Sammie Maxwell celebrates victory in Andorra. Photo: Supplied / Decathlon Ford Racing
New Zealand mountainbiker Sammie Maxwell has had a remarkable win in the latest UCI World Cup cross-country round in Andorra.
She bounced back from two crashes and a puncture to claim the win at Pal Arinsal and extend her lead in the season standings.
Maxwell, riding for Decathlon Ford, came off her bike twice on the rock descent after leading early and then lost time because of a puncture which resulted in a rear wheel change.
There were plenty of crashes and punctures on a tough course, with energy-sapping climbs high up in the Pyrenees.
Maxwell moved her way back to the leading group and waited for her best opportunity taking the lead on the final lap, winning by nine seconds from Alessandra Keller of Switzerland with Sweden's Jenny Rissveds third, after the pair led the attack along with Italian Martina Berta for much of the race.
"You try to win a World Cup, you have to attack. No-one is going to let you have it," said Maxwell, a Paris Olympian who is in her first season at elite level.
"It was all out. I I felt strong but I kept making silly mistakes on the downhills. I just realised I needed a bit of room for myself to take my own lines. I told myself it is at altitude, if you attack up that first climb, you are going to be out of it by the time you get to the back because I learnt that the hard way last year,'' she said.
"Around the back on the last lap my whole body was screaming."
She dedicated her win to injured team-mate Greta Seiwald. "Greta, that was for you,'' an exhausted Maxwell said as she dismounted her bike.
Maxwell had the fastest two lap in the race - the first and last. She had a 335-point lead before the race and extended that to 445 with the win, with Nicole Koller of Switzerland in second place and Rissveds third.
There are four rounds remaining, with the next one at Haute-Savoie in France in three weeks' time.
