SA's Candice Hill wins silver at 2023 UCI MTB Cross-country Marathon World Championships
Mitterwallner Powers Home Solo!
A women’s field of 62 set off with the favourites including 2021 UCI World Champion Mona Mitterwallner, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Lejla Njemčević (winner of the year’s first UCI World Cup), the UCI Ranked no 2 and 3 riders Stefanie Dohrn (GER) and Estelle Morel (FRA), as well as Katazina Sosna of Lithuania.
An hour in, two riders had gone clear: South Africa’s Candice Lill (2022 Commonwealth Games cross-country Olympic bronze medalist), and Mitterwallner. They had pulled almost a minute ahead of a group of seven, including Morel, winner of the 2nd round of the 2023 UCI World Cup Adelheid Morath (GER), Paula Gorycka (POL), Vera Looser of Namibia, Sandra Mairhofer (ITA) and New Zealand’s Samara Sheppard. Half a minute further back was a trio including UCI Ranking no 1 Njemčević.
After almost 2 and a half hours of riding, the front pair had been joined by the trio of Gorycka, Morath and Morel to form a lead group of five, with a 90-second gap back to the chasing group of six. They were three minutes clear of the next nearest riders, with Sosna +6:04 and leading Briton Isla Short +7:14.
By Split 3, just over 3 hours into the race, Mitterwallner made a 13-sec advantage over Lill, with Morath solo 1 minute further back and Morel at +2:00. And the 21-year-old Austrian went away solo, pulling out a 2-minute gap from Lill as they went into the famous Glentress Forest, with Morath, Morel and Njemčević all more than 8 minutes behind Mitterwallner.
In the final reckoning, Mitterwallner – who in 2023 has podiumed in XCO at her home UCI Mountain Bike World Cup round and the UEC European Championships – crossed the line in a time of 5:07:50.
The South African reduced the gap at the end, claiming the silver medal 54sec behind. The bronze belonged to Morath, almost 10 minutes behind Mitterwallner. Njemčević and Morel were 4th and 5th, respectively, on a hard-fought battle in the Scottish forests – where the day belonged to Austria and Brazil.
