Sina Frei closes the mountain bike season with a fourth podium finish in a row. The 27-year-old from Zurich finishes third in the cross-country at the World Cup finals in Mont-Sainte-Anne.
In autumnal conditions with temperatures below ten degrees and a stiff breeze, Frei was only beaten by France's Loana Lecomte and Austria's Laura Stigger at the season finale on the technically demanding course in Canada.
Lecomte and Stigger pulled away early from the rest of the field, in which there were three prominent absentees, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Puck Pieterse and Haley Batten, just like a week ago in Lake Placid. Behind them, Frei skied a lonely race well ahead of the South African Candice Lill and Alessandra Keller, who had already been crowned overall World Cup winner before the race.
Last year's winner Lecomte decided the duel for victory against Frei's Specialized team colleague Stigger with a speed increase in the final lap with a lead of nine seconds.
Frei, who experienced a complicated first half of the year and had to rely on the withdrawal of Jolanda Neff for her participation in the Olympics (21st place), once again put her strong late form to good use. The Olympic silver medallist and 2021 World Championship bronze medallist finished second on the World Cup podium in Lake Placid a week ago for the first time in her career in Olympic cross-country. She also won the last two short tracks.
Alessandra Keller did not quite make it to the top one day after securing overall victory with an 8th place in the short track. She ultimately lost out to Lill in the sprint for 4th place.
