Eva Lechner, number 1 in the UCI world rankings

“The season was very successful for me. I noticed that I was getting better and better and that I could consistently be at the front. In the end there was only a little left to achieve a really big victory.” This is how Eva Lechner from the South Tyrolean Colnago team describes the past MTB racing season in cross country. The fact that she achieved her first World Cup victory at the start in Albstadt, Germany, was indicative of the international class and great strength of the South Tyrolean this year. And the fact that at the end of the sixth World Cup race in Hafjell, Norway, great success was imminent again is an expression of enormous consistency and an iron will. Because it was exactly this iron will that was necessary after a bad fall at the World Championships in South Africa meant that he wasn't able to make it to the top places. Despite a fantastic comeback.

“I've shown that I can come back straight away, even if things don't go so well,” says Eva Lechner about the last few weeks. But there is no question of running badly. In Norway, Eva Lechner was able to leave none other than the Olympic and world champion Julie Bresset from France behind her. Only the Russian Irina Kalentieva was faster. This was after Eva Lechner, for what she says were inexplicable reasons, fell and the chain fell off her blade: "The fall wouldn't have been the problem at all, but the chain cost me the crucial seconds."

In the end there was second place, 20 seconds behind the winner and second overall World Cup place with 960 World Cup points (behind the overall winner Tanja Zakeli from Slovenia with 1.080 points and ahead of Katarina Nash from the Czech Republic with 955 points). The best final placement in an MTB elite season for Eva Lechner. A few days after the World Cup season finale came the real coronation for South Tyrol's mountain bike queen. The UCI mountain bike world rankings for elite women, published today, put the woman from Eppan in first place, while the Colnago team, an all-female team, appears to be in sixth place overall. “This is of course something very special for every athlete and fills me personally with great pride and inner joy,” comments a satisfied Eva Lechner, who can see the joy written on her face after returning home.

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Eva Lechner, number 1 in the UCI world rankings

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