The elite rainbow jersey was a long time coming for Jenny Rissveds. The 2016 Olympic gold medallist broke the field apart before riding solo to the win on Saturday in Switzerland.
Elite Women’s XCO: 2025 UCI mountain bike world championships
Canada’s Jenn Jackson had a solid start, going shoulder-to-shoulder off the line, uphill and into the first corner with Rissveds. There was high hopes for the Canadian champion after a bronze medal in short track cross country earlier in the week. Jackson soon started to drop back in through the field, though, riding the early laps on the edge of the top 10. Emilly Johnston started a little further back in the field, and started trying to work her way forward through the crowded elite women’s field.
Rissveds immediately started to break the field apart, putting a three second gap into Martina Berta and Puck Pieterse less than three minutes into the first lap. That quickly stretched out to 13 seconds over Berta, Puck Peterse, Alessandra Keller and Samara Maxwell and Evie Richards at the end of the first lap. Jackson sat 10th, 25 seconds back with Emilly Johnston 23rd at the end of the first lap.
Going out onto the second lap, Keller and Maxwell started to separate from the chase group. Freed from the crowd, the duo steadily closed the gap to regain contact with Rissveds up front.
A crash briefly dislodged Keller from the chase, and helped Richards ragain contact with the race leaders. It would be a flat from Pieterse that would upset the expected order, sending the defending world champion backward and forced to chase hard to regain the front of the race.
Rissveds regal in Valais
Rissveds, though, was not to be stopped. The Swedish star looked impeccable and unflappable all race, rarely looking to break rhythm as she worked away from the chasing group. Keller fought valiantly, the Swiss rider clearly buoyed by the rawkus home crowd lining the course in Valais as she clung to Rissveds’ wheel through five of seven laps.
Once away, Rissveds did not look back. After earning an Olympic title so early in her career, the Swedish racer finally adds a world championship title to her extensive palmares.
“We all say that we want to become world champions, that’s something we say from a very early age. To me, I don’t know what it meant to me what i said it. It was just something I said when I was younger,” Rissveds said after the finish line. “This is the first year I really, really wanted it and I…
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