Vera Looser excelled to finish third at the second leg of the Hero UCI Marathon World Cup on Sunday.
Looser competed against the world’s top marathon MTB riders at the adventure centre Naturland in the independent principality of Andorra, situated between France and Spain.
The race took place in Sant Julià de Lòria, surrounded by the majestic peaks, lush valleys, and dense forests of the Pyrenees. It covered a distance of 60 km reaching an elevation of close to 2 000m.
Rosa van Doorn of The Netherlands won the gold medal in a time of 3 hours, 24 minutes and 41 seconds, followed by Sandra Mairhofer of Italy, 2 minutes and 36 seconds behind, while Looser came third, 4:24 behind.
Looser opened up a gap of more than five minutes over the fourth-placed rider Lejla Njemcevic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who finished 9:36 behind the winner.
Looser said she was pleased with her performance. “It was a good race and I’m glad I managed to get onto the podium again. I don’t think it was a course that particularly suited me very well, but I climbed really well in the beginning. The first climb was about an hour long, so it was a massive climb.
“I climbed with the first five women, which was really cool for me to see that I can actually keep up with them on a long climb as well.”
Looser, however, started getting cramps, which affected her performance. “We opened a gap on two of the riders on a really long technical downhill, but I started cramping really badly in my legs, so I couldn’t quite keep up with the first two girls.
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“At the bottom of the downhill, I had a little bit of a gap on the other riders, and then it was another 13 kilometers climb to the finish, and I just had to manage my cramps so that I could still get up there.
“Somehow I managed to stay in third place, which is really, really good for me at this point, so I’m really happy with my performance and where that leaves me,” she said.
Looser won the Marathon World Cup series last year, but it has expanded and become more competitive since then. Last year it consisted of three legs, but this year it covers five legs while a new sponsor has come on board as it is now called the HERO UCI Marathon World Cup.
Looser got off to a poor start in this year’s series after only finishing ninth in the first leg race last month, and she said she is now aiming for a top-three place in the series.
“I don’t think I can still win the series since my first race in Elba was so bad with a ninth place, but my goal is to get onto the podium for the series,” she said.
