The fourth round of the 2018 UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, saw victories go to Dutch athlete Lizzy Witlox and Germany’s Simon Gegenheimer.
One week after being crowned Dutch National Champion in the cross-country Eliminator, Lizzy Witlox went on to take her first UCI World Cup win in the discipline. The 23-year-old, who the day before finished third in a Dutch road race, Kermisronde van de Weebosch, showed she had recovered enough to fight off last year’s winner Coline Clauzure (France) and Sweden’s Ella Holmegard. Clara Brehm (Germany) finished fourth.
Despite not making the main final in Apeldoorn, Norway’s Ingrid Boe Jacobsen remains in the lead of the overall standings with 165 points. Swedish Champion Holmegard lies in second (100 points), with Clauzure hard on her heels, just two points further back.
The French athletes got off to a strong start in the men’s competition with Hugo Briatta setting the fastest time in the qualifying time trial, followed by fellow Frenchman Lorenzo Serres. However, these two athletes did not make the main final, which nevertheless featured another French athlete, UCI World Champion Titouan Perrin-Ganier. He lined up against last year’s winner in Apeldoorn Simon Gegenheimer (GER), UCI World Cup leader Jeroen van Eck (NED) and Sweden’s Anton Olstam.
Gegenheimer dominated the final, leading the entire race and holding off Perrin-Ganier, who had earlier pulled away from van Eck. Olstam finished fourth.
Jeroen van Eck still leads the overall UCI World Cup rankings with 138 points, ahead of Serres (109) and Perrin-Ganier, who moves into third place just four points adrift of Serres.
The fifth round of the 2018 UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup powered by citymountainbike.com will take place in Winterberg, Germany, on September 16.