Olympic Champ quickly shut it down. It appeared she was ready to do her part to shut down Lecomte’s Go route to the Leogang end zone (These references are terrible, I get it, but I am committed to the bit).
After the brief prologue lap, Neff, Lecomte, and Rissveds were at the front, with McConnell home-country hopeful Laura Stigger 5 seconds back. Sina Frei chased 8 seconds and Alessandra Keller 16.
Neff kept Lecomte off the front for about 7:30 of race time, but as we have alluded to, Lecomte had a GAME PLAN, and that GAME PLAN was getting to the front. She took over the lead at the start of the first lap proper and put pressure on up a series of uphill whoops. Any chance of Neff contending for the win quickly dissipated as she provided the Platonic ideal of “dropping anchor,” while struggling with the rhythmless section.
To her credit, normal whoops—fun as hell, uphill whoops—THE WORST.
Just as she did at Albstadt, Jenny Rissveds stuck the early move, and Lecomte and Rissveds quickly had an advantage at the start of the Hell Climb (Hell Climb Count: 4). They exploited the opportunity, opening up a 27-second gap on Stigger, McConnell, and Frei at the top of the first climb. Lecomte was more than happy to do the work, and Rissveds dutifully sat on her wheel.
At the end of the first of five laps, Lecomte and Rissveds led Stigger by 41 seconds. Frei and McConnell chased a few seconds behind her. With Mittens working her way through the Scrub Zone, all eyes were now on Stigger as the hope to bring home a good result on home soil.
The Oakley Prizm Hell Climb (HCC: 5) was a comically steep incline located early in the lap shortly after the first tech/feed zone. One could say Lecomte unleashed hell on the Hell Climb (HCC: 6) at the start of Lap 2, and more or less, Rissveds was like, “I’m good, have a good ride.” Lecomte accelerated up the steep climb and earned a 20-second advantage at the time check at the top of the incline. Her lead grew to 38 seconds at the start of the looooooooooooooooooong Mercedes-Benz Greenhorn climb through literally an Austrian field. Rissveds got some time back on the descent, but she still chased 29 seconds at the end of the lap.
Stigger entered the second lap with a small advantage, and she kept it up and over the Hell Climb (HCC: 7). Of the two others in the chase, Frei was the one who was able to bridge across and join her Specialized teammate.
McConnell, meanwhile, faded back, making it apparent that her incredible run had come to a close. It is only fair to take a moment and recognize what was an absolutely legendary run of three races, and more importantly, the three weekends that established her ELITE status forever and always—until we revist the topic in like two months, of course.
Two laps into the race, Rissveds was 29 seconds back and the Frei-Stigger duo was 1:04 behind the leader. Not to be confused with Mitterwallner’s red-and-white national-champ kit, Danish vidunderbarn (don’t google it, it’s Norweigan for wunderkind, but whatevs, close enough) Caroline Bohe—age 22—joined Keller in the race for 6th.
For the final three laps of the race we could talk about time gaps and create some sense of suspense, but you probably already knew that Lecomte won. The Leogang track was relatively devoid of gnarly rock gardens and Rissveds seemed resigned to another podium finish, and thus Lecomte was able to take home her first XCO World Cup win of the season.
Rissveds took second, making it a 2-3-2 season thus far in the World Cups and establishing her as the rider who definitely deserves to win a World Cup at some point this season.
If you’re looking for the good stuff, it was definitely the battle between Stigger and Frei. The two maroon-clad riders were inseparable from literally midway through Lap 2 until the final Greenhorn Climb off the bell lap.
The Greenhorn Climb was basically the exact opposite of the Hell Climb (HCC: 8), with riders facing a long, gradual climb through a field with ski lift chairs dangling up above. Upon further reflection, the feature was a Hell Climb (HCC: 9) of its own, with riders having to ride to the far side of the course, just to have to come back again.
Anyway, midway through the last lap, both Frei and Stigger were still together in the battle for the last spot on the podium proper. They were also together for most of the loooooooooooooooooong drag up the Greenhorn Climb. But right at the end, at the steep kicker, Stigger said, “Man lebt nur einmal,” and put in a big dig. Frei did not have the legs to follow, and the Austrian finally had a small gap.
Stigger held on to capture the biggest Elite result of her XCO career since *checks notes* last year. Yeah folks, she may not get the hype, but she’s pretty good.
Also fun trivia fact, the 2022 Elite Women’s XCO top three were the exact same as they were in 2021. That one is definitely coming to a bar trivia contest near you.
Frei took 4th, and Anne Terpstra rounded out the wide-angle podium.
Bohe finished 6th and McConnell settled for 7th after her epic run. Sendy Poof had the most random day, falling all the way back to 20th after Lap 1 before rallying to finish the race in 8th.
Americans Haley Batten and Kate Courtney finished 12th and 14th, respectively. Friend of the Bulletin Jenn Jackson crashed and suffered a broken elbow—we wish her the speediest of recoveries.
Full results are below.
Also, Hell Climb (had to get to 10 … you’ve seen the movie).
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