Blevins wins at home and takes the victory in the 2021 Snowshoe XCO World Cup

Snowshoe was the last XCO World Cup of 2021, but it was certainly one of the most exciting. Blevins scored a historic victory for the USA by winning his first Elite World Cup surrounded by his compatriots.

Christopher Blevins takes the victory in the 2021 Snowshoe XCO World Cup

Although some riders, like Mathias Fluckiger himself, declared that they were going to compete without so much pressure, the last World Cup started with the same intensity as the rest of the season and for the millionth time Henrique Avancini made it through the first curve at the head of the race.

The first of the 7 laps of the circuit went off without any major breaks and Avancini was leading with Christopher Blevins, Jordan Sarrou, Nino Schurter, Victor Koretzky and Filippo Colombo on his wheel.

Mathias Flueckiger, who already won the overall World Cup last Friday, suffered a flat tyre in the first half of lap 1 and was forced to stop in the technical area.

Lap 2 started without major changes and 15 riders were still 9 seconds behind the first rider, Ondrej Cink. But Frenchman Victor Koretzky put an end to this false sense of stability and on the first uphill of the second lap launched a first attack that only Nino Schurter was able to follow.

Avancini, Cink, Sarrou, Blevins and Sarrou were soon connected again. The six formed a strong front group.

One of the key moments of the race came just before the start of lap 3, when Victor Koretzky suffered a flat tyre very far from the technical zone. Nino Schurter took advantage of this to raise the pace and leave the leading group with five riders: Nino Schurter, Ondrej Cink, Henrique Avancini, Cris Blevins and Luca Braidot.

The funny detail was when Koretzky decided to do a wheelie on the finishing straight in order to get to the technical area, where he had to repair his front wheel.

Despite Nino Schurter's attempts to keep up the pace, on lap 4 the leading group was joined by Germany's Luca Schwazbauer, Jordan Sarrou and Vlad Dascalu.

But the World Champion was not comfortable with so many riders in the group and just on the finishing straight he launched an attack before the start of lap 5. A hard change of pace which he continued for quite some time and with which he managed to leave only the strongest riders in front: Avancini, Braidot, Blevins and Dascalu.

It seemed very difficult for him to stage an epic comeback, but the truth is that Victor Koretzky was setting better lap times despite being 1:33 minutes behind the frontrunners. There were still two and a half laps to go and anything could happen.

Czech rider Ondrej Cink was taking a leading role in the race and after dropping off and connecting with the front, on lap 6 he made a hard change of pace in the refreshment area, which allowed him to lead the first half of the lap. But as soon as Cink slowed the pace, Nino Schurter counterattacked without allowing anyone to recover.

In the middle of a climb, Henrique Avancini suffered a strange crash from which he soon recovered, but the riders in front of him took advantage of the situation to tighten the pace and leave him out of the group.

The last lap started with the Italian Braidot in first place, a position he had not taken on any of the 7 laps and which Nino took advantage of to catch some air. 

Vlad Dascalu also tried another change of pace to try to break the race, but Blevins, Schurter and Dascalu himself were still in the lead.

It was then that Christopher Blevins played his best card and went solo this time in first place. Dascalu seemed to settle for second place and Nino Schurter got a flat tyre at the worst possible moment.

Blevins won the 2021 Snowshoe XCO World Cup, Vlad Dascalu came second, Ondrej Cink third, Nino Schurter fourth and Luca Braidot finished fifth.

Results Elite Men 2021 Snowshoe XCO World Cup