UCI Trials World Cup: Glory for Barón, Rolls and Montalvo in Poland

Women: Barón best again

The second round of the 25th edition of the UCI Trials World Cup provided more tight competition in Wadowice, Poland. On Sunday 11 August the winners of the three categories were Spain’s Vera Barón (Women), Great Britain’s Charlie Rolls (Men 26in) and Spain’s Alejandro Montalvo (Men 20in).

It follows the first round in Myrkdalen, Norway, which saw a Spanish clean sweep of wins in each of the three categories, and overall leads for Vera Barón (from her fellow Spaniard Alba Riera and Germany’s Nina Reichenbach), Daniel Barón (from Charlie Rolls and Oliver Weightman – both GBR) and Eloi Palau (from his compatriots Alejandro Montalvo and Borja Conejos).

Here’s how the story unfolded in John Paul II Square…

Women: Barón best again

Following Saturday’s qualification, the six women’s finalists (in order of qualification) were Barón and Riera, Nina Vabre (FRA), Eliška Hříbková (CZE), Reichenbach and Emma Louineau (FRA).

In the first of the afternoon’s three finals, the 16-year-old starlet Riera got off to a great start, scoring 50 on the first of five sections, with Barón hitting 40.

UCI World Champion Reichenbach hit back with 40 on section 3 as Riera struggled, before bouncing back with two 40s of her own. But 20-year-old Barón kept her cool and continued scoring highly. Going into the final section, she led with 140 points from Reichenbach’s 110 and Riera’s 100.

The German’s last section score of 20 put her on a final of 130 points, while Riera’s 40 pushed her score up to 140, to take second behind Barón who also scored 40 for a total of 180 points and a second successive victory.

Men 26in: Rolls shows his class

The men’s 26in finalists, in order of qualification, were the British trio of Charlie Rolls, Oliver Weightman and Jack Carthy, along with the Spanish pair of Daniel Barón and Julen Sáenz de Ormijana, and France’s Nathan Charra.

It was Sáenz who stormed out of the blocks with a 50-point score on the first section, matched by Carthy and bettered by Rolls with 60! Barón bounced back from his zero on section 1 to score 40 on section 2 – while Rolls and UCI World Champion Carthy both made 60 – then Barón disappointed again on the following section with a 20 score.

As Weightman struggled the other two Britons steadily pulled away from Sáenz. Going into the final section the scores stood at Rolls 210 points, Carthy 190 and Sáenz 170, with the other three finalists all below 100 points.

After a tight section 5, where Rolls, Carthy, Sáenz, Weightman and Barón all scored 50, Rolls took top spot with 260 points, ahead of Carthy (240) and Sáenz (220).

Men 20in: masterful Montalvo

After the semi-finals on Sunday morning, the Men’s 20in was the last final to play out, with the three Spaniards the highest scoring qualifiers: Alejandro Montalvo, Borja Conejos, and round 1 winner Eloi Palau, matched up with Niilo Stenvall (FIN), Thomas Pechhacker (AUT) and Dominik Oswald (GER).

It was UCI World Champion Montalvo who started with the most confidence and accuracy, hitting 60 points on both of the first two sections as Stenvall pushed ahead of the other two Spanish riders. While the Finn only scored 10 points on section 3, Conejos and Palau both only posted 20s, putting all three on 100 as Montalvo hit 160…

But section 4’s 50 for Palau and a zero for Stenvall meant they went into the final section with Montalvo on 180, Palau with 150, Conejos 120 and Stenvall and Pechhacker each with 100 points.

The day ended with a convincing victory for Montalvo, posting 60 on section 5, matched by Stenvall, to break up a Spanish 1-2-3, as the Finnish rider took third place from Conejos.

Overall standings

At the halfway stage of the 2024 UCI Trials World Cup, Vera Barón has extended her lead in the women’s overall standings. She has 400 points, followed by Riera (320) and Reichenbach (280). Eloi Palau still leads the men’s 20in overall with 360 points from Montalvo (340) and Conejos (285). Charlie Rolls leads the men’s 26in competition with 360 points from Barón (310) and Carthy (285). The final two rounds will both take place in France: Cordon (13-15 September), and Mouilleron-Le-Captif - Vendée (22-24 November). Results available here.