On 15-17 September the UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships return to the Nordic region for the first time since 2005, when the winners in Lillehammer, Norway, were the legendary Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå (NOR) and Thomas Frischknecht (SUI). It’s a special area for cross-country marathon (XCM) riding. Between them, since the UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships were inaugurated in 2003, Norwegian and Danish riders have dominated the women’s racing with 11 victories from the 19 events.
But the winning nationalities have diversified in recent years, with the last three coming from Austria (Mona Mitterwallner, 2021), Switzerland (Ramona Forchini, 2020) and France (Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, 2019). In fact there have been no podium medalists in the last three years from either country, and we must look back to 2018 for Annika Langvad (DEN) with her second consecutive victory and fifth in eight years.
For the men, the podium has seen a wider range of nationalities, with South Americans recently mixing it with the traditional European countries. The reigning UCI World Champion is Germany’s Andreas Seewald, following Colombian Héctor Páez’s double win (2019, 2020) and Brazilian Henrique Avancini’s 2018 victory.
Fast course
This year, we can expect fast riders to be at the fore. While the course takes a typical marathon combination of gravel road, narrow paths and singletrack, it’s altogether not hugely technical, so a high average pace is anticipated.
It’s a circuit course, 40km long and featuring two main climbs providing 500 metres ascent. The men race three laps for a total of 120km, while the women complete two full laps plus an additional 7.5km loop at the 24km mark, totalling 87.5km race distance.
A taste of Danish cycling
To get the inside line we spoke with one of the 2022 UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships organisers, Joan Løgstrup, and asked, what makes this year’s event so special?
“The settings around theUCI World Championships in Haderslev makes it special. The race will start in the city at a great event area, where the riders will pass two or three times. So it is a great race for the spectators and for the riders. Along the route the local communities have made hotspots, where they can follow the race and cheer the riders and celebrate the event together – so it will be an event full of atmosphere.
“The area of Haderslev is very beautiful. The route revolves around the lakes that were formed in the ice age; Haderslev Lake, Hindemade, Tørning Lake and Stevning Lake. And there’s the forest of Pamhule with its very natural singletrack.”
The world has taken notice of Danish cycling in 2022, and Løgstrup outlines more detail on the area’s credentials across cycling’s disciplines.
“In 2019 the nearby city of Bogense hosted the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships with great success. And this summer of course we had the Grand Depart in Copenhagen, where the Tour de France started – and on the third stage went through Haderslev in Nørregade, where we host the route for the 2022 UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships. The national Danish Road Race PostNord Danmark Rundt went through the area of Tørning Mølle, where the riders will pass on our route.
“We have had some great athletes that have done well at XCM, not least Annika Langvad who won the UCI World Championships several times. Over the years mountain biking has been growing immensely in Denmark, catching up on road cycling. But overall, Denmark is a cycling nation whether it comes to sports or transportation where a great percentage of Danes bike to work and school every day.”
Riders to watch
With defending UCI World Champions and cross-country legends ready to race, there are several riders to look out for in the women’s and men’s events.
“We are very much looking forward to seeing Pauline Ferrand-Prévot on Danish soil,” continues Joan Løgstrup, “We will also see Jordan Sarrou and we are very excited to see if the French duo will dominate both races.
“Then of course last year’s UCI World Champion, Mona Mitterwallner (AUT), is very much worth noting as she has also done very well in the UCI World Cup. On the Danish National Team we have Caroline Bohé who finished P8 overall in the UCI World Cup and will be racing on home soil. We also have Giada Specia (ITA) who finished P4 last year in women elite.
“On the men’s side we are also looking forward to seeing the strength of Luca Braidot (ITA) and Vlad Dascalu (ROM), and of course the Danish riders Sebastian Fini Carstensen, and Simon Andreassen who won the National Championships on the route last year. 2021’s winner, Andreas Seewald (GER) is on the entry list to defend his title. We’ll also see last year’s number two, Diego Alfonso Arias Cuervo (COL) and number three José Dias (POR).”
It’s not long until we find out who succeeds: both races are on Saturday 17 September.