Lars Forster and Jolanda Neff win a top-level XCO race in Andora

If a week ago they met in Banyoles, this time the elite of the World XCO gathered in the Italian town of Andora to compete in the first round of the Italian International Series. The two rainbow jerseys, Pauline Ferrand Prevot and Jordan Sarrou took the start in a very disputed and high level race that was won by Jolanda Neff in women and Lars Forster in men.

Jolanda Neff wins with authority in Andora

Like last week, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot took the lead on the first lap, but she had already warned that she was not yet ready to race and it was only a matter of time before she lost her place at the front. In the first few laps it was Switzerland's Sina Frei who was responsible for raising the pace and opened up a significant gap between the top 5 and the rest of the riders.

But Jolanda Neff was the real star of the day and after making one of her classic comebacks to take the lead, she decided to keep pulling to achieve a good advantage on lap four. Martina Berta of the Santa Cruz team was 40" behind in second place and third was Anne Terpstra at 45".

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While Jolanda was firmly on her way to victory, there was still time for a big surprise behind her. Junior World Champion Mona Mitterwalner managed to climb up to the podium, while Sina Frei fell off the podium due to a flat tyre. 

Finally Jolanda Neff took the victory with a lead of more than half a minute over Mitterwalner, second, and 42" over Anne Terpstra, third.

With this first place and after Neff's great performance in Banyoles, the Swiss seems to be showing that she is back to her best and that the serious injury of 2019 and the bad last season are now forgotten.

1. Jolanda Neff - Trek Factory Racing 1:14:41
2. Mona Mitterwallner - Team Trek Vaude 1:15:18
3. Anne Terpstra - Ghost Factory Racing 1:15:24
4. Sina Frei - Specialized Factory Racing 1:15:37
5. Martina Berta - Santa CRuz FSA 1:15:42

Lars Forster starts with a high-level victory in Andora

With the absence of the Cannondale Factory Racing riders and the arrival of Scott SRAM without Schurter, the race in Andora started with a World Cup line up.

On the first lap KMC Orbea with Koretzky, Milan Vader and Thomas Litscher wanted to take the lead of the race, but the leading group was still large and also included Braidot and Marotte of the Santa Cruz team, Jordan Sarrou, Filippo Colombo and Vlad Dascalu. A start that was very similar to the one experienced 7 days earlier in Banyoles and that promised another intense race.

After several attacks only one of them on lap four managed to form a leading group with a several second advantage over the rest. It included Maxime Marotte, Victor Koretzky, Gerhard Kerschbaumer, Milan Vader, Filippo Colombo, Lars Forster and Vlad Dascalu. But Scott SRAM's Swiss rider Forster seemed to have a plan from the start of the race and he executed it on the last lap when he made a hard attack and broke away from them all.

Lars Forster reached the finish line first with more than 10" of advantage over Victor Koretzky and Milan Vader who close the podium. In another great finish by the Spaniard David Valero, the BH Templo Cafés rider managed to come in fourth ahead of the Italian Kerschbaumer.

1. Lars Forster - Scott SRAM MTB Racing 1:28:39
2. Victor Koretzky - KMC Orbea +10:75"
3. Milan Vader - KMC Orbea +13:80"
4. David Valero Serrano - BH Templo Cafés +14:30
5. Gerhard Kerschbaumer - Specialized Factory Racing +15:20