Fresh from his World Championships win, Filip Meirhaeghe won again at the World Cup finals at Kaprun. But the race for the overall title was taking place behind him, with Julien Absalon and Christoph Sauser duelling it out for the series. For those two riders, nothing mattered except reaching the line before the other – they ended up in third and fourth place in the race, with Absalon just 22 seconds ahead of his rival. But it was enough to take the series. Meirhaeghe’s win put him in third place overall.

Over in the women’s race it was business as usual for Gunn-Rita Dahle, who won her fifth World Cup race this year. And there were only five, so that’s a pretty good effort. Second was Sabine Spitz, third was Marie-Helene Premont. Dahle’s Merida International team have clearly got women’s racing pretty much sewn up this year, with Merida riders Dahle, Spitz and Irina Kalentieva occupying the top three spots in the series.