Laura Stigger finished sixth in the mountain bike cross-country race on Sunday. Her fellow Tyrolean Mona Mitterwallner only finished in 18th place. The victory went to the clear favorite Pauline Ferrand-Prevot from France.
After numerous world championship titles in four different cycling disciplines, Ferrand-Prevot was able to celebrate her first Olympic medal in front of her enthusiastic home crowd. The 32-year-old won ahead of Haley Batten from the USA (+2:57 min) and the Swedish Rio Olympic champion Jenny Rissveds (+3:02).
After seven laps covering a total of 27 km and 830 meters of elevation, the 23-year-old Stigger was just over a minute away from bronze. She has not yet managed a podium finish in this year’s World Cup season either. However, sixth place at the Olympics is by far the best result for an Austrian in this discipline, which has been part of the program since 1996.
“I felt really good in the first few laps, the atmosphere was absolutely amazing. I ran out of steam halfway through the race. But I gave it my all, I can’t complain, the others were stronger, I have to admit that,” said Stigger in an ORF interview, but summed it up positively. “I’m happy, even though you dream of medals, but you have to be happy with sixth place.”
Stigger started strong
Like in Tokyo in 2021 – when she gave up – Stigger started like a shot in front of 13,000 fans in Elancourt. But she soon fell from the medal ranks into the first chasing group. In this group, she worked her way back to third-placed Loana Lecomte about halfway through the race, who shortly afterwards fell headfirst in a rocky passage and was injured and had to retire. According to initial information, she suffered a mild concussion.
A little later, a tire defect threw Puck Pieterse (NED), who was on course for silver, back, and Stigger also had to let her rivals for the two medals still open behind the unchallenged Ferrand-Prevot go ahead in the last three rounds.
After a season of health problems, Mitterwallner was behind from the start. The 22-year-old finished her Olympic debut almost nine minutes behind.
