Simone Niggli secured overall victory in this year’s World Cup last weekend in France, but this did not mean that she relaxed in any way today. She won a fast middle distance race on home soil near Geneva with a margin of 1:36 over her closest contender this year, Helena Jansson. This was Simone’s 50th victory in a World Cup race. Thierry Gueorgiou had an equally impressive win in the men’s race.

It was no surprise to anyone that Simone is determined to maintain her form right through to the end of the season. Today’s win simply extended her already huge lead in this year’s standings. In third place today was Mari Fasting, Norway, who was almost 4 minutes slower than Simone.

Thierry Gueorgiou won by 1:08 ahead of another Norwegian, the steadily improving Olav Lundanes. Third place was taken by World Cup standings leader Daniel Hubmann, who was 8 seconds slower than Lundanes. Matthias Müeller was 4th, which means that he still has an outside chance of taking overall victory; in tomorrow’s sprint he needs to win, with Hubmann in 17th place or below. Daniel Hubmann has been recovering from a foot injury, but said that with an injection he had no pain in his foot today.

The World Cup Final, the PostFinance Sprint, takes place in Geneva tomorrow.

Leading results

Women
1) Simone Niggli SUI 37:46
2) Helena Jansson SWE 39:22
3) Mari Fasting NOR 41:43
4) Annika Billstam SWE 41:55
5) Rahel Friederich SUI 42:10
6) Lina Persson SWE 42:44

Men
1) Thierry Gueorgiou FRA 35:30
2) Olav Lundanes NOR 36:38
3) Daniel Hubmann SUI 36:46
4) Matthias Müeller SUI 37:02
5) Baptiste Rollier SUI 37:15
6) Jarkko Huovila FIN 37:25