The best Loana Lecomte returns to dominate the World Cup in Leogang

Double victory for Loana Lecomte at the Leogang 2022 World Cup. On Friday she won brilliantly the Short Track and today she dominated the XCO race from start to finish.

No one can come close to the best version of Loana Lecomte

With the sun shining as it had not done all week, the women's XCO race of the Leogang 2022 World Cup started. And it did it in the worst way for local rider Mona Mitterwallner, one of the favorites.

The reigning Austrian champion was involved in a crash right at the start that caused her to have to run on foot to the technical area to fix a minor breakdown.

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At the front of the peloton the movements started from the initial loop. Jenny Rissveds took the lead with a high pace but Jolanda Neff soon relieved her.

At the start of lap 1, which would be 5 laps in total, Loana Lecomte, Jenny Rissveds and Jolanda Neff were leading by 14 seconds over a larger group led by Bec McConnell.

The rain and cold that the riders suffered during the previous week in Leogang had given way to heat on the day of the race, which could be behind important physical drops, such as the collapse of Jolana Neff, from position 1 to 20 in just one lap, or the 20 seconds that fell to Jenny Rissveds in less than half a lap when she was leading with Loana Lecomte. The Frenchwoman released the Swiss without any attack, only at pace.

Lecomte achieved a double victory here in 2021 and her brilliant win on Friday in the Short Track was a warning of what we were seeing in the XCO event.

The start of lap 3 began with Lecomte first with almost half a minute ahead of Jenny Rissveds. Behind, the Specialized Factory Racing pair of Laura Stigger and Sina Frei were riding third and fourth respectively, more than a minute behind. Current World Cup leader Rebecca McConnell was not having her best day and came in fifth at 01:24 minutes back.

Lecomte was once again dominating the World XCO as she did at the start of the 2021 season and none of her rivals were able to come close to the pace that the Canyon CLLCTV rider had set since lap 2.

The last lap of the Leogang circuit was opened by Loana Lecomte with 52 seconds ahead of Jenny Rissveds, 1:35 minutes over Stigger and Frei, and 2 minutes over Anne Terpstra. The Frenchwoman's performance was impeccable.

On lap 5 Lecomte continued to gain advantage over her rivals and the most important move at the end of the race was made by Laura Stigger who accelerated to overtake her teammate, Sina Frei, and secure third place.

Loana Lecomte entered with her arms in the air to celebrate her first XCO World Cup victory of the year and confirm that she is back to her best. Jenny Rissveds was second and Austrian rider Laura Stigger came in third to the delight of the home crowd.

Results Women's XCO World Cup Leogang 2022

1. LECOMTE Loana (CANYON CLLCTV)
2. RISSVEDS Jenny (TEAM 31 IBIS CYCLES)
3. STIGGER Laura (SPECIALIZED FACTORY RACING)
4. FREI Sina (SPECIALIZED FACTORY RACING)
5. TERPSTRA Anne (GHOST FACTORY RACING)
6. BOHÉ Caroline (GHOST FACTORY RACING)
7. MCCONNELL Rebecca Ellen (PRIMAFLOR MONDRAKER GENUINS)
8. NEFF Jolanda (TREK FACTORY RACING XC)
9. GERAULT Léna (KTM VITTORIA TEAM)
10. KELLER Alessandra (THÖMUS MAXON)