Mountain bike world championship in Leogang – winner of the mud battle: Balanche wins gold in downhill – sport

Cyclists got stuck in mud, blocked bicycles, and participants had to complete the difficult journey on foot. But one person was not impressed by the incredibly difficult downhill conditions at the Leogang Mountain Bike World Championships (AUT): Camille Balanche. The Bieler by choice displayed a flawless ride with a high start number and sensationally won the World Championship gold.

Balanche caught leader Myriam Nicole (FRA) in the bottom third. Monika Hrastnik (SLK) completed the podium just 17 seconds behind. Balanche was the only Swiss woman who started downhill. Balanche’s real hope and partner, Emilie Siegenthaler, was injured shortly before in a training accident and thus had to skip the race.

The newly crowned world champion was delighted: “During practice, I would crash every time I drove and everything went well in the race, of all places.” He has never traveled such a difficult route. You can barely make out the title. Especially since it was “a bit strange without an audience.”

Balanche multi-talented

When it comes to something, the Neuchâtel native is always an attractive candidate. Last year Balanche was the European Downhill Champion without having previously made it to the World Cup podium. From an early age he demonstrated outstanding talent in multisports: in fencing, he won the Swiss championship title among juniors, and in 2010 he was part of the Olympic team of the ice hockey team.

Men: British World Champion

In the men’s race, Reece Wilson (GBR) won downhill gold. In a close race he won 3 seconds ahead of Austrian David Trummer and 6 seconds ahead of Frenchman Rémi Thirion. The best Swiss was Noël Niederberger in 25th place (+21 seconds).