Titouan Carod wins his first World Cup in Canada with a great performance, Valero on the podium again

After leading the race from start to finish, Titouan Carod took his first World Cup victory at the Mont-Sainte-Anne 2022 event.

Titouan Carod wins the XCO World Cup of Mont-Sainte-Anne 2022. David Valero gets back to the podium

The rain gave truce and after the women's race, the men's race started without water but with a wet track. In addition, minutes before the start, the absence of one of the main favorites for the podium was confirmed. The Romanian Vlad Dascalu decided not to participate as he was not yet recovered from the crash suffered in Snowshoe.

With these last-minute details, the race was led by the BMC MTB Racing team with Frenchman Titouan Carod and Swiss Filippo Colombo at the front of the group.

The one who was there was the Swiss Nino Schurter, who after his accident a week ago came to Canada in search of his 34th victory, but the truth is that he started very far behind and on lap 1 he was riding in 15th position, behind the Spanish David Valero, almost 50 seconds behind the first riders.

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The recent champion of France, Titouan Carod managed to go solo first before the end of lap 1, and by lap 3 he was almost 1 minute ahead of the first chasing group, formed by Pierre de Froidmont, Filippo Colombo, Alan Hatherly, Sebastian Fini, Luca Braidot and Gerardo Ulloa.

Very close to this group, just 10 seconds behind, were Nino Schurter and David Valero, who were in the middle of a comeback, eighth and ninth respectively.

Lap 4, of a total of 6, started with Titouan Carod very solidly in the lead while behind the chasing groups were closing in on each other.

During lap 4, the chasing groups came together, but Filippo Colombo, who was in second place, had time to attack and jump out of the group and ride alone towards the lead of the race led by his teammate Carod. Third was Luca Braidot, closely followed by Nino Schurter and David Valero. The fight for the podium was completely unleashed.

The penultimate lap began with Nino Schurter chasing down second-placed Filippo Colombo and leading a group that also included David Valero and Pierre de Froidmont. Titouan Carod was still first and had increased his lead to over a minute and a half.

Titouan Carod's performance was historic and he started the last lap with a lead of more than 2 minutes over his first pursuers.

The fight for the podium was more heated than ever and David Valero attacked at the start of the last lap to move up to second position. A position that took turns between the rider from Granada and the Swiss Filippo Colombo throughout the lap. Behind them, Schurter suffered a crash and fell further back with Pierre de Froidmont.

After leading the entire race, Frenchman Titouan Carod arrived at the finish line as the winner of the Mont-Sainte-Anne 2022 XCO World Cup. This was the first Elite World Cup victory of his career. 

Filippo Colombo finally took second place after a final attack that saw David Valero, who came in third, back on the podium. 

1. CAROD Titouan (BMC MTB RACING) 
2. COLOMBO Filippo (BMC MTB RACING)
3. VALERO SERRANO David (BH TEMPLO CAFÉS UCC)
4. BRAIDOT Luca (SANTA CRUZ FSA MTB PRO TEAM)
5. DE FROIDMONT Pierre (KMC - ORBEA)
6. SCHURTER Nino (SCOTT-SRAM MTB RACING TEAM)
7. MAROTTE Maxime (SANTA CRUZ FSA MTB PRO TEAM)
8. GRIOT Thomas (CANYON CLLCTV) 
9. SCHUERMANS Jens (SCOTT CREUSE OXYGENE GUERET) 
10. GUERRINI Marcel (BIXS PERFORMANCE RACING)