Avancini beats Schurter in the sprint at the Capoliveri Legend Cup

The island of Elba has witnessed the best XCO on the planet with the celebration of the Capoliveri Legend Cup, the second stop in the Italy International Series and the place chosen by Henrique Avancini, Nino Schurter and Kate Courtney to open their season. A high level race that had aroused the interest of all the fans and in which Kate Courtney and Henrique Avancini have taken the victory.

Kate Courtney and Henrique Avancini win the 2021 Capoliveri Legend Cup

The women's race was held first, where Kate Courtney arrived as one of the favourites, but also with some doubts after her irregular last season. Something that she took charge of eliminating in one stroke by winning at her best. As we had already seen her win a couple of seasons ago, Courtney took the lead of the race from the start and without looking back she made it to the finish line.

The American was very solid and did not even suffer from the long journey to the start line. Kate Courtney won by 25 seconds over Italy's Chiara Teocchi of the Trinity Racing team and 47 seconds over Denmark's Caroline Bohe of Ghost Factory Racing.

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In the men's race, all eyes were on Henrique Avancini and Nino Schurter, two great rivals who, despite competing for the first time this season, are always ready to give their all to win. But they were not alone, and among the rest of the participants there were important names such as Maxime Marotte, the brothers Luca and Daniele Braidot or Vlad Dascalu, among others.

 

 

 

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The Brazilian Henrique Avancini arrived in Elba after months without being able to leave Brazil and with the intention of maintaining the current number 1 of the UCI ranking, but Nino Shurter also had serious motivations and came out with the desire to prove that he is still the main rival to beat in any race he takes the start. And so he did. From the start the Swiss took the lead and led the race with Avancini behind him. 

They exchanged the first position during the first half of the race, but the truth is that they did not manage to open any gap with the rest and the leading group was formed by a large number of bikers including Maxime Marotte, Luca Braidot, Mirko Tabacchi, Andri Frischknecht or Vlad Dascalu.

After a very even race in which neither on the uphill nor in the aggressive rock garden were able to open differences, Schurter raised the pace in the last laps to stretch the group and make a selection in which only Avancini, Marotte, Luca Braidot and Vlad Dascalu were able to get in.

Schurter, Avancini and Marotte arrived together at the finishing straight and there the Brazilian Henrique Avancini launched a sprint to which nobody could respond. Nino Schurter was second, Maxime Marotte closed the podium, Luca Braidot fourth and Vlad Dascalu was fifth.