Four teams from Germany and two each from Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic (the French team was forced to withdraw due to injury) will confront each other in the Final of this season’s UCI World Cup, the 19th edition of the series.
Everything is at stake: the best-ranked teams from the season’s previous rounds confront each other in Großkoschen for a standalone tournament where the winners will claim the UCI Cycle-ball World Cup trophy.
And in the middle of it all – benefitting from a wildcard entry - is an ambitious junior team. Tim and Eric Lehmann, from the host club RSV Großkoschen, are contesting their first year in the men's class. As Saturday’s hosts, their club receives a wildcard to the UCI World Cup Final, and its two top talents are set to represent Großkoschen at this highest level in the club's 100th anniversary year.
The twins are considered in Germany as great future hopes. As well as winning seven national championship titles from the U13 to U19 categories, they were U19 European Champions and recently secured the runner-up title as the youngest team in the final round of the U23 European Championships.
Tim and Eric were practically born into cycle-ball. Their grandfather had played this game and their father Daniel was a successful first and second division player for a long time until ending his competitive career in 2016. His sons have ambitious plans. “We definitely want to play in a UCI World Championships one day and then do the best we can,” they say in an interview with the local TV seenluft24.de.
As newcomers to the 2nd Bundesliga last year, they wanted to attack at the front and play for promotion to the first league – however, the Covid-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of the season. But as the new German Cup winners and U23 European silver medallists, Tim and Eric go into their first UCI tournament with momentum and self-confidence. “We are very proud that we have achieved this this year. After the long corona break, a great burden has fallen off our shoulders with this success.”
Top class field at Großkoschen
So now the twins’ UCI World Cup debut comes with the best teams of the shortened season. Although only three of the planned eight qualifying tournaments could be held in 2021, this does not detract from the top-class field in the Final. Amongst the favourites at Großkoschen are the newly crowned UCI World Champions Gerhard and Bernd Mlady (RMC Stein/GER), their runners-up at the UCI World Championships Severin and Benjamin Waibel (RMV Pfungen/SUI) as well as the UCI World Championship bronze medallists Patrick Schnetzer/Stefan Feuerstein (RV Dornbirn/AUT). Schnetzer is a six-time UCI World Cup winner and defending champion.
These favourites are joined by two experienced Czech teams Favorit Brno (Jan Havlíček/Robert Zvolánek fourth at the UCI World Championships) and Mo Svitávka HAVLÍČEK (Jiří Hrdlička/Roman Staněk) as well as national championship runners-up from not only Germany (André Kopp/Raphael Kopp, RV Obernfeld), but also Austria (Pascal Fontain/Robert Rutkowski, Dornbirn II) and Switzerland (Lukas Schönenberger/Andreas Zaugg, RMV Mosnang).
Who will progress?
In the preliminary round Group II, it will be exciting to see who makes the semi-finals, where UCI World Champion Stein, silver medallists Pfungen and the German UCI World Championship substitute team Obernfeld are favoured.
In Group I, the local heroes Tim and Eric from Großkoschen would like to spring a surprise, progressing behind Dornbirn, third placed in the UCI World Championship. To do this, however, they have to leave Mosnang, Stein II and Dorlisheim behind.
The UCI Cycle-ball World Cup Final takes place on 27 November in the Seesporthalle Großkoschen, starting at 10.45am. with the qualification round. The final and placement matches will be played from 6.30pm. Restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic means there will be no public. More information here.