Ondřej Cink shakes up Leogang XCO
World Cup veteran takes maiden win in lucky Leogang
All streaks must eventually come to an end.
In the context of World Cup cross-country mountain bike racing, the most obvious streak to discuss is that of Christopher Blevins and Specialized Factory Racing. Through Friday’s short track race, Blevins had won 6 of 7 World Cup races, only bowing down to second place behind his teammate Victor Koretzky.
On Sunday, Specialized would not continue their streak to make it 8 for 8. Another man would break his own streak, in this case a losing streak.
The 34-year-old Ondřej Cink of Cube Factory Racing was a World Champion in the U23 ranks, but for the past decade, he hasn’t been able to piece together a win in the elite category. He’s come second plenty of times—always outfoxed by the likes of Nino Schurter or Mathias Flückiger.
Today, Cink found himself on the top step.
“I’m super happy, I was waiting for a long time for this,” he said. “I was second many times and I really like this place, I was U23 world champion here in Saalfelden [in 2012]. I was thinking once that my career is already over because I’m one of the oldest here so I don’t have words for that.”
At the beginning of the mud-laden race, it looked like Specialized could do it again. Blevins was in a decent position, Martin Vidaurre was mixing it up at the front, and Adrian Boichis was in the mix too. But all those red riders would fade, including Victor Koretzky who DNFd.
Cink and Flückiger eventually separated themselves from the rest, and Cink dropped Flückiger. The Swissman is faster on the descents, but even though Cink took the B-line on one of the most prominent downhill tech sections, his lightweight climber’s prowess made up for it.
Cink never had a gap of much more than 20 seconds, but the fitness of the experienced race veteran was enough to solo to the line 18 seconds ahead of Flückiger while privateer Fabio Püntener rolled in for third.
“This course suits me very well but the conditions not really,” Cink added. “I don’t like the muddy conditions, slippery but I don’t know what happened today, I just did it. With two laps I started to feel really bad but when I saw I opened the gap a little bit I got some power again and I pushed the limit in the last climb.”
Though Specialized were absent in the day’s results sheet, they still command a top 3 sweep of the overall standings with Blevins, Koretzky and Vidaurre. The Swiss trio of Lars Forster, Püntener, and Filippo Colombo sit behind them, while Cink’s result slots him into 7th overall.
The cross-country racers have a week off before returning to the steep and techy Val di Sole.
No spoilers in the title please! That shows up in email and app notification. Those of us on west coast of US generally can’t watch the race til way after it’s over….