Historic victory for David Valero in the Snowshoe 2022 XCO World Cup

David Valero makes history in the Snowshoe XCO World Cup. In terrible conditions of mud, rain and fog Valero gets the first Spanish victory in the XCO World Cup since 2010.

David Valero takes victory in the Snowshoe 2022 XCO World Cup

The course conditions had become very tricky for the start of the men's XCO race at Snowshoe. With constant rain the race started without Nino Schurter after his hard crash on Friday.

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Frenchman Titouan Carod took the lead from the start with the risky task of being the first to test the circuit after the women's race and the heavy rain that flooded the track.

During the first lap, out of a total of 8, a large lead group of 10 riders was formed with Alan Hatherly and Cris Blevins in the lead group.

American Belvins won Friday's Short Track and took the win here last year, so he was one of the clear favorites and was not failing, much to the delight of the home crowd who were still resisting the rain.

At the start of lap 4, Blevins was already leading the race alone after a crash by Alan Hatherly when both were at the front of the race.

Italian Luca Braidot led the chasing group that was less than 10 seconds behind Blevins.

For his part, the Spaniard David Valero was already in the Top 10, less than 1 minute behind the leader. After a bad start, he was making the umpteenth comeback of the year.

During lap 4, Blevins suffered a flat tire just when Braidot and Titouan Carod had reached him to share the lead of the race. So the Italian Braidot was once again in the lead of the World Cup.

David Valero's comeback was spectacular and at the end of lap 6, the BH Templo Cafés rider was already in fifth place, 27 seconds behind the leaders.

Christopher Blevins was able to recover after a quick repair of the flat tire and before the end of lap 6, the American was back in the lead together with Braidot and Carod.

With one and a half laps to go, David Valero made contact with the first group and for yet another week was dreaming of his first World Cup victory.

The bell rang for the last lap just as the first group was joined by Luca Schwarbauer and Filippo Colombo.

But the final tension caused Colombo to suffer a crash on the finishing straight and shortly after it was David Valero who had to put his foot down just before a climb.

The race was very nervous and Blevins took advantage of the mistakes of his rivals to launch a hard attack with which he opened a small advantage but could not get away.

Everything was going to be decided in the last meters and anything could happen as the circuit was so muddy.

David Valero, Titouan Carod and Blevins were playing for the victory and it was the Spaniard who attacked and managed to pull away from the rest.

David Valero arrived first to the finish line to get his first victory in the XCO World Cup. And the first for Spain, 12 years later.

Titouan Carod was second, Luca Braidot third, Blevins fourth and Filippo Colombo closed the podium.

Results Men's XCO Snowshoe 2022 World Cup

1. VALERO SERRANO David (BH TEMPLO CAFÉS UCC) 
2. CAROD Titouan (BMC MTB RACING) 
3. BRAIDOT Luca (SANTA CRUZ FSA MTB PRO TEAM)
4. BLEVINS Christopher (SPECIALIZED FACTORY RACING)
5. COLOMBO Filippo (BMC MTB RACING) 
6. SCHWARZBAUER Luca (CANYON CLLCTV) 
7. FORSTER Lars (SCOTT-SRAM MTB RACING TEAM) 
8. HATHERLY Alan (CANNONDALE FACTORY RACING)
9. PHILIPP Antoine (GIANT FACTORY OFF - ROAD TEAM) 
10. DE FROIDMONT Pierre (KMC - ORBEA)