Two weeks after the tenth and last round of the 2022 UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup powered by Citymountainbike.com, the best riders in this speciality will fight for the rainbow jerseys at the 2022 UCI Mountain Bike cross-country Eliminator (XCE) World Championships to be held on 2 October in Barcelona, Spain.
Reigning champions Gaia Tormena (ITA) and Simon Gegenheimer (GER) are of course among the favourites, and will be giving everything to retain their titles, but in this explosive and fast-raced format, anything can happen.
The 2021 UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Championships were held in Graz, Austria, where Germany’s Simon Gegenheimer took his first title at the age of 32 and Italy’s Gaia Tormena at the age of 19, reclaiming the rainbow stripes she first won in 2019. This year the action returns to Barcelona, where a round of the UCI World Cup was held in 2021.
The route of the UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup round held in Barcelona in 2021 can be found here.
Favourites among the women
Tormena made certain that 2021 would not be a repeat of 2020’s photo-finish – where she lost to Isaure Medde (FRA). In the 2021 final she led from the start and won comfortably ahead of another Frenchwoman, Noémie Garnier. The young Italian is favourite to take the victory again in 2022 but faces strong competition.
Coline Clauzure (FRA) won the final round of the UCI XCE World Cup in Winterberg (Germany), powering to the win after Tormena crashed, hitting a barrier in the semi-final. Clauzure is determined to continue that form in Spain.
With the second ranked rider in the 2022 UCI XCE World Cup, Marion Fromberger (GER), out with injury, the other women fighting for the victory in Tormena include Didi de Vries (NED), Ella Holmegård (SWE) and Marcela Lima Matos, the Brazilian who won the first round of the UCI World Cup this season.
Tormena has been mixing her XCE racing with Enduro competitions, but for the season’s finale, has done everything she can to be ready for the 2022 UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Championships. “It was in my plans to race the EWS in France but after the crash in Winterberg at the UCI XCE World Cup we decided to skip this race and be 100% focused on the last XCE in Barcelona, next weekend.”
Strong candidates among the men
In 2021, Gegenheimer beat Dutch Jeroen van Eck, with a last move that paid off: “Jeroen was so strong I couldn't believe I could catch him,” said Gegenheimer after the final, “In the last lap I had to focus on the final corner.”
This year, the Dutchman missed much of the UCI World Cup, but has shown good form and come back to score points in the final two rounds.
The more likely threat to the German comes from four-time UCI World Champion Titouan Perrin-Ganier. The French has been on excellent form, winning two rounds of the UCI World Cup and always being involved in the action. After losing out on the overall UCI World Cup title on the line in the final race, the 9-times national champion was respectful to the winner, but already aiming for a re-match: “Another big congratulations to my best rival @simon_gegenheimer. We have had great battles the whole season, but it was always super fair, like it has been for 10 years. Thanks for the emotions and can't wait to have another battle with you. I will be back.”
Other men are fighting for the rainbow jersey – not least the UCI World Cup winners Quentin Schrotzenberger (FRA) and Felix Klausmann (GER).
The competitions in Barcelona will be streamed live on Saturday 2 October on the UCI website.