Double Takes Les Gets
Photos by Michele Mondini. Video by Trax Media
Aldridge and Martin go two-for-two. CFR rolls deep in France.
The mountains above Les Gets carried a different weight this August. Alpine sun sharp on the slopes. Air pressed heavy across the course. Every line demanded exactness. Every lap stripped away the field. Cannondale Factory Racing didn’t bend. They rose.
Friday night lit the stage. Short Track. Six laps at breakneck pace. The kind of race where a breath costs you positions. Charlie Aldridge held steady through the churn. Riders bumping, angles tightening, the course folding on itself. He waited, measured, then opened the gap with a move as clean as it was final. By the time he hit the tape, the noise behind him was already falling away. His first elite World Cup victory. A mark that will not fade.
Two days later the air thickened again. Cross-Country Sunday. Eight laps. Seven riders fighting at the front. CFR jerseys in the mix from the gun. Cole Punchard pulling turns. Charlie Aldridge attempting to claw back after a slide. And at the center, Luca Martin—riding with restraint, letting the heat swirl around him. The penultimate lap told the story. The field cracked. The climb bit. Luca moved. He hit the steepest pitch with no measure spared, flowed through the wooded switchbacks, and emerged alone. A first XCO World Cup win, taken on home soil. A roar from the French crowd that followed him through every corner. Cole, slowed by a broken wheel, fought back into tenth. His command of the early race still the talk of the day.
The women’s race held its own rhythm. Jolanda Neff stayed balanced through the climbs, each lap cut with the same precision. Ninth at the line. A performance that speaks not in spectacle but in certainty. Ana Santos carried a different victory. Back from injury. First full World Cup in months. No soft return. No easing in. She shouldered the full distance with quiet conviction.
By Sunday evening the ledger was clear. Two victories. Four riders in the top ten. A roster showing depth, resilience, and hunger in equal measure.
The Scalpel cut across every frame of the weekend. From Aldridge’s decisive strike and Cole’s elite caliber ride to Martin’s home-soil breakthrough, from Neff’s top-ten control to Ana’s return to the fold. Les Gets became a record of their presence.
This was not a pair of results. This was a passage written into the ongoing chronicle of Cannondale Factory Racing. The kind that shapes seasons and solidifies legends.
Fresh Dirt: CFR Takes Two in Les Gets
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