Following the tradition, all those involved in the Nissan UCI Mountain Bike World Cup voted for the best events of the 2008 season. For the first time this year, the downhill and four-cross events were ranked separately. The winners are: Offenburg (GER) for Olympic cross-country, Fort William (SCO) for downhill, Bromont (CAN) for four-cross and Ornans (FRA) for marathon cross-country.
CROSS COUNTRY: All-round agreement for Offenburg
On the World Cup calendar since last season only, this event, organized by Anna and Jörg Scheiderbauer and their team, succeeded in taking the honours thanks to a remarkable organization and a particularly spectacular circuit.
Houffalize (BEL), which has often won, has to make do with second place, while Mont-Sainte-Anne (CAN) takes third place.
DOWNHILL: Fort William claims back the trophy
The 2007 trophy is the only one missing from Fort William’s collection. And for a reason… the team from Rare Management, led by Mike Jardine and Lesley Beck, organized the UCI Mountain Bike and Trials World Championships that year. As soon as it returned to the World Cup calendar, Fort William easily won the title of best downhill event. The huge crowd that amasses along the course each year is used to this result.
Once again in the top three, Mont-Sainte-Anne is second, while Maribor (SLO) is voted into third place.
FOUR CROSS: Bromont for its track
After nine years’ absence, this small Canadian ski resort organized a triple World Cup event. Thanks to the commitment of the organizing committee and particularly the resort, the Bromont track came out ahead of Fort William, which is ranked second. Maribor takes another third place.
CROSS-COUNTRY MARATHON: Ornans goes down in history
Ornans had the honour of hosting the last Marathon Cross-country World Cup event in history. From next year, this discipline will no longer feature on the World Cup calendar.
With more than 3000 participants and an organization without hitches, the little French town wins the trophy in front of Manavgat (TUR).
The voters were divided into five categories (World Cup winners, other riders and UCI mountain bike teams, journalists, UCI sponsors and UCI) and counted according to the following percentages (20%, 10%, 20%, 20%, and 30%). Voters could attribute point to three events of their choice.