Only Braidot can beat David Valero in the XCO World Cup Vallnord 2022

Spaniard David Valero takes an epic second place in the Vallnord XCO World Cup. Luca Braidot takes his second consecutive victory in a heart-stopping final lap.

Luca Braidot wins the Vallnord 2022 XCO World Cup ahead of an excellent David Valero

One of the most important movements of the race happened just 20 minutes before the start. The Swiss Mathias Fluckiger announced at the last minute that he would not compete because he was not feeling well after Friday's Short Track.

With this news started a Vallnord 2022 World Cup in which from the start, the Frenchman Victor Koretzky surprised everyone with a powerful attack that left him in the lead with 10 seconds ahead of the rest.

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Koretzky's flying start caught many of the favorites by surprise and after the first lap he was still in first place followed by Jordan Sarrou and Vlad Dascalu, 6 seconds behind.

During the early stages of the race it was confirmed that the World Champion, Nino Schurter, was not having his best feelings in Vallnord and was riding in the most delayed part of the Top 10. But there were still many laps to go and Schurter is one of those who knows how to recover.

The one who was having a great race was the Spanish David Valero who was leading, in fifth position, the chasing group behind Sarrou, Koretzky, Dascalu and Luca Braidot.

David Valero, very accustomed to the altitude due to his training in Sierra Nevada, managed to connect with the first group during lap 3 and everything pointed to the fact that he would fight for the victory.

Behind, Nino Schurter was also moving up and was already eighth with half of the race to go.

Spaniard Jofre Cullel was once again putting in a great performance and we saw him riding very solidly in 11th position.

With two and a half laps to go, David Valero took the lead of the race for the first time to impose a very high pace with which he was able to drop Jordan Sarrou on one of the hardest climbs of the circuit.

During lap 4, fatigue, altitude and heat began to cause exhaustion in some riders and Valero, Dascalu and Braidot gained a lead of about 15 seconds over Sarrou and Koretzky. Just behind, Nino Schurter and Samuel Gaze were 23 seconds off the lead.

Valero continued in first position with Dascalu and Braidot on his wheel, but Nino Schurter's pursuit was relentless and during the penultimate lap, the World Champion was already 7 seconds behind them.

With this situation, Vlad Dascalu made a strategic move in which he took the lead and brutally increased the pace. We were at the end of the penultimate lap and Dascalu's pace began to take effect stretching the leading trio and slowing the approach of Nino Schurter.

The bell for the last lap rang with Dascalu in the lead, Luca Braidot second at 11 seconds and David Valero third with the same gap. But everything was about to change.

In a heart-stopping last lap, Vlad Dascalu suffered a mechanical breakdown when he was leading. Luca Braidot took advantage of this moment to take the lead and attack David Valero. Nino Schurter remained fourth, 25 seconds behind.

Italian Luca Braidot was unstoppable in the last lap and took his second consecutive World Cup victory. David Valero was second and Nino Schurter came in third. Vlad Dascalu, the most damaged of the day, was fourth and Jordan Sarrou closed the podium.

Vallnord XCO World Cup 2022 Results - Men

1. BRAIDOT Luca (SANTA CRUZ FSA MTB PRO TEAM)
2. VALERO SERRANO David (BH TEMPLO CAFÉS UCC)
3. SCHURTER Nino (SCOTT-SRAM MTB RACING TEAM)
4. DASCALU Vlad (TREK FACTORY RACING XC)
5. SARROU Jordan (SPECIALIZED FACTORY RACING)
6. ALBIN Vital (THÖMUS MAXON)
7. CAROD Titouan (BMC MTB RACING)
8. SCHUERMANS Jens (SCOTT CREUSE OXYGENE GUERET) 
9. SCHWARZBAUER Luca (CANYON CLLCTV)
10. DUBAU Joshua (ROCKRIDER RACING TEAM)