The second UCI Mountain Bike World Cup cross-country event of the year will take place in Albstadt, Germany on Sunday. 13 Americans are in the field including three women who have top 20 finishes this year. Chloe Woodruff was 13th in the first event in Cairns, Australia with Georgia Gould 18th and Lea Davison in 19th. On the men’s side Stephen Ettinger was the only American to finish in the top 50 when he placed 20th.
Previous Mountain Bike World Cup Cross-Country Coverage:
Cairns Recap
The top American in the cross-country event at the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup event in Cairns, Australia on Sunday was Chloe Woodruff. Woodruff was the second highest finishing American in the series last year with a 21st overall finish. She was eighth after the first through third laps on Sunday before falling off a bit down the stretch and finishing 13th 4:27 back. Georgia Gould finished 18th while Lea Davison, last year’s third place overall finisher, was 19th. Erin Huck made it four Americans in the top 32 with a 27th place finish.
On the men’s side Stephen Ettinger was the only American in the top 50 on the series last year and he started off this year with a 20th place finish, 2:50 back. Ettinger got off to a slow start and was 35th after the first lap before climbing as high as 17th after the sixth lap. No other Americans finished in the top 50.
The next Mountain Bike World Cup stop is in Albstadt, Germany from May 21st through the 22nd. Only the cross-country portion will be held. The downhill competition doesn’t pick back up until June 4th and 5th in Fort William, Great Britain.
Previous Mountain Bike World Cup Cairns Coverage:
Preview
Day 1 Update
Day 2 Update
The downhill final was a chance for Aaron Gwin to win his second straight event to start the year but the winner from Lourdes was unable to do so finishing almost three seconds behind winner Loic Bruni of France. Bruni came closer to Gwin’s series lead but Gwin still leads Bruni by 28 points and leads second place Troy Bosnan by 13 points.
While Gwin couldn’t match his finish from Lourdes the other three Americans in the final all improved on their previous season high. Luca Shaw finished 13th after a 21st place finish in Lourdes while Eliot Jackson was 14th after not participating in the first event. Neko Mulally was 23rd on Saturday after a 45th place finish in Lourdes. Shaw is the only American other than Gwin in the top 25 as he sits 19th.
Sunday will be the cross-country event and six men and five women will be competing for the US. The top American finisher from last year’s series in the field on the men’s side is Stephen Ettinger who was 36th while on the women’s side Lea Davison was one of the top riders finishing third for the season. Three other Americans, Chloe Woodruff (21st), Georgia Gould (22nd), and Erin Huck (24th), finished in the top 25 last season.
Previous Mountain Bike World Cup Cairns Coverage:
Preview
Day 1 Update
With the downhill event having qualifying on Friday five Americans were seeking to ensure themselves a spot in the finals. Aaron Gwin, winner from Lourdes, finished third in qualifying. Others to advance were Eliot Jackson in 22nd, Neko Mulally in 33rd, and Luca Shaw in 34th. Luca Cometti just missed out on qualifying as he finished 84th. He was about 1.6 seconds behind the final qualifier. Gwin will race for his second straight gold on Saturday.
Previous Mountain Bike World Cup Cairns Coverage:
Preview
The Mountain Bike World Cup is in action again this weekend in Cairns, Australia. In the first event of the year in the downhill competition defending series champion Aaron Gwin was the winner. Gwin will be trying to go back-to-back to start 2016 and is joined by four other Americans in the field including Luca Shaw who was 21st in Lourdes.
The downhill begins on Friday with the qualifying round and ends on Saturday with the finals and on Sunday a cross-country competition will be held.
Previous Mountain Bike World Cup Coverage:
Lourdes Recap
Aaron Gwin started the 2016 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup the same way he ended the last one: in first place. Gwin, the defending series champion, was tenth in qualifying but was able to post a strong 3:09.131 to nab first place in first event. Top qualifier Loic Bruni was racing even faster and was ahead of Gwin on time before crashing and ended up 14th.
It’s not embedable but here’s a video of Gwin’s ride.
Luca Shaw was the only other American in the top 25 at 21st while Neko Mulally (45th) and Luca Cometti (48th) did notch top 50s.
The next World Cup Downhill event is in Cairns, Australia on April 23rd and 24th. This was the first of seven events on the tour this year.
At the first stage of the 2016 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup is this weekend in Lourdes, France the qualifying round was the end of the road for three Americans while four more advanced to Sunday’s final. On the positive side of things defending champion Aaron Gwin advanced to the final, though he did finish 10th in qualifying and 12 seconds off the top time. The other Americans to reach the final were Neko Mulally (22nd), Luca Shaw (42nd), and Luca Cometti (74th). Shane Leslie, Dakota Norton, and Elliot Jackson did not advance.
The final is on Sunday starting at 8 AM ET.
The first stage of the 2016 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup is this weekend in Lourdes, France. Seven American men are in the field for this downhill competition. Qualification will take place on Saturday with the final on Sunday. The clear favorite among the Americans and probably the entire field is defending champion Aaron Gwin. Gwin won four events on the tour last season and added a second place finish en route to winning the entire series. Gwin won the Lourdes event last year by almost four seconds.
Things begin at 8 AM ET on Saturday with the start of qualifying for the men.