Valentina Corvi is the new European junior champion in cross country Olympic (XCO). The Italian, eighth in the UCI ranking, outpaced strong competition and finished the race in 1h03m53.704s, after overcoming Germany’s Carla Hahn in the final sprint. The podium was completed by Austria’s Katrin Embacher, who arrived 14.461 seconds later.
The race began by being dominated by a group of nine runners, formed by Valentina Corvi, Carla Hahn, Anina Hutter (Switzerland), Natalia Grzegorzewska (Poland), Katrin Embacher (Austria), Marta Cano (Spain), Eliska Hanáková (Czech Republic), Eva Herzoh (Austria) and Kamilla Aasebø (Norway), who alternated the leadership. However, as time went by, the lead group began to shrink.
By the fourth passage over the finish line – the race consisted of a start loop, a start lap and four full laps – Katrin Embacher, Valentina Corvi, Carla Hahn, Eva Herzog and Natalia Grzegorzewska had already stood out from the others and were ahead, in that order, by almost 30 seconds.
At the beginning of the last lap it was already a three-way race between Carla Hahn, Katrin Embacher and Valentina Corvi, but only the Italian and the German held on until the end at the head of the race. The race, in fact, was decided in an intense sprint between the two riders, in which Valentina Corvi was the fastest, winning with 01.711s ahead of Carla Hahn. Katrin Embacher arrived shortly after, guaranteeing the last place on the podium.
The European Mountain Bike Championships, which have been taking place since Thursday in Tamengos, Anadia, will end this Sunday with the under-23 XCO races. The women’s race is scheduled for 11am and the men’s race for 2pm.
