Highlights from MTB Worlds
XC and DH action from Andorra
The 2024 mountain bike world championships took place this past weekend in Pal Arinsal, Andorra. The ski-resort venue sits at about 2,000 meters above sea level, adding thin air to the list of challenges the riders had to tackle.
After a weekend of cross country and downhill racing, here are the top highlights.
Cross Country
The week kicked off with the team relay, a six lap cross country race where one person from each country each completes a lap. The teams are co-ed and feature riders from each category (Junior, U23, and Elite). Team USA took the gold medal, the country’s first victory in the event.
The women’s junior cross country race was a boon for the Slavs. Slovakian Viktória Chladoňová won the hour long race and Slovenian Šerkezi Maruša Tereza was third. Sandwiched between in second was Canadian Rafaelle Carrier. Vida Lopez De San Roman took fourth after helping Team USA win the Team Relay.
The Danish Albert Philipsen won the men’s junior XC for the second year in a row. He’s also the 2023 junior road race champion. He beat second place Hugo Franco Gallego (Spain) by nearly two minutes with Danish Nikolaj Houg taking third. The US earned another fourth place from Nicholas Konecny.
Watch out for the Holmgrens. Canadian Isabella Holmgren won both the U23 women’s short track and XCO races, joined on the short track podium by her sister, Ava Holmgren. The U23 XCO was contested with the elite women’s field, and Holmgren would have placed sixth in the elite race. She was also joined on the podium by another fellow Canadian, Emilly Johnston.
It was an American affair in the U23 men’s short track with Riley Amos taking the rainbow strips and Bjorn Riley placing second. Amos and Riley did not make the medals in the XCO which was won by France’s Luca Martin.
In the elite women’s short track, Evie Richards (Great Britain) won a masterful sprint against Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (France). In the men’s, it was a French show with Jordan Sarrou leading much of the race before Victor Koretzky dashed off for the win.
In the elite XCO races, Puck Pieterse beat out the likes of Ferrand-Prevot in the last MTB race of the Frenchwoman’s career. In fact, the Olympic champion did not even factor on the podium, with the Dutch Anne Terpstra taking silver and Italy’s Martina Berta riding to bronze. Victor Koretzky also missed out on the top spot, beat out by South African Alan Hatherly.
Downhill
Erice van Leuven of New Zealand stormed to the women’s junior downhill win, her second world championship win in as many years. The fast Kiwi beat Ella Svegby (Sweden) by 6 seconds, and Sacha Earnest (New Zealand) took bronze.
Asa Vermette is one of the most talked about up and coming downhill riders. The first-year junior from the United States won the rainbow jersey with a margin of 1.5” over the French Max Alran. The bronze was taken by the USA’s Bode Burke.
In the elite women’s race, Vali Höll (Austria) won her third elite world championship title, just the fourth woman in history to do so. She also has two junior titles, BTW. She was half a second faster than Myriam Nicole (France) and 1.2” faster than Tahnee Seagrave (Great Britain).
It was a fair guess to predict that France would do well in the men’s downhill race, but maybe not in the way we expected. Loris Vergier was in the hot seat with one man remaining at the top of the hill. France’s Loic Bruni is unstoppable on his best days, and he was on what appeared to be a race winning run. But a tricky corner caused him to hit the deck, giving the jersey to his countryman Vergier, with Benoit Coulanges taking second and Finn Ailes (Canada) in third.