Germany’s Marion Fromberger and Slovenia’s Jakob Klemenčič confirm their first UCI MTB Eliminator World Cup powered by citymountainbike.com (XCE) overall titles. However, it was Italy’s Gaia Tormena and France’s Lorenzo Serres who won the year’s sixth and final round in Barcelona, Spain, on Saturday 11 October.
Fromberger for the win
After four rounds which took the riders from Dushanbe (Tajikistan) in April to Leuven (Belgium) in June, Aalen, (Germany) in July and Sakarya (Turkey) in August, the riders faced an exciting circuit in São Paulo (Brazil) one week after the Turkish round.
Second place in São Paulo for the series leader Fromberger - behind her closest rival Mariia Sukhopalova (UKR) - was enough to leave the 25-year-old German with an unassailable advantage going into the last round. Thanks to her victories in Aalen and Sakarya, Fromberger had 505 points before Barcelona, followed by UCI World Champion Sukhopalova with 365 and Didi de Vries (NED) on 287. And, while the crown was already decided, with Adéla Pernická (CZE) on 175 points, positions 2, 3, 4 and 5 were all up for grabs before last Saturday’s confrontation.
Pernická was fastest in the time trial, with Tormena 2nd, and the two athletes were drawn together in a semi-final with Sukhopalova. The Italian won, showing the form that won her the European Champion’s jersey a week early, and the UCI World Champion passed the Czech Pernická for second shortly before the finish. In the other semi Fromberger came past Margaux Borrelly (FRA) on the line to progress alongside De Vries.
Five-times XCE UCI World Cup overall winner Tormena – who won in Leuven this year, but has split her season with road racing – pushed tremendous pace in the final. Fromberger wanted to go out with the win, but couldn’t catch her. Sukhopalova was third and De Vries fourth.
“I just wanted to win so badly today,” said Tormena. “I really gave everything for this race, because I’ve already won many times here in Barcelona.”
The results confirm Fromberger the overall winner with 595 points, Sukhopalova second on 437, followed by De Vries with 352. Tormena and Pernická tied with 235 points, with the Italian rider taking 4th overall thanks to her victories.
“It’s just amazing to win this title. It’s the first time for me, and that makes it really special,” said Fromberger. “I knew that Gaia would be here again, back racing. It was amazing to race against her again. Now we can celebrate together in Barcelona tonight!”
Klemenčič clinches it!
Klemenčič missed the big final in Brazil’s penultimate round, losing points to his two closest challengers, Jeroen van Eck (NED) and Serres, who did make it through to the final four. But after the Slovenian won the small final, Van Eck and Serres only managed to finish 3rd and 4th respectively (behind UCI World Champion Edvin Lindh, and Brazil’s Luiz Henrique Cocuzzi), missing an opportunity to close the gap further.
The trio came into the final round with Klemenčič still the series leader, but with the overall title – and other positions – still in the balance. Klemenčič arrived in Barcelona on 389 points, Van Eck (winner in Leuven) second with 319, Lindh third on 315, and Serres fourth with 265.
The Barcelona round was raced over two laps of the course that’s 200m longer than previous incarnations – inviting power and speed – but retaining the iconic steps descent. After 2024 overall winner Lindh (and five-time UCI World Champion Titouan Perrin-Ganier, of France) went out in the quarter-finals, Van Eck slid out on a fast corner in his semi-final – then suffered a mechanical in the small final. Lying in fifth-overall ,Simon Gegenheimer (GER) progressed behind Serres, to face his countryman Louis Krauss and Klemenčič in the big final.
A closely fought final saw Serres take the lead early on lap 2, before Klemenčič made a vicious attack on the final climb in an attempt to go out with the victory. But he unclipped, threw himself off balance and dropped back to roll in fourth behind the two Germans.
“I’m really happy to win here in Barcelona, it’s my second win in a row!” said Serres. “I told everyone I wanted to finish my season on a high, and that’s exactly what I did today.”
Serres backed up his Sakarya win, but it was Klemenčič’s victories in Dushanbe and Aalen that really counted. The final table shows Klemenčič the overall winner with 459 points with Serres jumping to second on 385 and Van Eck retaining third (334) ahead of Lindh (316).
“I had to fight until the end, but it was enough to take the overall title, I’m more than happy with that,” said Klemencic. “I think Jeroen and Edvin were both a bit nervous, they made some mistakes. I just kept my head focused, and it paid off.”