UCI Mountain Bike World Series: Cross-country Olympic World Cup – Men’s elite live

15:25 – Schurter moving away

It’s looking good for the World Champion at the moment as he is increasing the gap out to Sarrou.

The French rider has Gaze to compete with behind who has been closing the gap throughout the fifth lap.

15:20 – Gaze up to third

The powerful Kiwi has moved into the podium sports and is now racing Braidot and Hatherly for the third spot on the course.

15:18 – three laps to go!

The Swiss crowd are relishing the arrival of their hero as he crosses the start/finish line with three laps remaining.

Sarrou is still close and only seven seconds behind.

15:16 – gap to schurter increasing

The World Champion is kicking on in every section, showing his expert knowledge of a course he absolutely loves.

15:13 – Sarrou chasing solo

Fluckiger has dropped back into fifth under the pressure of Schurter, forcing the Frenchman – Sarrou to set off in pursuit on his own.

Hatherly is next closest on the course but is still 10 seconds in arrears.

15:12 – Schurter is all alone!

He’s a man on a mission right now as he has got rid of Fluckiger and kicked on over the top, shredding the descent at top speed. His gap is growing quicker by the second.

15:11 – Crash for the other Braidot

That’s both of the Italian brothers down in as many minutes. The winner from Lenzerheide lat year hits the deck on a descent section.

15:08 – mistake from Braidot

The Italian unclips going into a corner and hits the deck gently, also holding up Sarrou and Hatherly in the process.

It leaves the inevitable Swiss rivals up at the front: Schurter and Fluckiger.

15:08 – Schurter attacks on the front

The Swiss superstar took one look behind in a corner, saw Gaze and decided to up the pace and get away from him.

15:05 – lap four starts

The pace again eases over the start/finish line with four laps remaining.

Hatherly makes contact with the back of the leading four before they hit the climb. Gaze is moving up behind and is now up into sixth.

15:02 – tech zone

It’s heating up at the front with the leaders all taking a small drink and cooling themselves down in the tech zone.

Sarrou still leads Schurter with Fluckiger and Braidot the only other riders close to the front.

14:58 – Sarrou enters the lead

The Frenchman hits the front as they enter the descent portion of the course with Fluckiger also moving up into the top three.

Daniele Braidot (CS Carabinieri-Cicli Olympia Vittoria) is riding well in fifth at the moment, his brother was the winner in Lenzerheid at last year’s Cross-Country Olympic race.

14:55 – leading group of five enter lap three

Albin shoots up the inside of the first corner past Schurter as the pace eases momentarily over the start/finish line. Schurter only allows him the lead for the first few corners of the climb before retaking his position in front.

14:51 – Schurter pushing on

Big splits are forming behind the front group of six riders now. De Froidmont is 5 seconds behind the leader in 6th and Hatherly is sat 12 seconds behind in 7th.

14:48 – furious pace being set at the front

The descent sections are being ridden just as hard as the climbs with the front group of riders flying downhill. Schurter is setting the tone in the rainbow bands.

14:43 – Schurter enters the lead

He’s moved past Schwarzbauer with Albin also looking strong on the climb. Throughout the race the climb and the altitude tests it brings with it will be a huge defining factor.

14:40 – current top 10 at the end of lap one

Schwarzbauer still leads from Schurter, Albin and Sarrou. Behind them is Anton Cooper (Trek Factory Racing), Pierre de Froidmont (Orbea Factory Team), Mathias Fluckiger (Thomus Maxon), Dubau, Alan Hatherly (Cannondale Factory Racing) and Lars Forster (Thomus Maxon).

14:38 – Schurter looking good

The legend of the sport is not holding anything back today and nearly loses it over one of the big drops on the course. He’s sitting pretty in second behind Schwarzbauer however, and looking strong, spurred on by his home crowd.

14:36 – Schwarzbauer leads Swiss duo

The big German is still holding first position in front of Schurter with Vital Albin (Thomus Maxon) in third and Jordan Sarrou (Team BMC) in fourth. He’ll likely struggle on the climbs being a bigger rider but the rest of the field will want to get rid of him before the latter stages.

14:34 – Rain continues to fall

There will be water throughout the course now after being so dry all weekend.

14:31 – Schurter straight to the front

It was a superb start for the ten-time World Champion who gets right into the front five of the race after starting on the second row.

The rain is also starting to fall at the start/finish line, how will this affect the course?

14:30 – we’re underway!

Round 2 of the Cross-Country Olympic World Cup has started. The riders have flown off the line with these first few laps set to be an electric opener to the race.

Schwarzbauer takes the early lead going into the first corner. A big group of riders were held behind in a pile up in the mass start.

Riders to watch – can Schurter make history?

Swiss mountain bike legend Schurter has a chance at making history if he takes the win here as he would surpass Frenchman Julien Absalon for the most wins in the Cross-Country Olympic World Cup and move to 34 victories.

He would love to win here at home in Switzerland but will have sour memories of the heartbreak he suffered in Lenzerheide last year. He and fellow Swiss favourite Mathias Flückiger (Thömus Maxon), collided on the final lap taking away any chance at victory for both of them.

Both will be in for the win today alongside last year’s winner in Lenzerheide, Luca Braidot (Santa Cruz Rockshox Pro Team), the runner up in Nove Mesto, Dubau and a whole host of other great talents in the mtb field: Schwarzbauer, Sarrou and Thomas Griot (Canyon CLLCTV) – to name a few.

Round 1 recap from NOVÉ MĚSTO NA MORAVĚ

In the opener, Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) took a dramatic victory at the famous Czech venue after crashing and losing the lead momentarily to Joshua Dubau (RockRider Racing Team), which completed his double in the Cross-Country Short Track and the Cross-Country Olympic World Cup. Dubau finished second with World Champion Schurter in third.

What happened in Friday’s short-track race?

Luca Schwarzbauer (Canyon CLLTV) took the win after attacking powerfully on the final lap ahead of Jordan Sarrou (Team BMC) in second and Sebastian Fini Carstensen (Lapierre Mavic Unity) in third.

There was drama as the short-track World Champion, Samuel Gaze (Alpecin-Deceuninck), crashed on the eighth lap and took out home-favourite Nino Schurter (Scott-Sram MTB Racing Team) with him. The two were able to recover to 14th and 16th respectively, giving them both a second-row start today.

Hello and welcome!

Good afternoon and welcome back to Eurosport’s live coverage of the UCI Mountain Bike World Series, where we will see the finale of a great weekend of racing in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.

Today it’s all about cross-country as the riders push themselves to the absolute limit. The men’s Cross-Country Olympic World Cup is entering its second round in the wonderful Swiss location with an exciting race on the cards after Friday’s thrilling short-track event. You can watch the action on Eurosport and Discovery+ as well as following the live updates here.

Sunday – What’s on

As well as the UCI Mountain Bike World Series, there’s plenty of sport to watch on this warm weekend!

You can watch the French Open, Climbing World Cup and 24 Hours of Le Mans all on Eurosport today.

For cycling fans, stage 8 of the Criterium du Dauphine will be starting at 12:10 (BST) on Eurosport and Discovery+.

Weekend of Champions

Dubbed the Weekend of Champions, owing to the sheer amount of world-class action across multiple sports, over 300 Warner Bros. Discovery staff, including production staff, experts and reporters will be on-site across a host of locations over the weekend – from the UEFA Champions League final to Roland-Garros and Le Mans and more. Delivering over 70 hours of live, premium content to millions of sports fans across the continent across multiple platforms.

Luca Schwarzbauer wins Friday’s short-track event

On Friday the short-track event took place before the full event on Sunday.

It was a thrilling race with German superstar Luca Schwarzbauer taking a superb victory.

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