Victor Koretzky shows off his rainbow jersey and wins the Short Track in Lake Placid

12 weeks after the last race, the World Cup returned and did so with Short Track at the new venue of Lake Placid. A very intense race in which Victor Koretzky won with undeniable authority.

Koretzky wins the XCC World Cup in Lake Placid

The Lake Placid track for Short Track managed to compress all the zones of an XCO circuit into laps of just a few minutes. This left us with a race as intense as it was exciting.

The newly crowned XCM World Champion, Simon Andreassen, took charge of leading the group of favorites, along with German Luca Schwarzbauer, during the first laps. But alongside them were Alan Hahterly, Nino Schurter, Victor Koretzky, Filippo Colombo, Mattias Azzaro, and Charlie Aldridge.

The nervousness in the group was palpable and a fall by Sam Gaze, in which he took down Blevins, was proof of that.

With two laps to go, no one was willing to make a move and only Schwarzbauer dropped back due to a chain slip. Everything was going to be decided in the final minutes of the race.

The bell for the final lap accelerated the front group to the maximum, but just when it seemed like everyone was at their limit, the newly crowned XCC World Champion, Victor Koretzky, launched an impossible attack that left all his rivals behind.

Koretzky crossed the finish line first with a significant lead over the rest, while behind him Simon Andreassen won a crowded sprint to take second place. Alan Hatherly closed the podium in third place.

Top 10 men's XCC Lake Placid World Cup

1. Victor Koretzky - Specialized Factory Racing - 00:22:00
2. Simon Andreassen - Cannondale Factory Racing - 00:22:02
3. Alan Hatherly - Cannondale Factory Racing - 00:22:02
4. Martins Blums - KMC Ridley MTB Racing Team - 00:22:02
5. Nino Schurter - Scott-SRAM MTB Racing Team - 00:22:05
6. Filippo Colombo - Scott-SRAM MTB Racing Team - 00:22:06
7. Martin Vidaurre Kossmann - Specialized Factory Racing - 00:22:07
8. Marcel Guerrini - Bixs Performance Race Team - 00:22:08
9. Pierre De Froidmont - Orbea Factory Team - 00:22:08
10. Knut Røhme - Cube Factory Racing - 00:22:09