Big Guns Lined Up for MTB Worlds
Riders like Julien Absalon, Nino Schurter, Willow Koerber, Catharine Pendrel, Greg Minnaar, Gee Atherton, Steve Peat, Sabrina Jonnier, Anneke Beerten and Jared Graves will be vying for rainbow jerseys in their various disciplines at Mont Saint Anne Sept. 1-5.
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By Singletrack.com
The world’s top mountain bike riders are all on the preliminary list of athletes registered for the UCI Mountain Bike and Trials World Championships set for Mont Sainte Anne, Quebec from September 1 to 5.
Riders like Julien Absalon, Nino Schurter, Irina Kalentieva, Willow Koerber, Catharine Pendrel, Greg Minnaar, Gee Atherton, Steve Peat, Sabrina Jonnier, Anneke Beerten and Jared Graves will be vying for rainbow jerseys in their various disciplines.
Back to defend their crowns from the 2009 world championships in Canberra, Australia are Schurter and Kalentieva in cross-country, Peat and Emmeline Ragot in downhill and Graves and Caroline Buchanan in four-cross.
In all, 629 riders have registered for the Cross Country, Downhill, and 4 Cross competitions. All the leaders of the World Cup circuit will also be going head to head at Mont-Sainte-Anne.
Cross Country – Elite Men 1. SCHURTER Nino (Switzerland) 2. ABSALON Julien (France) 3. KULHAVY Jaroslav (Czech Republic)
Cross Country – Elite Women 1.PENDREL Catharine (Canada) 2. LECHNER Eva (Italy) 3. KOERBER Willow (United States)
Downhill – Elite Men 1.ATHERTON Gee (Great Britain) 2. MINNAAR Greg (South Africa) 3. BLENKINSOP Samuel (New Zealand)
Downhill – Elite Women 1.JONNIER Sabrina (France) 2. RAGOT Emmeline (France) 3. PUGIN Floriane (France)
4 Cross – Elite Men 1. GRAVES Jared (Australia) 2. SLAVIK Tomas (Czech Republic) 3. WICHMAN Joost (Netherlands)
4 Cross – Elite Women 1. BEERTEN Anneke (Netherlands) 2. MOLCIK Anita (Austria) 3. HORAKOVA Jana (Czech Republic)
Homefield Advantage
Team Canada has a great chance of ending up on the podium, largely thanks to current UCI World Cup leader Catharine Pendrel in cross-country and Marie-Hélène Prémont, silver medalist at the 2004 Olympic Games and 2008 UCI Cross Country World Cup champion whose hometown is near the race venue. Prémont is currently ranked 13th.