Pauline Ferrand-Prévot retained her XCC short track cross-country world title with a comfortable victory in Glentress, Scotland at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships. After shadowing her rainbow jersey rivals for the entire race Ferrand-Prévot made her decisive move on the last lap, surging clear on the main climb and away from the lead group of riders. With none of her rivals able to hold on to her wheel, Ferrand-Prévot crossed the line with a four-second gap ahead of Puck Pieterse with Evie Richards a further five seconds behind to round out the podium.
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot had looked cool, calm, and collected in her warm-up box before the race and it was a look she retained throughout the race that was ridden at a blistering speed from start to finish. From the green light, the pace was instant and Italy's Martina Berta led the way ahead of Puck Pieterse. On lap two Evie Richards was looking to set the pace roared on by a partisan crowd hoping for a home win, again with with Puck Pieterse, and Ferrand-Prévot riding close behind with Berta.
The 1km laps went quickly with the front group of riders attempting to make decisive moves and Rebecca Henderson as well as the US duo of Gwendalyn Gibson and Savilla Blunk all having turns on the front. By lap four it was Henderson pushing on the front with Pieterse, Richards, and the ever-present Ferrand-Prévot stalking her prey close behind. Swiss rider Sina Frei spun out on the gravel, went down and with the unrelenting pace never recovered to challenge.
The lead group was whittled down to just six riders Pieterse, Keller, Gibson, Henderson, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, and Richards. With time running out to make a winning move, it was Evie Richards who drove the pace but with Ferrand-Prévot sitting on her wheel the inevitable happened and the defending champion hit the gas on the final climb and quickly surged clear. With her challengers unable to hold on to her wheel, the French rider pressed home her advantage to cruise over the line and what looked like an almost effortless victory.
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot now heads into Saturday's XCO race at Glentress as a formidable favorite and it's hard to see who will stop the French rider bagging another rainbow jersey.
There are still limited digital ticketing options left for this weekend's XCO events with remaining tickets available at Cyclingworldchamps.com. For those not lucky enough to see the action close-up, watching the TV coverage is the next best option.
How to watch the 2023 MTB World Championships on TV
In the US, you can watch the XCO Mountain BIke World Championships live and on-demand with a subscription to Flobikes, which also covers the remaining events mainly the Women's road on Sunday.
In the UK, the BBC will show highlights of the MTB XCO UCI World Championships on BBC Two and BBC Three, and also have streaming live and on-demand via on iPlayer and the BBC Sport website. You can also watch live or on-demand on GCN+, Eurosport, and Discovery+. Events are also covered by free-to-air broadcasters across Europe.
