2022 UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup powered by Citymountainbike.com: Tormena and Gegenheimer lead the way
2022 UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup powered by Citymountainbike.com: Tormena and Gegenheimer lead the way. The 2022 UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup powered by Citymountainbike.com kicked off with a bang in Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), with Marcela Lima (BRA) and Titouan Perrin-Ganier (FRA) taking home the victories. The 11-race series will begin in Europe and make its way to Asia via Turkey.
UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Champions Gaia Tormena (ITA) and Simon Gegenheimer (GER) are currently in the lead after three rounds of the UCI World Cup.
Story
In the first round’s women’s final in the United Arab Emirates, Marcela Lima attacked and outsprinted Dutch champion, Didi de Vries, in a close race. Marion Fromberger of Germany and Tormena of Italy finished off the Big Final. Perrin-Ganier, a four-time UCI World Champion, won the men’s race, edging out Daniel Castillo Noyola of Mexico, Killian Demangeon of France, and Anton Olstam of Sweden (SWE).
“Oh, this is fantastic. Going into Abu Dhabi, I had one intention: to win.” It’s hard for me to accept that I truly did it.
Next up for the Eliminator riders was a race in Leuven, Belgium, where Gegenheimer and Tormena prevailed despite the damp and slick track. When Belgians Lukas Malezsewski and Zinni Van Looy finished in the top three of the men’s race, the crowd went wild.
In the women’s final, Sweden’s Ella Holmegrd came up short against Italy’s Alessia Brugnoli. It’s great to come home,” Tormena added with a smile. Because of Abu Dhabi, I was nervous about another crash. While I had to battle my natural tendency to panic, I did feel relatively decent and my concentration was excellent. It feels good to win again, as it did before.”
On Saturday, June 17th, Tormena, and Gegenheimer faced off against the natural obstacles of a course in Falun’s climbing-oriented Lugnet Arena in front of a big Swedish crowd. Jenny Rissveds, a former Olympic champion in mountain biking (cross-country), was part of the home team challenge. The 2021 Eliminator UCI World Cup overall champion Tormena was given a run for her money by the local champion, who had finished on the podium in the previous three UCI XCO World Cup races.
Simon Gegenheimer was pushed hard again by Lukas Malezsewski, with Sweden’s Casper Casserstedt securing third place.
AFTER THREE ROUNDS
In the 2022 UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup powered by Citymountainbike.com, the competition will consist of three rounds. In the women’s overall standings, Gaia Tormena is in first place with 225 points, followed by runner-ups Fromberger and Lima with 127 points apiece. Fourth place goes to De Vries (113 points) and fifth to Holmegrd (91 points), both of whom are Norwegian. There is a tight race for first place in the men’s overall, with Simon Gegenheimer sitting on 162 points and Perrin-Ganier in second on 144. Malezsewski (110) is in third place, followed by Anton Olstam (72) and Lorenzo Serres (FRA) (54) on the leaderboard.
LOTS MORE TO COME!
There will be seven more races in the 2022 season. On July 23rd, Fromberger and Gegenheimer will race in front of their home crowd in Aalen, Germany.
After its stop in Sakarya, Turkey, the UCI World Cup will travel to Oudenaarde, Belgium. Rounds 7 and 8 of the UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup powered by Citymountainbike.com will be hosted for the first time in Palangkaraya, Indonesia, and Leh/Ladakh, India, respectively, in September.
The last two races are being held in Europe, with Paris (FRA) and Winterberg (GER) hosting before the UCI World Championships in Barcelona in October (ESP).