Mountain bike cross-country eliminator: Tormena and Gegenheimer win UCI World Cup overall titles

Coline Clauzure (FRA) and Simon Gegenheimer (GER) won the tenth and final round of the 2022 UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup powered by citymountainbike.com in Winterberg, Germany. The overall titles go to Italy’s Gaia Tormena - her third successive title - and Gegenheimer, his second.

Since victories for Marcela Lima Matos (BRA) and Titouan Perrin-Ganier (FRA) in the opening round in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) in April, the UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup has visited Belgium twice, Sweden, Turkey, Indonesia, India, France and finally Germany.

In the women’s racing Tormena took four wins, with Germany’s Marion Fromberger claiming two consecutive victories, in Asia. Gegenheimer’s solid season included three wins in the men’s competition, with his countryman Felix Klausmann winning two rounds, sandwiched between French victories by Perrin-Ganier and Quentin Schrotzenberger.

On the line in Winterberg

Those performances left an interesting overall situation heading into the final round in Winterberg.

With Fromberger’s crash before the penultimate round in Paris putting her out of contention, Tormena had already been able to clinch the overall title with her victory in front of the Eiffel Tower. Her win in the French capital saw her sitting on a mighty 585 points with one round remaining.

Even with no points from France, the German was guaranteed 2nd overall. The fight for third would be between Didi de Vries (NED) on 303 and Marcela Lima Matos on 302.

In the men’s competition, every position was still in contention. Going into Winterberg, Gegenheimer was leading the way on 380 points, followed by Perrin-Ganier on 374, Schrotzenberger (313) and Klausmann (283).

Clauzure’s class

Second fastest qualifier Tormena crashed on a tight corner near the end of the semi-final and did not make the Big Final. She featured in the Small Final, taking 6th behind Ella Holmegård, and ahead of De Vries (7th).

The Big Final saw three French riders - Flavie Guille, Margaux Borrelly and fastest qualifier Coline Clauzure - joined by Denmark’s Line B Mygdam.

It was a French 1-2-3, with Clauzure taking the win and sending a message to Tormena for the upcoming UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Championships. Borrelly came second and Guille third.

Tormena’s final points tally was 623, from Fromberger’s 457. Lima Matos held third (319) followed by De Vries (309). Clauzure’s victory in Winterberg catapulted her to 5th overall on 219 points.

“I’m very happy to win here two weeks before the UCI World Championships,” said Clauzure. “I’m sorry for Gaia for the race incident… but I felt very strong here today.”

“My knee is hurting, but I think it is nothing serious, so I have to be 100 percent ready for the UCI World Championships,” said overall winner Tormena. “In my opinion the UCI World Cup is the most important part of the year, I am very proud to win the overall.”

Gegenheimer with a photo finish

With 2021 UCI World Cup winner Jeroen van Eck (NED) squeezed out in the semis, the men’s Big Final saw two French riders (four-time UCI World Champion Perrin-Ganier and Schrotzenberger) line up against two Germans (reigning UCI World Champion Gegenheimer and Klausmann).

All eyes were on third-fastest qualifier Gegenheimer and second-fastest qualifier Perrin-Ganier: after qualifying, they were just 1 point apart and whoever was to finish best would take the overall!

The German pushed early but they were all together again on the final long climb, and on the throw to the line there was nothing in it. The clock initially said 0.00 seconds difference between them, before the revised timing showed 0.01 sec in Gegenheimer’s favour. Klausmann took third.

The final overall table saw Gegenheimer top the standings with 455 points from Perrin-Ganier (434). Schrotzenberger took third (351) followed by Klausmann (321) and Mexico’s Daniel Castillo Noyola (143) points.

“Unbelievable!” said Gegenheimer of his race win. “I knew from the beginning that if one of us was first in the race he’d win the overall. I saw the chance to go first on the second lap so I took that chance and went full gas and didn’t look back.”

And of the UCI World Cup overall: “I already won it… But now I’ve won it in front of a home crowd in Germany!”

With the 2022 UCI MTB Eliminator World Cup concluded, attention turns to the UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Championships in Barcelona (Spain) on 2 October.