The small German community of Grosskoschen will welcome some of the best cycle-ball teams in the world on Saturday for the opening round of the 2016 UCI Cycle-ball World Cup.
This first round will see seven-time UCI World Cup Champions from Austria, RV Höchst II (Simon König and Florian Fischer) in action against outsiders Tobias Kolba and Norman Tuppatsch, of the host club RSV Grosskoschen, who start with a wildcard.
In the qualification Group II they will also come up against French team Dorlisheim (Quentin Seyfried/Benjamin Meyer), bronze medallists at the 2015 UCI Indoor Cycling World Championships, Czech team TJ Start Plzen (Ondrej Kydlicek and Josef Reindl) and German reserve side RC Iserlhorn (Marius Hermanns/Sven Holland-Moritz), fresh from bronze medal success at the UEC Elite Cycle Ball European Championships. In Group I, German Cup winners RVS Obernfeld (André and Manuel Kopp) will try to put the disappointment of their sixth-place at the European Championships behind them by avenging their defeat in that competition at the hands of Swiss team RMV Pfungen (Benjamin and Severin Waibel). Czech Cup holders SC Svitavka (Jiri Hrdlicka/Pavel Loskot), Austrian team RV Dornbirn (Martin Lingg/Daniel König) and Belgium’s HZG Beringen (Brecht Damen/Niels Dirikx) complete the group line-up. Action gets underway at 11am CEST, with the final round scheduled to start at 6pm CEST. For more information, click here.
The UCI Cycle-ball World Cup will celebrate two anniversaries in 2016. The series enters its 15th season, while this Saturday’s event marks the 125th round of competition since it began in 2002.
This year, 32 teams from 11 countries will battle it out for a place in the final over eight tournaments held in four countries.
The small community of Großkoschen, with a population of 1300, prepares to host its fourth UCI Cycle-ball World Cup event on Saturday.
Czech athletes Jiri Hrdlicka and Pavel Loskot (SC Svitavka) have featured at every World Cup since the competition began in 2002, competing with different partners at the inaugural event in Brünn that year.
Saturday’s tournament in Großkoschen marks the 54th World Cup start for the Czech pair.
2015 National Champion 2015 UCI Indoor World Championships - 6th 2012 UCI Cycle-ball World Cup Malaysia - 1st 2012-2014 CZE Championships - 2nd