After the spectacular showdown in Indonesia in November 2023, this year’s UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Championships will take place on an ultra-fast and obstacle-filled urban track in Aalen, Germany. All the action takes place on the afternoon of Saturday 13 July.
The reigning UCI World Champions are Italy’s Gaia Tormena, who has been wearing the rainbow bands for the last three years, and France’s Titouan Perrin-Ganier, the title holder for five consecutive years, six in total.
Home hopes
While there is no round of the 2024 UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup powered by citymountainbike.com in Germany, the UCI World Championships will provide a unique opportunity for the numerous German riders in the women’s and men’s field to harness the power of home support.
Nils-Obed Riecker has worked his way into the UCI World Cup overall top five, and experienced hands such as Felix Klausmann and National Champions Simon Gegenheimer and Marion Fromberger, who “Can’t wait to start” should not be overlooked.
Gegenheimer knows just how close the margins can be, having beaten Titouan Perrin-Ganier in Winterberg, Germany, by 0.01-sec in the final race of the 2022 UCI World Cup for this spectacular mountain bike format. “Racing in big cities, you cannot describe, it’s a really special feeling,” says 2021 UCI World Champion Gegenheimer.
The last time Aalen hosted a UCI World Cup round, in July 2023, the Germans demonstrated impressive form: Klausmann won the men’s final from Perrin-Ganier, while Lia Schrievers was victorious in the women’s event with fellow Germans Lina Huber and Marion Fromberger finishing in third and fourth respectively. Second-placed Tormena prevented the Germans from making a clean sweep of the women’s podium.
Tormena the one to beat
Five rounds of the 2024 UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup powered by citymountainbike.com have been raced so far this year, in France, Spain, Indonesia, Türkiye and Belgium, with three remaining: Brazil in August; India in September; and Saudi Arabia in November.
Tormena comfortably leads the women’s overall standings with three victories (440 points) ahead of Dutch National Champion Didi De Vries (296 points), who took her debut win in Palangkaraya, Indonesia. Marion Fromberger is the other athlete to have won a round this season (in Paris, France), however it is a consistent Madison Boissiere (FRA) who currently lies third in the overall standings with 268 points.
“It was my last race before the UCI World Championships so it could be my last race with the rainbow jersey, so I wanted to honour it like I did from the first day,” said Gaia Tormena, celebrating her latest win in Belgium.
New UCI World Cup winners in the mix
In the men’s racing at this year’s UCI World Cup, winning riders include France’s Lorenzo Serres on home soil, and three athletes who tasted victory for the first time at this level: Romania’s Edy-Karoly Molnar, New Zealand’s Lochlan Brown and Sweden’s Edvin Lindh.
Another first-time winner is the young Austrian Theo Hauser who seems to have tapered his form best: after finishing second then third in rounds three and four the two previous weekends, he took his maiden victory in the most recent round in Leuven, Belgium.
“This victory is great, but I can say that this is just the start. I want to win more, in the UCI World Cup and the UCI World Championships!” said Hauser afterwards. “I will go with these emotions to Aalen and I hope to do well there.”
Lindh won in Sakarya, Türkiye, and finished second behind Hauser in Belgium. He tops the overall UCI World Cup standings with 376 points from the ever-dangerous Serres. Hauser has moved into third.
With so many new winners and close races this season, the battles for the rainbow jersey promise to be intense. Racing will be streamed on YouTube.