Events: UCI World MTB Championships

Burry Stander leads the start of the U23 men's race Image courtesy of UCI

The 19th UCI World Mountain Bike Championships are in full swing this weekend at Val di Sole, Italy. This is Italy’s third time hosting the World Championships after Ciocco in 1991 and Livigno in 2005.

A record number of riders have registered for the World Championships: more than 970 riders representing 52 countries. Of those, 532 will compete in the cross-country, 261 in downhill and 96 in 4-cross. In comparison, the 2007 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Fort William, Great Britain attracted 715 participants from 47 countries.

The week started off with Junior and U23 cross-country action Thursday and Friday followed by downhill and four cross on Saturday and will conclude with Elite XC on Sunday.

U23 XC
Predicting a winner in the women’s U23 XC race was very difficult. Ren Chengyuan (China), Nathalie Schneitter (Switzerland) and Tereza Hurikova (Czech Republic) were all favorites based on UCI World Cups results. But that didn’t stop Tanja Zakelj from Slovenia, who took the lead from the start. Zakelj, who was the 2006 Juniors World Champion, didn’t let Nathalie Schneitter (Switzerland) get past her. Schneitter almost lost second place to a flat tire on the final lap, but rallied to keep Aleksandra Davidowicz (Poland) in third.

Thomas Frischknecht's Swiss protégé, Nino Schurter, won the U23 XC World title for the second time in this category. The young rider’s only competition was from Burry Stander—the twenty-year-old South African who nearly won the World Cup in Vallnord. Schurter and Stander faced off in an exciting duel that left all other riders several minutes behind. Two laps from the finish, Schurter outpace his rival and finally gapped Stander at the line by 41 seconds.

4X
Melissa Buhl pulled out all the stops on the busiest day of the World Championships and walked away wearing her own set of rainbow stripes. The Arizona native had a very busy schedule, competing in downhill first and then four-cross on Saturday. Buhl started off on the right track finishing 10th in the downhill. After a few hours of rest the 26-year-old headed for the four-cross start line. Buhl’s skill level exceeded that of her competition, gapping doubles while the other women went around, giving her a clear advantage and a spot in the final heat.

Event favorites Anneke Beerten of the Netherlands and Czech rider Romana Labounkova sped to an early lead, but miscalculated the course’s third sharp corner. Buhl caught up to the duo nailed that tricky turn and passed up her competition for the biggest win of her career.

Buhl’s victory is the only US medal at the ’08 thus far. Brian Lopes was favored to medal in men’s four cross, but his hopes of repeating victory were dashed when Roger Rinderknecht stuffed the American into the second turn in the semis.

Without Lopes, Australian Jared Graves was the clear favorite in the final heat. Graves posted the fastest time in Friday’s time-trial qualification round, and was undefeated through his preliminary rounds. Unfortunately, Graves saw his chances evaporate on the course’s second turn as well. The Aussie was quickest out of the gate, but got caught between Frenchman Mickael Deldycke and Rinderknecht, who all tangled up in a heap. The last man out of the gate, Spaniard Rafael Alvarez, sped past the wreckage to his first-ever world title. Rinderknecht and Deldycke finished 2 and 3.

DH
Rachel Atherton (Great Britain) continued her domination of everything downhill this year at today’s Worlds competition. Rachel beat former World Champion Sabrina Jonnier (France) by nearly 12 seconds! The sister of the Atherton clan, who dominated the Vallnord World Cup this year, remains at the top of her game and now she has the rainbow stripes to prove it. Emmeline Ragot (France) finished in third followed by Floriane Pugin (France) and Mio Suemasa (Japan). After Rachel’s victory all eyes were on her brother Gee to see if the Atheretons would, yet again, keep it in the family.

As expected there was no shortage of drama in Saturday’s downhill event. Race favorites Sam Hill and Gee Atherton were a toss up with a bit of a nod going to Gee after smashing the Vallnord World Cup and Sam’s off game thus far in ’08. And that’s exactly how it ended up, but not after Hill gave it everything he had, blasting through the course split with a whopping six-second lead only to slide out and crash in the second to last corner, thus throwing away the win. Gee won the World title making this the very first time a brother-sister duo has held a men’s and women’s world championships together.

Steve Peat once again finished in second place, his fourth Worlds second place finish. He was obviously frustrated, but still happy he had lost to a fellow countryman. Hill’s time was good enough for a bronze medal. Greg Minnaar followed them all in fourth. Two-time World Champ Fabien Barel was in fifth. Pete’s teammate, Josh Bryceland, won the Junior Downhill race. Six weeks ago a crash in Maribor, Slovenia almost ended Josh’s season, but he found the zone and blazed to victory on a smooth run that would have placed him tenth in the men’s elite class.

Gee Atherton's race-winning run

Sam Hill's third place run