Known more widely as a winter sports resort, in the Sauerland mountains, the small town of Winterberg in central Germany has developed a special place on the calendar of the UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup powered by Kuwait and in the hearts of the XCE racing community. On Sunday 12 September it plays host to the fourth of six rounds in the 2021 competition, and at the halfway point, following a memorable UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Championships in Graz, Austria, on 5 September, the battle for the UCI World Cup overall standing has rarely been more intense. With 193 points Germany’s Simon Gegenheimer has a narrow advantage over his closest rival Jeroen van Eck (NED) on 184, with Swede Anton Olstam third with 109 points. Italy’s Gaia Tormena leads with a perfect 270 points but that is not enough to dishearten Marion Fromberger of Germany(175) or Sweden’s Ella Holmegård (111). The 2020 round scheduled for Winterberg was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Following that break, the UCI World Cup now returns to Germany, to Winterberg, and more specifically to the venue that played host to rounds in 2017 and 2018: the green and pretty Am Kurpark.
Last time at Winterberg
The 2019 race in Winterberg was on the fast 500-metre Marktplatz course in mid-September almost exactly two years ago. That day Belgium’s Fabrice Mels won the men’s final. Frenchman Hugo Briatta, despite recovering from a broken wrist, was determined to hold off his countryman and team-mate – then UCI World Champion – Titouan Perrin-Ganier in the battle for second place and the overall UCI World Cup title. He did so in the sunny square’s big final, with Van Eck taking fourth and Jay Bytebier (BEL) winning the small final for fifth. Any of these men could win this coming Sunday. In the women’s competition in 2019 it was the newly-crowned UCI World Champion Gaia Tormena who won from Fromberger, Holmegård and Didi de Vries (NED) in the big final while Ukraine’s Iryna Popova won the small final. “In the Eliminator you can lose everything by making one mistake, so we have to stay focussed,” said the teenage Tormena last time out in Winterberg, on her way to her first overall UCI World Cup title. And it is that mature attitude that has helped her succeed. Now in 2021, even though she is still aged just 19, the Italian is an established figure on the Eliminator scene – moreover, she is starting to look unbeatable after regaining her UCI World Champion’s rainbow stripes just days ago. https://uci.ch/mountain-bike/news/2021/2021-uci-mountain-bike-eliminator-world-championships-tormena-and-gegenheimer-on-top
Welcome home, UCI World Champion
Winterberg will also welcome another reigning UCI World Champion, Simon Gegenheimer, who won in Graz after four near-miss podium finishes in previous years.
“I’m enjoying every moment doing what I love,” said ‘Mr Moustache’ after his last-gasp victory in Austria.
He should be delighted to face his first race in the rainbow stripes on home soil. But the German has yet to taste victory in Winterberg… could this be the year? Despite thinking that the fast course suited him, Gegenheimer scored no points there in 2019; a mechanical issue that ruined his time trial resurfaced in the quarter finals. In fact Felix Klausmann was the highest-placed German man in seventh following his fifth places in both 2017 and 2018. In 2021 Klausmann, now aged 24, is again pushing high rankings in the time trials and finding himself competing the finals (taking him to a current sixth place in the overall rankings, just ahead of Perrin-Ganier) and the home race could lift him even further. Gegenheimer podiumed at Winterberg in 2018 on the Am Kurpark grass. It would delight the fans if he could repeat that. But no doubt Van Eck, who led the UCI World Championships race until the final corner, can’t wait for the opportunity to reverse that order!
A German woman to win?
While Tormena will look to cement her position in the UCI World Cup, if Germany is to see a home winner, 20-year-old Marion Fromberger is ready. She has placed second on her last visits to Winterberg and is taking the charge to the Italian Champion race by race. Another young German who would give everything to take the win is Lia Schrievers. The 23-year-old who mixes XCE with cross-country Olympic (XCO) returned from sickness to show off her National Champion’s jersey on the podium at Leuven, Belgium.
Also in the hunt for a Winterberg win is 2016 European Champion Iryna Popova, who won there in 2018. 20-year-old Ella Holmegård has podiumed on both her last races there, and left Graz with a point to prove.