Mont-Sainte-Anne - Men Elite XCO Highlights | 2024 WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Cup

For them to go green, and green they go! Alan Halfley's away strongly at the start. So is Luka Schwarzbauer alongside him. In the white jersey with the stripes of Germany on his sleeves. Viktor Koretsky in that retro-specialised jersey is along with them as well. They're all cleanly off the line bar. The positions are so important. Two different lines bring them into the descent. One is with the river gap at the bottom, and the other one is a little bit slower, but very technical, both lines are. There's Nino Schurter on the number four bike It's crucial to get a good position now into this next descent. A good start for Alan Halfley as well. Luka Schwarzbauer also a good start. Oh, and a bit of a bobble for Nino Schurter there. And it's going to ripple backwards now. Good start for Max Feudel as well from Austria. There he is for your picture now. Andreasen's in there for Cannondale as well. Team's overall battle. Viktor Koretsky, not such a good start. Koretsky buried slightly in the pack, but this start loop in the first lap really about survival as we see Alan Halfley now to the front. 12th place for Viktor Koretsky at the moment. A crash behind. Is that a Zaro or Dubot? Yeah, it was a Zaro. It was a Zaro, yeah. Matisse Zaro already in trouble here in Mont-Sainte-Anne, but out front. Speed extremely high at the front of this one. Halfley whistles past our commentary booth. Andrei Sink from the Czech Republic. A fantastic climber. We know that. Has smashed his way up that first climb. Andreasen behind him. A Zaro's recovered well after that crash. Early doors as well. Zaro sitting in 10th currently. You see with the long sleeves. Nino Schurter, here he is with the number four on his bike. Listen to the Canadian fans chanting Nino, Nino. So much support from Nino Schurter. Wherever we go in the world. Koretsky just behind Schurter now. As Alan Halfley, we rejoin this. Big effort. 21 seconds now, Bart. He's opening the gap. Andrei Sink is not able to follow him. Halfley hoping to pull a disappearing act at the front of this race. Look at him out of the saddle. Almost from the bottom of that climb till the top. Attacking the opening stages of this race. Yeah, he went off, got that gap the early lap. And Andrei Sink as well. Great ride so far for the Czech. But he's just a little bit slower on the descent. So he held up that group a little bit. Yeah, it was happily that we saw him go through the start finish. The power and the pace. He wasn't waiting for anyone. He was just full gas. Already in time trial mode. But what a gap. And a good recovery from Zaro. We saw that crash on the first lap. I mean a proper get down. And then to get back to this front group. Koretsky as well. He didn't have the best legs on that start loop. But he's come up through as well. Felipe Colombo, the last rider in the red kit. Everyone scrambling to deal with this early pace from Alan Haferle. Koretsky moving past Feudal now. And up into fifth place. Zaro here though, kicking on. And he's bringing Koretsky with him. Schurter struggling to live with the pace of Matisse. Zaro here in second place and Koretsky in third. Big, big effort from Alan Haferle here. Still at the front. 22 seconds. So Zaro chipping, chipping, chipping at every sector. There's a visual on it. They're bringing the gap down a little bit. Yeah, Zaro pushing really hard. You saw a little occasions that Koretsky happened to try really hard just to hold on to the wheel of his compatriot. He's bringing it back. But how much are we going to bet that that might have been tactical from Alan Haferle? And he's just got rid of those people around him. He's left himself a smaller group to deal with. As they head across the line. And Haferle leads him by 14 seconds now. They found another two seconds. It's all Matisse-Zaro. There's Koretsky getting a free run across the gap. You saw that Nino looking for a bit of help off Simon Andreassen. But with his teammate up in front, he was definitely not going to come past and help out. No danger, Nino. Matthias Flickiger is closing the gap to that chasing group with Nino. Colombo's in there as well. This chasing group, that's quite big. And also some very interesting names in it. And it looks like they are coming back actually to Matisse-Zaro with Koretsky. Here's Zaro by himself. Where is Koretsky? Yeah, he's broken away from Koretsky. So something may have happened to Victor Koretsky here. I think it's less that Koretsky's dropped. It's more Azuro's accelerating. A bit of an attack maybe at the top of the climb. I never expected someone to go out from lap one. Especially this year, the strength and depth in the men's field. We've often seen five, six riders form a lead group and then it lulls and then it's a fight. But to go out on lap one. Koretsky's dropped another, what's that, 15 seconds or so. So in trouble here. One man who doesn't need any help at the minute, Alan Haverly. But there's Matisse-Zaro. And the gap is now 14 seconds. We've got a bike race on our hands. Azuro for the Cathlon Ford. There's Charlie Aldridge. Out front of this group, just marshalling the pace nicely. And Charlie Aldridge, so strong technically. He can use that to his advantage. And on a course like here at Mont-Saint-Anne, I think I put it down as the most technical on the circuit. Matisse-Zaro, 11 seconds off this man, Alan Haverly. You can see the teeth gritting. Are we just for the first time seeing signs that... Yeah, a look back over his shoulder. Alan Haverly, then he knows what the distance is. The leaders of this race. Getting closer and closer. Nine seconds through that time and split now. Matisse-Zaro, what a fight back from this young man. That will have cost Azuro a lot of energy to close that gap to Haverly. He's not making life easy for Azuro. There they are, though. They are together in one shot. Psychologically, Ollie, for Haverly, what's going on inside that helmet? I think he's probably not surprised that someone's got back to him. He went out fast, but I think he would presume that somebody would come back. And they have seen each other many times, constantly, on all of the course. Haverly is so experienced. You know, he's won lots of races. He's lost lots of races as well. So he knows this situation. I think Azuro will just follow for a little bit. Koretsky, long gone from vision on this shot. And Zaro can learn from Alan Haverly. If he's taking different lines, if he's faster in the descent. Haverly is attacking now, just squeezing him. Yeah, still, every time again. Yeah, so strong on the climbs. May just fancy a few tests of Azuro now, Haverly. See what's left in there. I mean, it's pretty good tactics to let someone get back to the wheel a little bit. And as soon as they come back, just when they think they've won motivation, give them a little bit of a squeeze. There's nothing in between these two. Aldridge, 55 seconds back now. And he's caught Viktor Koretsky. Charlie Aldridge, lead in the way. Again, Saru coming on strong at the top of that climb. But it's Colombo in second wheel. Really consistent riding for Aldridge, which is what you want. Aldridge, really, you get the sense as well, has been the most aggressive in this group. Doing a good shift at the front. But it's his teammate, Alan Haverly, who's now looking like he's maybe starting to attack Azuro. But Azuro so far has an answer for him on this climb. Not hanging around, it's just full gas. You can see every inch of Matisse Azuro trying to squeeze more power into that rear wheel. And he has to stay with him. Motivates so much. There is a bit of a gap now. Haverly has attacked again. Azuro at the top of that climb. He's trying to dispatch of Matisse Azuro here. Stands on the pedals, goes again. What class from Haverly. Talk about reserves of energy from Alan Haverly. Wow. Just let Azuro, you could see Azuro coming. Probably just let him close up as soon as he got on the wheel. Attacked him. Incredibly smart ride and bark to not leave it to the last lap as well. No, no. Then it's maybe that he gets too much morale and... There's a lot of mind games going on at the moment. Yeah, as well. So the positivity was with Azuro. He closed the gap and then Haverly pushed it back the other way. Impressive ride from Alan Haverly. This is it. One lap between him and becoming the first elite male South African to win a UCI Cross-Country World Cup overall title. The battle for third is on here. This chase group have dropped Filippo Colombo. Now Aldridge looking like he's just taken a final deep breath before the plunge. Charlie Aldridge has attacked Koretsky. He's trying to put some distance between him and the Frenchman now. And he's closed back to him. Heading for his best career Cross-Country Olympic finish. Charlie Aldridge. What a way to round off his year that'll be. But Koretsky pulls right up onto the back of the young British rider. Meanwhile, out front, it has been masterful in Mont-Saint-Anne from Alan Haverly. A superb win fended off at Zaro. Takes the final UCI World Cup of the year in the UCI World Champions jersey to take the overall title. Meanwhile, behind him, there's fireworks. Here comes Aldridge and Koretsky. Aldridge versus Koretsky. Gets the front wheel up in the air. Second place for him. Superb from Matisse Zaro as we await what will be a sprint finish between Viktor Koretsky and Charlie Aldridge. It's Specialized versus Cannondale on the final start-finish straight of the year. Koretsky blitzes it. But there was no answering what this man was capable of. Alan Haverly was absolutely untouchable today. 30 seconds ended up being the difference between him and Matisse Zaro. Then it was Koretsky, Aldridge, Alan Haverly took it to the final day of the season, but won it in some style. Haverly, Koretsky and Colombo.