A strong ride to finish second in the World Cup XC race in Windham in the US was enough to seal the overall victory for Swiss rider Nino Schurter.

Just 26 points separated Schurter and Julien Absalon before the final race. A flat tyre in the second lap ended Absalon’s hopes of defending his World Cup title, although he made a remarkable effort to recover to sixth place by the end of the race.

Schurter took the overall title with 1136 points, followed by Absalon at 1040 and Kulhavy, also at 1040 points. Absalon got the nod for second, but it took some calculating: they both had one win, but Absalon had two second place results to Jaroslav Kuhavy’s one; a very tight finish to the season. Kulhavy’s win marked the first ever time a Czech rider had won a UCI World Cup race.

In the women’s race Catharine Pendrel capped her World Cup season with her second victory of the year. Pendrel began the weekend 54 points ahead of Eva Lechner and 59 points in front of Willow Koerber.

Neither of her rivals could respond to her aggressive racing style, and the Canadian rode away to cement her victory. Koerber finished second in the overall standings, followed by Lechner.