Mountain Bike Cycling 2018 - 2020 Dicussion Thread

[phelps 7,628]

MTB Cross-Country Marathon World Championships 2018 (Auronzo di Cadore, ITA)

 

 

Women's Race (89km)

Gold: Annika Langvad

Silver: Christina Kollmann-Forstner

Bronze: Maja Wloszczowska

 

 

Men's race (102km)

Gold: Henrique Avancini

Silver: Daniel Geismayr

Bronze: Hector Leonardo Paez Leon

[phelps 7,628]

Avancini becomes first Brazilian Mountain Bike UCI World Champion at Marathon Worlds

 

One week after the cross-country Olympic and downhill UCI Mountain Bike World Championships presented by Mercedes Benz, off-road action shifted to Auronzo, Italy, for the 16th edition of the UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships.

 

 

 

Henrique Avancini became the first Brazilian rider in mountain bike history to win a world title with his victory in the men's race, while Annika Langvad of Denmark successfully defended her title in the women's race to take her fifth win in the Marathon.

The 2018 UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships took place in one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, within the UNESCO World Heritage site Tre Cime di Lavaredo, in the Italian Dolomites mountains.  Women raced 89 kilometres and climbed 3’400 metres, while the men covered 102 kilometres and climbed 4’200 metres. 

The women's race saw most of the top contenders close together as they went over the first climb, including Langvad and other former winners Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa of Norway and Maja Wloszczowska of Poland. However, by the time they reached the Tre Cime climb it was only Langvad at the front, with Christina Kollmann-Forster of Austria a distant second, more than seven minutes back, and Wloszczowska in third, which was the finishing order. Six-time winner Dahle Flesjaa was fourth and recent crowned XCO UCI World Champion Kate Courtney of the USA finished ninth.

 

 

"It was really tough, for sure the most selective race I've ever took part in," said Langvad. "I tried to be aggressive from the very first climb. Since I felt fine, I kept my pace until the end, and I managed to increase the distance from my opponents. I could not be more stoked about ending my season like this!  A massive thanks to all the people and my Specialized mountain bike team who were behind me for making this possible."

 

In the men's race, the lead group of 14 was gradually whittled down to just five by the Tre Cime climb - Avancini, Hector Paez Leon (Colombia), Howard Grotts (USA), Alexey Medvedev (Russia) and Daniel Geismayr (Austria), the defending bronze medalist. Paez Leon was the first to attack, but Avancini and Geismayr bridged across, dropping the others for good. Coming into the final kilometre, Avancini and Geismayr were still together, with Paez Leon only 10 metres back, setting the stage for a sprint finish after 102 kilometres of racing. Avancini came out of the last corner with a few bike lengths lead and held it to the finish line.

"I knew I was in good shape but also aware I was an outsider," said Avancini.  "In order to best play my cards, I tried to break the pace of the Marathon riders and I think I made it. I don't have a favourite discipline; I feel that I am a biker first of all, and during this season I've tried to show it. I didn't expect to close the year with a world title."

 

2018 UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Champions Annika Langvad (DEN) and Henrique Avancini (BRA)

 

All Credits: UCI.org

 

[heywoodu 14,895]

You're wrong, he won the BMX marathon world title, not MTB.

 

Spoiler

At least according to major Brazilian news outlet Globo  

 

 

[AlFHg 330]

A BMX marathon may be an interesting idea, however

[Olympian1010 7,934]

4 hours ago, AlFHg said:

A BMX marathon may be an interesting idea, however

And if it becomes Mixed BMX Marathon it will be a shoe in for the Olympics

[Olympian1010 7,934]

Totallympics TV

Welcome to the coolest showdown in the Wild West. Not only is the desert hot, but so is the competition. It’s time for the most unique mountain biking event in the world. Welcome to Virgin, Utah for Red Bull Rampage Here!

[heywoodu 14,895]

14 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

Totallympics TV

Welcome to the coolest showdown in the Wild West. Not only is the desert hot, but so is the competition. It’s time for the most unique mountain biking event in the world. Welcome to Virgin, Utah for Red Bull Rampage Here!

Oh this sounds like wonderful fun to watch while doing my indoor bike trainings next week  

[phelps 7,628]

Romain and Romana: the 2019 UCI 4X Mountain Bike World Champions!

 

Congratulations to Romana Labounková of Czech Republic and Romain Mayet of France who are crowned 2019 MTB Four-Cross World Champions!

 

They prevailed in what was a fascinating competition in both the Men and Women Elite finals which got underway shortly after 21.00 local time under the floodlights of the beautiful permanent 4X track at Val di Sole, Italy, for the predictably frenetic wheel-to-wheel action that only 4X can deliver. After a day of rain in the valley of the sun that made the XCC cross country a harder task than imagined, the skies dried, the lights were lit and the finals commenced.

 

After Thursday evening’s qualifying runs, in the Men Elite, Czech Tomáš Slavík posted the fastest time of 44.004, more than a second clear from the Swiss Lutz Weber and Austrian Hannes Slavik – with Sweden’s Felix Beckeman (2017 World Champion) and Britain’s Elliott Heap joining them in the top five individual quali times and Stefano Dolphin, the fastest Italian on his home track, hitting sixth. 2018 World Champion Quentin Derbier (FRA) was not racing to defend his title… but he was not the only Frenchman in Italy!

 

For the Elite Women, of the ten starters, the eight fastest riders went through automatically to the semi-finals, representing seven different nations. Favourites and last year’s top three Raphaele Richter (GER, 2018 bronze medalist), Romana Labounková (CZE, 2018 World Champion) and Natasha Bradley (GB, 2018 runner-up) were the one-two-three in qualifying, pitching Labounková and Bradley together in the second heat.

 

When the action unpacked and the four-way head-to-head eliminator rounds started?

 

As the cowbells rang and the chainsaws whirred it was the quartet of Labounková, Bradley, French youngster Mathilde Bernard and the fastest qualifier Richter who progressed through to the Women Elite final, and that was the order over the line: it was the Czech athlete who powered away from the field to take the win in style for her second consecutive World Championship.

 

In the men Elite competition, 32 riders started the 1/8th finals on Friday, with favourites Slavik and Beckeman leading the way and with Weber and Italian rider Roberto Cristofoli amongst the others making it through to the semi-final round. But the final four to line up were Beckeman, Heap, seventh-fastest qualifier Urban Rotnik of Slovenia and tenth-fastest qualifier Romain Mayet of France.

 

And it was the 26-year-old Frenchman who took the win, the one-time BMX European Championships medalist putting it to the rest of the field. Britain’s Heap (fourth last year) took silver with Beckeman (fifth last year) collecting bronze.

 

Congratulations to both winners, proud to wear the rainbow stripes for the next year – and it’s a long year with the 4X World Championships set to be run alongside the DHI and XCO World Championships at Val di Sole in September 2020.

 

women's 4X Results

Gold: Romana Labounkova

Silver: Natasha Bradley

Bronze: Mathilde Bernard

 

women's 4X Results

Gold: Romain Mayet

Silver: Elliott Heap

Bronze: Felix Beckeman

 

Full Rankings:

https://www.uci.org/mountain-bike/results

 

[Wumo 3,000]

 

[heywoodu 14,895]

Wow, happy to see she is writing that herself. That could have ended very, very much worse...no cross-country worlds I guess, hopefully she'll recover enough to get back on the mountainbike.