For its 20th season, the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup has gone to a completely new venue at Dalby Forest in North Yorkshire, England. In addition to being the opening round of the 2010 series, Dalby will offer British organizers their first chance at producing a world-class mountain bike event in the run up to the London 2012 Olympic Games. This will be the first time a Cross-Country World Cup has been held in England since 1999, and the first ever World Cup round to take place in the beautiful Yorkshire region.
Marco Fontana leads the small final.
The action began with an urban mountain bike race on Friday evening in the town of Pickering, which brought out thousands spectators. The Pro Eliminator saw the top 16 women and top 32 men from a time trial run of the sub-two minute circuit go into 4-Cross style four rider heats to compete for a top prize of 1000 Euros ($1500). The circuit took riders around narrow streets, through a single person wide path between houses, into a church cemetery and through someone's backyard before a final lung-busting uphill sprint to the finish. Thomas Litscher (MIG Bike Team) took the men's title ahead of Manuel Fumic (Cannondale) and Ralph Näf (Multivan-Merida), with Eva Lechner (Colnago Arrehini Sudtirol) easily winning the women's final over team mate Nathalie Schneitter and Katarina Nash (Luna).
Eva Lechner gets away fastest in the women's final.The 6.2 kilometre World Cup course is winning rave reviews from the riders. It is a purpose-built track, with a reported cost of 200,000 pounds (approximately $310,000). Dalby Forest is well-known as a hiking and cycling center but, for the World Cup, organizers built numerous new sections of trails, roads into the main venue, and established internet and cellphone coverage where there had been none before.
On the course, the main spectator hot spot is Worry Gill; a technical big slab drop off (with a 'B' line option) going one way, then later on the course the riders come back into Worry Gill & climb out up a technical climb. There is another technical built section just before the end of the lap - Dixon Hollow. The Hollow puts the riders through a 4-Cross style section, with berms, jumps and a corkscrew bridge.
Eventual winner Thomas Litscher in his qualifying time trial.
To do well requires an all around rider, one with both technical skills and the strength and endurance to handle the multiple steep climbs. Jose Hermida (Multivan-Merida) commented "It is a great course, that requires the best rider to win. It reminds me of St-Felicien [in Quebec, Canada], with lots of singletrack, technical pieces and short, sharp climbs. Who does it suit? Well, I think maybe me [laughs]. I think it will be the usual top guys who can do well here - Absalon, Burry Stander, Geoff Kabush ... I think it will be a very good, hard race."
Thomas Litscher leads the final.
On the women's side, World Cup winner Elisabeth Osl (Central Pro) will try to retain the jersey she wore for much of last season. However, early season racing has already shown that Lene Byberg (Specialized), the Luna duo of Catharine Pendrel and Georgia Gould, and recent Pan American Continental champion Willow Koerber (Subaru-Gary Fisher) are all showing good form. Add to this world champion Irina Kalentieva (Topeak-Ergon) and Canada's Marie-Helene Premont (Maxxis-Rocky Mountain), and we can expect a very hard fought battle for the right to don the World Cup leader's jersey for the first time in 2010. One rider missing from the start line will be Olympic champion Sabine Spitz (Central Pro), who is still recovering from groin surgery, and is expected to miss the first two races of the season.
Thomas Litscher wins.The men's race is just as interesting. Julien Absalon (Orbea) is always a favorite, but last year he proved to be vulnerable, with Hermida taking the first round win. American Todd Wells (Specialized) also having a strong start to the season, winning the Pan American Continental title, as well as two UCI races in California within the past three weeks. Wells' team mate Burry Stander, the Under-23 world champion, won the UCI sanctioned Sea Otter Classic just last weekend in California, in a sprint against Geoff Kabush (Maxxis-Rocky Mountain).
Pro Sprint Eliminator results
Men
1 Thomas Litscher (Sui) MIG Team
2 Manuel Fumic (Ger) Cannondale
3 Ralph Naef (Sui) Multivan Merida
4 Jose Hermida (Esp) Multivan Merida
Women
1 Eva Lechner (Ita) Colnago Arreghini Suditrol
2 Nathalie Schneitter (Sui) Colnago Arreghini Suditrol
3 Katerina Nash (Cze) Luna