XCR: who will upset France?
The first title of mountain bike 2022 UCI World Champion will be awarded in Les Gets on Wednesday (24 August), in the team relay. Teams comprise three men and three women from Junior, U23 and Elite age groups. Typically, the teams comprise one woman and one man from each category, but various substitutions are allowed from squads of riders who are already entered for the other races.
The two favourite nations – and the XCR winners for the last eight years – are France and Switzerland. The French have won the last two years (Val di Sole, Italy, 2021 and Leogang, Austria, 2020), displacing Switzerland who were victorious in the previous three editions. Can France make it three in a row in their home UCI World Championships?
Alongside Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Spain will be amongst the nations who would like to upset the home team’s plans to claim the first title of the 2022 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships. Other nations ambitious to set the tone for the forthcoming races include the USA, the Netherlands and Great Britain.
XCC: It’s going to be a blast!
The cross-country short track races are on the evening of Friday 26 August – the slot they’ve made their own with the thrilling introduction to UCI World Cup weekends. Bertrand Josué, Events Manager at Les Gets, explains: “The XCC course is very short and compact, being entirely located around the XCO start/finish area. With only 1km in length and few technical difficulties, riders have to give their all to stay ahead. Depending on the conditions, the strategies differ: either the riders give their all from the start, or they ride together and watch each other before accelerating on the last laps.” In the Women’s XCC the top three from the 2021 UCI World Championships – UCI World Champion Sina Frei (SUI), Evie Richards (GBR) and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (FRA) – face three of the top five XCC riders overall in the 2022 UCI World Cup: Jenny Rissveds (SWE), Anne Terpstra (NED), and Alessandra Keller SUI). And with other big names including Jolanda Neff (SUI), Haley Batten (CAN) and Americans Gwendalyn Gibson and Kate Courtney on the start list, it’s set to be a great battle.
For the men’s race, with the exception of Mathias Flückiger (provisionally suspended), four of the top five in the 2022 UCI World Cup overall standing will compete: Switzerland’s Nino Schurter, Alan Hatherly (RSA), Vlad Dascalu (ROM), and Maxime Marotte (FRA). They will be confronted by the three XCC medallists from the 2021 UCI World Championships: Christopher Blevins (USA), Brazil’s Henrique Avancini and Maximilian Brandl (GER).
Winner on his home course, Snowshoe, Blevins’ confidence must be high as he tries to defend his title, but he also faces threats from Filippo Colombo (SUI), Spain’s David Valero Serrano, Jose Gerardo Ulloa Arevalo (MEX), Germany’s Luca Schwarzbauer and Tom Pidcock (GBR).
Cross-country Olympic: headline act
“In the cross-country, we have refined the existing course by modifying certain technical sections to highlight the riding qualities and to favour beautiful confrontations,” continues Bertrand Josué. “The most complete riders should be able to make the most of their skills on these challenging sections. The weather conditions are to be taken into account, as we saw at the UCI World Cup in 2021, the rain adds a lot of difficulties on these sections of roots and meadows.”
Our latest form guide comes from the European Championships in Munich, Germany, 19-20 August. In the men’s race Olympic Champion Tom Pidcock, after crashing on the first corner and working his way back from 30th position, won from Sebastian Fini Cartensen (DEN), Filippo Colombo (SUI), Victor Koretzky (FRA) and Thomas Litscher (SUI) all showing their form. There were some big European names not racing, including Schurter, Valero, Italy’s Luca Braidot and Titouan Carod (FRA) – all 2022 UCI World Cup race winners. Riders from outside Europe who are in contention include Hatherly, Avancini, and New Zealand’s Sam Gaze, who recently retained his Commonwealth Games title.
“The idea was to make it hard for myself because next week is the big goal. I will try my best to be in top shape,” said Tom Pidcock.
As the young Yorkshireman looks to emulate Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s feat of becoming road, mountain bike XCO and cyclo-cross UCI World Champion in the same year, attention turns to the Women Elite XCO…
As the rain came down for the women’s race in Munich, two riders notably absent from the recent North American rounds of the UCI World Cup – Ferrand-Prévot and Loana Lecomte
– broke away in Munich. When a mud-related mechanical held up the reigning European Champion, her younger compatriot slogged away to a clear victory.
“I like every condition, but when there is rain and a lot of mud, a lot of other riders don’t like these conditions,” said the new European Champion Loana Lecomte.
The Netherlands’ Anne Terpstra (silver medalist in 2020 and 2021) was third, closely followed by Olympic Champion and 2017 UCI World Champion Jolanda Neff, Caroline Bohe (DEN) in 5th, followed by Alessandra Keller (who had taken Snowshoe UCI World Cup victory in the rain) and her fellow Swiss, Sina Frei. Outside of Europe, look to Batten, Courtney and Australian Rebecca McConnell.
The Women Junior and Men Junior XCO races will take place on Thursday 25 August, while the remaining XCO races will be contested on Sunday 28 August: Women Under-23 and Men Under-23 in the morning, followed by the two Elite races in the afternoon.