As the 2021 UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup powered by Kuwait burst into life, we spoke to Round 1 runner-up Jeroen van Eck about this season’s challenges. Van Eck won the UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup in 2018 and was European Champion in the discipline in 2015. For 2021, van Eck has joined the CST PostNL Bafang Mountainbike Racing Team managed by his fellow Dutchman Bart Brentjens, the 1995 UCI World Champion for mountain bike Olympic cross-country (XCO) and 1996 Olympic Champion. Van Eck will target both Eliminator and E-Mountain Bike racing this season.
“The next few months will be packed for me with UCI World Cup events in the Eliminator and E-mountain bike. Then there are the European Championships for Eliminator and UCI World Championships for both E-Mountain Bike and Eliminator,” said Van Eck from his training camp on Lake Garda.
“The UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup events usually start in April and May, but City Mountainbike decided to move the Eliminator series back to August, September and October to be safe with Covid. Elite sport is back with a bang, and now it’s our chance to shine!”
“It depends how many friends and fans will be allowed at the events. We are expecting the supporters to be there. That’s one of the strengths of Eliminator, the sport is so close to the people. So much happens in our two-minute battles! There are almost always crashes, elbow-to-elbow action and sprints, so even if you don’t know much about cycle sport, it’s great to watch!”
“A lot of young riders are still at university or high school and want to combine competition with other things. With Eliminator you can train quite specifically and you don’t need to do as many hours as for cross-country. You can do really well in Eliminator on just 8 to 10 hours a week. Also, it’s technical, which I think is cool for young riders.
If you get a bit of luck you can make it to the semi-final or even the big final and I love that. Even if you are one of the favourites, everything has to go perfectly to plan.”
“As an athlete you focus on continuously developing and taking hold of situations. But in Eliminator you also need to loosen your grip a little and anticipate what might happen.
It's a mental game that a lot of young riders don’t understand straight away. It’s something I had to learn – how to stay calm. Even if you crash, never give up. There could always be another crash on the next corner and suddenly you’re in contention again.”
“There are more nerves in Eliminator, in every corner you need to attack or counter. In contrast, in cross-country you can go flat out for the first corner and have 60 or 90 minutes to recover. Once you have ridden Eliminator, you can be more relaxed in cross-country.”
“I hope everyone can put Covid behind them. We have managed to continue training and the organisers have got the finances in place. Once again I’m looking forward to great races in superb locations.”
“I love circuits in which you can use your strength, circuits with climbs like Graz [venue of the 2021 UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Championships], where you can make up time and it is not just on the first pedals strokes at the start. And there’s Winterberg in Germany with the return to a city park with climbing and descents.”
“It will be a great trip to the UCI World Cup finale in Bahrain. it’s important for Eliminator to take a major step forward by bringing events to the biggest cities.”
“There’s Titouan [Perrin-Ganier], a four-time UCI World Champion, but he’s never won a UCI World Cup! When he sets a goal he is incredibly determined, so maybe his objective is to walk away with the UCI World Cup! Lorenzo Serres has been riding the road, which I think will make him a serious contender. Then there is Simon Gegenheimer [who narrowly beat van Eck in the first round of the UCI World Cup in Leuven, Belgium] – he may be the oldest guy in the field at this highest level, but he’s always up there!”
“But it is Gaia Tormena who I most admire,” (winner of both rounds in 2020 and the 2021 UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup opener in Leuven).
“She has everything. She’s strong, has great technical skills and dominates the racing. Gaia never takes it easy, always goes flat out and that’s something I admire. She won everything two years ago but just missed out in the UCI World Championships last year. It was so close... I was watching right on the line and I couldn’t separate them!”
There is a whole host of action in store for the 2021 UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup powered by Kuwait. Next up is Round 2 in Oudenaarde (Belgium) on 15 August.