The 2021 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships are nearly upon us. The event runs from 25-29 August in the magnificent region of Val di Sole (Italy) and will attract the very best specialists in cross-country, e-mountain bike, downhill and four-cross. The Women and Men Elite Downhill finals are scheduled for Sunday 29 August when the riders will battle it out on the fearsome Black Snake track.
Last year’s UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Leogang were wet and muddy, and extremely testing both technically and physically.
In the Women Elite Downhill it was Camille Balanche (SUI) who pulled on the rainbow jersey ahead of the previous world champion Myriam Nicole (FRA) and Monika Hrastnik (SLO). In the Men Elite Downhill it was Britain’s Reece Wilson, the Scotsman coping best with the conditions ahead of Austria’s David Trummer on his home track with the day’s fastest Frenchman, Rémi Thirion, in third. But who is ready to step up this year?
The 2021 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships will doubtless be dryer, dustier and faster than 2020. While the first two rounds of the 2021 Mercedes-Benz UCI Mountain Bike World Cup saw mud, the third in Maribor (Slovenia) on 15 August was bone dry, and thus a better gauge to the current form of the challengers for the world titles.
The Women Elite race in Slovenia, just two weeks ahead of the 2021 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships, saw fantastic runs with many of the biggest names in downhill to the fore. Myriam Nicole – 2019 UCI World Champion and on the podium for the last three years – won from Eleanora Farina (ITA), with the Italian producing her best ever Mercedes-Benz UCI Mountain Bike World Cup finish in the Elite category. Almost two seconds back in third was reigning UCI World Champion Balanche (the only rider to make the podium in all three rounds so far this year). Monika Hrastnik came in fourth, just ahead of Tahnée Seagrave (GBR) and Valentina Höll (AUT).
There’s some crossover with the results of the recent European Championships which ran some days earlier at the same venue but on a different course. With Höll, Seagrave and Nicole absent, Hrastnik won, pushing Italian rivals Farina and Widmann to second and third. The rainbow jersey of Balanche was fourth ahead of the young Norwegian Mille Johnset.
It was an impressive run from Eleonora Farina ahead of the UCI World Championships at her home venue, in the region for which the 30-year-old rider is an ambassador. She is a regular top-10 finisher at Val di Sole but is yet to reach the podium in a top-ranked race. Her best result remains fourth in her first season at Elite level, 2014. Maybe 2021 is her year?
The men’s competition at the European Championships was dominated by French and British riders. Loris Vergier took the title half a second ahead of his countryman, Benoît Coulanges. Then came three British riders: twice former UCI World Champion Danny Hart, Elite rookie Daniel Slack and Adam Brayton. Thibaut Dapréla, who won the second round of the 2021 Mercedes-Benz UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Les Gets with stitches in his tongue, qualified fastest but opted not to race in the final.
In the third round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Maribor, four Frenchmen finished in the top six. Vergier got the better of Dapréla, with Laurie Greenland (GBR) completing the podium. Then followed three-time UCI World Champion Greg Minnaar (RSA), and four-time UCI World Champion Loïc Bruni. Benoît Coulanges took sixth with Hart in eighth and Slack tenth.
Vergier seems to be peaking at just the right time, while Dapréla’s recent form is also hard to ignore. Greenland is also showing his qualities and loves Val di Sole. After winning the Downhill at the 2015 Junior UCI Mountain Bike World Championships, he stepped up to the Elite category the following year and took second at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships at the Italian venue. Val di Sole was also the site of his first and so far only Elite victory in the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in 2019. The 24-year-old Bristolian looks ready to do something big.
The Black Snake track promises intense, open battles for the rainbow jerseys.