The final round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup took place in a hot and dry Val di Sole, Italy, and despite a strong ride by Nicole Myriam to take the top step of the podium, the day belonged to Tracey Moseley as she claimed the overall title.

Tracy played an understandably safe and conservative strategy, finishing safely inside the top ten in 5^th place, securing enough points to maintain her advantage heading into this final race of the year.

Moseley won the overall title with 1465 points and four individual victories in seven races. Pugin finished with 1390 points, one win and four seconds, followed by Atherton with 115 points, Nicole with 929 points and Jonnier with 889 points.

“I don’t believe it,” Nicole said after her run, “maybe I will realize tonight. I didn’t have a clean run, but I was all out on this track. I did not want to crash on the top, it was real hard and my hands hurt already. Near the finish I was [saying] “come on”, and I did it.”

Moseley agreed that she was nervous before her run, “I wanted to race hard for the win, but when I hit the first [technical] section, I realized that I needed to play it safe and not take any chances. This has been an incredible season, a dream season, coming towards the end of my career.”

Floriane Pugin made it a French 1-2 with second place, and Rachel Atherton the highest placed British rider in a superb 3^rd place.

A rider who has been showing incredible form this year is the young Manon Carpenter, who wrapped up her debut season with an impressive 8^th place finish. Fionn Griffiths finished 18^th.

More post-race comment soon.

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