Samuel Gaze takes the victory in the Shimano Super Cup Massi La Nucia 2025. The New Zealander waited for his moment to unleash a devastating attack, escape alone and fly to the finish line. In the women’s category, Tamara Weidmann imposed an unreachable pace, dominated at ease throughout the race and signed a victory to mark her first commitment of the season.

Samuel Gaze wins in La Nucia ahead of Maximilian Brandl and David Valero

The Alicante town of La Nucía dressed up in its best clothes to welcome the fourth edition of the Shimano Super Cup Massi. The race uncorked the season and offered spectators the best international XCO under a spring sun. The more than one hundred riders who were called up appeared punctually on a starting grid full of big names. The race started with Cole Punchard as the first protagonist; the Canadian took the baton and became the first leader of the race.

Sam Gaze took Punchard’s wheel at the start lap, just before Simon Andreassen went down in a crash that had no major consequences. The group remained compact during the early stages of the race; time to save strength and store efforts for later. The competition continued without major changes until the passing of the kilometres stretched out the small lead group.

The trio of Gaze, Fini and Punchard formed an alliance to put some distance between themselves and the others. However, Maximilian Brandl pulled his nerve and managed to chase them down to become the fourth member of the vanguard.

Even so, Cullell and Andreassen were quickly able to catch the front quartet. The race was moving at a rapid pace, even though the hostilities between the favourites seemed to have been postponed to the second half of the race. The positions remained stable for several kilometres, until Gaze decided to attack.

The group overcame the technical descents of the first sector of the lap and hit concrete to begin the never-ending climb of the circuit. The road, wide and conducive to attacks, was the stage chosen by Gaze to start his attack. The blow was uncontested and the plan was executed to perfection; only Brandl resisted the watts and could find a reply.

Both riders understood each other well and, driven by a common interest, worked together to finally break free from their pursuers. Brandl took responsibility for the front and set the pace for a whole lap, with Gaze feeling comfortable on his opponent’s back. Behind, Andreassen tested the ground again after another crash and Punchard was forced to abandon after breaking his chain.

After several kilometres of cooperation, Gaze attacked again on the concrete. This time Brandl was unable to even make an attempt to follow him, and the Kiwi multi-champion spread his wings to open up a gap on his former companion. The move gave him a lead that he would hold to the finish, with the added bonus of several more seconds in his pocket.

With no unexpected twists in the script, Gaze rode solo to the finish and took the victory in the Shimano Super Cup Massi La Nucia 2025, as well as becoming the first overall leader of the season.

Tamara Weidmann scores a brilliant victory after dominating from start to finish

The women’s race had in Tamara Weidmann the most outstanding rider of all. The Mondraker Factory Racing XC rider, who had her season and team debut today, was mistress and mistress of the race from the start. The rider hit the ground running at the start; the move was successful, she managed to get ahead of her rivals and made up ground with relative ease.

Weidmann found a pace that no one was able to match. The race was on fire from the start and there was no let-up. The chasing group tried to put up a fight, with Rebecca Henderson determined to fight Tamara’s tyranny.

However, the Austrian responded to every pedal stroke with an even bigger jolt of cranks.

Meanwhile, another of the favourites, Jolanda Neff, who had crashed on the first lap, was stuck in fifth place. Neff recovered and reached podium positions, but despite the ambition she showed, the pace was insufficient to catch the leader.

Thus, Tamara Weidmann remained unbeatable for the rest of the race and reached the finish line in first position to certify the victory in the Shimano Super Cup Massi de La Nucia