October 7, 2020 - (Leogang, Austria) Excitement mounted for the second E-MTB World Championships, with the Men’s competition first. Dispelling a common myth, UCI’s off-road co-ordinator Gaël Suter explained the event was “Nothing easy for the athletes, but more racing and more fun for the riders”.
In the men’s E-mountain bike race reigning UCI World Champion Alan Hatherly (RSA) – with three top-6 finishes at NMNM – was unable to start to defend his rainbow jersey. But the all-star starting list attracted experienced masters and young talent from different disciplines in equal measure.
The field included Joren Van Eck (NED), an XC Eliminator specialist, rubbing shoulders with one of the breakthrough young XC riders Simon Andreassen – the 23-year-old Dane having recently won his first national championships and his first XCO World Cup at NMNM within a week. Another youngster was Britain’s Tom Pidcock, former U23 and Junior Cyclocross World Champion – who has signed to ride for WorldTour road Team Ineos Grenadiers from 2021 – and won both short-course U23 XCO races at NMNM (link).
Another CX name – at the other end of the start list’s age range, is Sven Nys. Best known for his two UCI CX World Champion titles and 50 World Cup wins spanning 17 years at the top, his five national mountain bikes titles are less well reported. More celebrated was Italy’s Marco Fontana: Olympic, World and European XCO medalist, fifth place in Mont-Sainte-Anne’s inaugural E-mountain bike World Champs.
It was the 2019 runner-up Jérôme Gilloux (FRA) who put on the early pressure on the first circuit of a 5-lap race, with only 22-year-old Joris Ryf (SUI), 43-year-old former road pro Martino Fruet (ITA), Pidcock and Andreassen keeping him in line of sight. Last year’s 4th and 5th place finishers Julien Absalon (FRA) and Charlie Mullins (USA) were lurking ominously in the top 10.
Onto lap 3, UCI ranked no 1 Gilloux had pulled out a 30-second lead, before Pidcock passed Ryf and gradually brought down the gap across lap 4. He hit lap 5 in the lead as Andreassen and Fruet overtook Ryf. And away went the 21-year-old Yorkshireman.
Pidcock’s winning margin was 35 seconds for his, and Great Britain’s first UCI E-MTB World Championship title. It was heartbreak for Gilloux, having to accept the second step again, and a continued successful streak for the impressive young Dane Andreassen.
Women’s E-MTB – Pugin overcomes the Swiss pair
The women’s race was competed over four laps of the same 4.3km long course as the men, a modified version of the XCO route, with 310 metres altitude difference per lap, adding to the strategic challenge. It was another strong and varied field.
The inaugural World Champion was back to defend – Switzerland’s Nathalie Schneitter. And she found herself up against her compatriots Kathrin Stirnemann (double UCI XC Eliminator World Champion and road pro with Bigla-Katusha) and UCI ranked no 2 and Enduro specialist Alba Wunderlin; last year’s E-MTB runner-up and triple Canadian cyclocross champion Maghalie Rochette, Estonia’s Olympian Maaris Meier and Jacqueline Mariacher, a home rider with high hopes.
It was Schneitter (aged 34) herself who forced the early pace in defence of her precious stripes, with her Swiss compatriot Stirnemann (30) on her wheel and recent EWS-E winner Mélanie Pugin – one of two French riders along with 2019’s fourth-placed Nadine Sapin – nearby.
On lap 3 Pugin took the lead, with the two Swiss women in touch and a long gap developing to the rest of the field, with Rochette and Germany’s Sofia Wiedenroth the best of the rest. The Swiss riders switched positions and the gaps stabilised, as Pugin won by 27 seconds from Stirnemann, with Schneitter in third. The French rider took her first UCI E-MTB World Championship title, and her country’s second victory of the day.
Congratulations to today’s new UCI World Champions. The action continues in Leogang on Thursday 8th with the Junior Men and Women’s XC finals.
