The 2022 edition starts on Saturday 23 April with the first date for the super-fast format to be raced in Abu Dhabi (UAE).
Although it’s the first UCI World Cup in Abu Dhabi it’s not the first time the Eliminator has visited the region, as Dubai hosted a spectacular test event at the end of the 2019 season. France’s then UCI World Champion Titouan Perrin-Ganier won ahead of the current UCI World Champion, Germany’s Simon Gegenheimer, while Sweden’s Ella Holmegård was victorious in the women’s competition in front of Germany’s Marion Fromberger, who finished second overall in last year’s UCI World Cup standings with 253 points.
Leading women contenders
While Holmegård is not scheduled to race in Abu Dhabi, Fromberger will be there to take on Italy’s Gaia Tormena, 2021 UCI World Champion and UCI World Cup overall winner (with a commanding 450 points), and other contenders such as Didi de Vries (NED) and Marcela Lima Matos, winner at Congonhas the last time the Eliminator UCI World Cup visited her home country, Brazil.
Tormena has been mixing up the formats in preparation, and had back luck with punctures at her last, longer-distance race, the HC cross-country Olympic event, Capoliveri Legend Cup XCO: “Not my day… Not in the best condition to face such a hard race. The legs weren’t so bad but 2 flats made my day even more difficult… Now full focus on the next one, the first Eliminator of the season.”
Men’s champions on the start line
Both Gegenheimer (2nd overall in 2021, on 300 points) and Perrin-Ganier (3rd, with 249 points) are set to start this weekend in the UAE, battling shoulder-to-shoulder, bar-end-to-bar-end with the likes of Lorenzo Serres (FRA), Anton Olstam (SWE) and Felix Klausmann (GER).
Simon Gegenheimer has been in the Emirates getting ready for the opener:
“Final training block completed… A bit tired but good sensations and all set for the World Cup opener this Saturday at @wolfis Abu Dhabi”
One man who won’t make the first event is 2021 UCI World Cup overall winner(331 points, concluded by victory in the final race in Barcelona, Spain), Jeroen van Eck. The Dutchman has a clash with the UCI E-Mountain Bike Cross-country World Cup, in Monaco over the same weekend.
He’ll be playing catch-up in the Eliminator campaign and has been proudly practising on his new bike with its European Champion colours.
Those who are present will be looking to grab early points and establish a presence on the leaderboard for the overall UCI World Cup standings, which is set to see the biggest points tallies ever.
A truly global showcase
With 11 rounds scheduled in nine countries, the 2022 campaign sees the highest number of races (previous highest was seven in both 2018 and 2019) and the greatest geographical diversity of host venues.
After the season-opener in the Middle East, the UCI World Cup will continue in Europe: Leuven (Belgium) and Falun (Sweden) in June, Aalen (Germany) and Valkenswaard (Netherlands) in July, then back to Belgium with a race in the familiar setting of Oudenaarde on 14 August. New to the series will be the Turkish round the following weekend in the UCI Bike City of Sakarya. Eliminator racing got great exposure in Turkey last year, with the National Series of races – organised with the UCI World Cup organisers City Mountainbike – in Fethiye, Marmaris and Bodrum late in the 2021 season, with two wins for Felix Klausmann.
The 2022 UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup powered by citymountainbike.com is then heading to more new pastures, with consecutive weekends of racing in Palangkaraya (Indonesia) the last weekend of August then Leh/Ladakh (India) the first weekend in September.
These new venues will continue to raise the global profile of the format before the riders return to Europe for the final two fixtures: in Paris (France) then Winterberg (Germany), which hosts an Eliminator UCI World Cup event for the fifth time.
“We will again see some thrilling races on several terrains. The expansion of our community has brought us to several new cities that offer tremendous opportunities for adrenaline-filled mountain biking,” said Kristof Bruyneel, managing director of City Mountainbike. “We are very grateful to have a common long-term vision with our committed co-organisers to deliver action-packed Eliminator racing across the world.”
Two weeks after the crowning of the overall 2022 UCI World Cup winners, the athletes will again confront each other at the UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Championships in Barcelona (Spain) on 2 October.