Martina Berta delivered the complete weekend at the Soldier Hollow World Cup, winning the elite women's short track on 19 September and returning less than a day later to win the cross-country (XCO) race as well. The Italian became only the 11th elite woman to complete the short track and cross-country double in a single World Cup round.
A penultimate-lap attack breaks the XCC
The double began on Saturday in the XCC, where Berta shattered a tense stalemate with an attack on the penultimate lap's long descent. She opened a 10-second gap by the bell and held firm despite fatigue that allowed chasers to narrow the margin on the final climb.
"My plan was to make a hard effort to reduce the group," Berta said afterwards. "But when I looked back, nobody was there." Alessandra Keller and world champion Sina Frei completed the podium, unable to close the decisive gap.
A final-lap surge settles the XCO
The Sunday cross-country unfolded across seven laps on a fresh course of long climbs and technical descents. Berta attacked with two laps remaining, taking Gwendalyn Gibson with her while a chase group featuring Frei, Keller and Haley Batten fell away.
Gibson launched her own move on the final lap, racing the home-nation round on Trek's prototype 32-inch bike. Berta responded immediately, then surged clear as she climbed the top slab. The gap held: Berta crossed the line in 1:15:51, 13 seconds ahead of Gibson, with Frei third at 48 seconds.
"After yesterday I knew I had good legs but then to do the double, it is amazing," Berta told reporters. "There is a lot of emotion at the moment."
From La Thuile to Utah
The Soldier Hollow sweep arrived ten weeks after Berta's maiden elite XCO World Cup victory on home soil at La Thuile. That July win made her the first Italian woman to claim a World Cup XCO race in Italy. Now she returns from North America as the first Italian rider, male or female, to win a UCI XCC World Cup round — and as one of only a handful of women to own the double.
