The new Shimano XTR Di2 achieves its first victory in the World Cup

The Leogang World Cup kicked off yesterday with the victories of Chris Blevins and Puck Pieterse in the Elite men's and women's categories respectively. But another one of the great protagonists of the day, and the weekend, was the new XTR Di2 group that was presented this week, flooded all the paddocks and bikes of the Shimano teams and achieved its first victory in the World Cup.

Pieterse gives the new XTR Di2 its first World Cup victory

As we said days before, one of the great news brought by Shimano's new electronic and wireless transmission is that it has been able to present itself without prior leaks in competition, at least that have been disclosed.

In the case of its direct competitor, the SRAM Transmission AXS system, we saw its development practically live from its first prototypes in competition. In fact, one of its first appearances was at the Albstadt World Cup in 2018 and Nino Schurter had to withdraw from the Short Track because that prototype failed.

It has not been the case for Shimano, which yesterday competed for the first time in the World Cup with the new XTR Di2 after a long development in Japan with its Skunk test team. And the transmission performed as expected. Perfect.

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So much so that the Dutch Puck Pieterse, the current XCO world champion, took charge of showcasing it and taking it to the top of the podium in the Elite Women's Short Track. The first victory for a group that is destined to be one of the great introductions of this and the coming years.