It was the perfect weekend of racing for Victor Koretzky (Specialized Factory Racing), with the French rider on Sunday adding victory in the cross-country Olympic (XCO) race at the Lake Placid round of the Whoop UCI Mountain Bike World Series to Saturday's short-track win.
Koretzky, the short-track world champion, claimed his second victory in as many days in a sprint to the line from a group of five, with recently-crowned XCO world champion Alan Hatherly (Cannondale Factory Racing) coming second despite having to fight back from a rear flat halfway through the eight lap race in the United States.
Filippo Colombo (Scott-SRAM), who was leading through the final corners, came third while it was Swiss compatriots Marcel Guerrini (BIXS Performance Race Team) and Mathias Flückiger (Thömus maxon) in fourth and fifth. Home-nation favourite Christopher Blevins (Specialized Factory Racing) was sixth.
"Doing a double win on one weekend is always difficult because you need to stay motivated and to keep going," said Koretzky. "Today the weather was a bit high, and it was almost impossible to know who was the strongest. I rode super patient all race because it was super-fast."
Hatherly's fight back to second place, despite dropping around 30 positions mid-race due to the flat, helped strengthen his position at the head of the overall series ahead of the final round in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada, which runs from October 4-6.
The South African leads the standings with 1378 points, 259 points ahead of the now second-placed Koretzky and 293 points ahead of Colombo. With 330 points up for grabs in the final round, the pair are the only two with a chance of moving Hatherly away from that top spot overall.
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