Thirteen competitors from eight countries will be on the starting line in the Elite Women category scheduled for Friday afternoon. Twice UCI World Champion, the Slovak Tatiana Janickova will be keen to continue her winning streak and to triumph in her first round of the season in the World Cup. Her two main rivals will be Janine Jungfels from Australia, victorious in Méribel, and Nina Reichenbach from Germany, ranked third in the World Championships. However, Debi Studer from Switzerland, Perrine Devahive from Belgium and Christina Sykorova from Slovakia will also want to seize their chance in the absence of the Spanish rider Gemma Abant.
In the Elite Men category, there will be 98 pilots: 50 in the Elite Men 20’’ and 48 in the Elite Men 26’’. On this occasion, the two new World Champions will appear before the Swiss crowd wearing their new rainbow jerseys. Both are used to donning this garment, as they are quite simply the recordmen of the number of titles held in their respective categories: eight for the Spaniard Benito Ros (20’’) and five for Frenchman Gilles Coustellier (26’’). Needless to say that they are both experienced pilots.
At the Moutier event, Abel Mustieles will be the most likely rider to get in front of Benito Ros, his successor in the worldwide rankings. The two Spaniards have been neck and neck for four seasons now, and it is always difficult to predict who will climb onto the highest step on the podium, even though since last year Mustieles has a slight advantage. Undefeated in the World Cup since the Geneva final in 2012 (!), he will be present on the sections at Moutier in the position of leader in the general rankings. In the race for the podium, the German Raphael Pils, the Dutch Rick Koekoek, the Spaniard Ion Areitio, and the French riders Théau Courtes and Marius Merger seem to be best equipped to get a result. However, keep an eye on the Swiss pilots Lucien Leiser, Jérôme Chapuis and Loris Braun, who will endeavour to shine at home.
With a recent world title to his name, Gilles Coustellier will start the race as favourite. Although we can expect that his fellow countryman, Vincent Hermance, will as usual be his great rival, we must not lose sight of the Briton, Jack Carthy, who is leader in the general rankings. Having won a second world title in the Junior category, Carthy wants to establish himself firmly as a leader in the Elite category with a second consecutive win in the World Cup. However, this trio could potentially be unsettled by the French riders Kevin Aglae and Giacomo Coustellier, the Belgian Iciar Van den Berh, the Hungarian Laszlo Hegedus, the British rider Andrei Burton, the Spaniard Rafa Roura or the German Hannes Herrmann.
Let’s meet up then from Friday 19th September for the Elite Men 20’’ and 26’’ qualifiers, and the Elite Women race. On Saturday 20th, the semi-finals involving the top 10 pilots will take place, and during the evening we will have the finals featuring the eight best pilots of the day. As the event takes place over two days, exceptionally there will be no super final in this UCI Trials World Cup.
List of registered participants Programme Official website