The course planner had opted for a mixture of short legs through the dense path network mixed with plenty of long route choice legs, with course distances reflecting the flatter nature of the terrain with the men covering 47km whilst the women tackled a 33km course.
In the men’s race, the first control proved to be one of the most challenging with a number of riders losing several minutes to the fastest time, including Great Britain’s Ian Nixon who lost time straight out of the start but was able to pull it back to hit the first control in 47th. A long 2nd leg split the riders up with a whole host of different routes being taken although a number of riders complained that one route choice was not made obvious on the map due to the use of a smaller path symbol being used. Former World Champions Anton Folioforov (Russia) and Krystof Bogar (Czech Republic) had got a bit of a lead here and maintained this until the next long leg to number 5 where a better route choice from Bogar propelled him into the lead, whilst GB’s Nixon had moved into the top 40. By the first drinks station, Krystof Bogar from the Czech Republic had a minute advantage over Middle Distance champion Simon Braendli (Switzerland) which he was able to build on over the next few controls to the map exchange and 2nd drinks control whilst Nixon had slipped a few places to 44th. The course then went back into the dense network of paths where riders needed to be very careful they were on the right track. This proved tricky in the dark forest where some paths were hard to make out on the ground, which combined with the tiredness which was starting to set in after 75 minutes of fast riding gave some riders a few problems. Unfortunately, Nixon lost concentration in this section and missed out #18 having been riding well enough for a place in the top 40. Bogar had maintained his minute’s advantage, whilst Grigory Medvedev had got up to 3rd place as the first of 4 Russian’s in the top 8. Soon after the course planner had used another of the very small mapped tracks which a number of leading riders didn’t see, although this didn’t affect the podium results. Bogar was able to extend his lead on the fast route to the finish to regain the title he last won in 2013 winning by more than 2 minutes from Simon Braendli who gained his 2nd medal of the week.
The women’s race started with a similarly tricky 1st control which caught out a few leading riders and by the end of the long 2nd leg Martina Tichovska (Czech Republic) had a minute lead over Camilla Soegaard (Denmark). However, a mistake by the Czech rider at the next control allowed the Dane to take over the lead and by the end of the next long leg at number 6 she had a 1:40 lead over Svetlana Poverina (Russia), whilst Great Britain’s Clare Dallimore had moved up to 11th after a mistake at the 1st control. By the 1st drinks control Soegaard was still leading but Tichovska had made up some of her lost time and was only 30 seconds back, whilst Gabriele Andrasiuniene (Lithuania) was up into 3rd. After a couple more long legs the 2 leaders advantage was dramatically cut as both made mistakes on number 13. The women then had a leg using the small mapped track which had caused problems on the men’s course but this impacted the top places as Soegaard saw the route whilst Tichovska didn’t which regained the lead which had been changing places between these 2 throughout the race. Unfortunately for the Danish rider, a huge error exiting number 18 on an unmapped track lost her the lead as she dropped out of the top 10. Tichovska regained the lead but lost it with another mistake at the 20th control which Antonia Haga (Finland) was able to capitalise on by taking the lead having been making her way closer to the lead throughout the race. However, there was more drama towards the end as having just made her way into the lead a poor route choice from Haga allowed Tichovska to retake the lead to 22 which she held onto to get back the title she had won in 2015, winning by the narrowest of margins of just 5 seconds from Haga who secured her first individual medal at a World Champs. Long-time leader Soegaard pulled back up to 9th place but will rue the 8 minutes she lost at 18 finishing only 7 minutes behind the leaders. GB’s Dallimore had pulled up to a top 10, but took the same route choice as Haga to number 22 and dropped to 13th, still a great result in tough conditions.
Men – 46.5km, 765m
DSQ Ian Nixon, Great Britain
Women – 37.1km, 670m
13. Clare Dallimore, Great Britain 2:10:27