Are you ready to get glued to your screen this weekend for the UCI Downhill World Championships? We know we are, and we can’t wait to see Britain’s strongest contingent of downhill mountain bikers take on the technical and steep Val di Sole course in Italy. If you want to whet your appetite of what’s to come this weekend, check out the below press release from British Cycling to see what’s what before you park yourself in front of your TV/laptop/mobile phone this weekend.
British Cycling Press Release
A 28-strong Great Britain Cycling Team head to Val di Sole in Trentino, Italy for the 2016 downhill and four cross UCI Mountain Bike World Championships from 8-11 September.
A star-studded downhill team features several riders to have won world titles including Rachel Atherton, Gee Atherton, Danny Hart, Manon Carpenter, Laurie Greenland and Tahnee Seagrave. Three-time world champion Rachel Atherton will be aiming to complete a perfect season having won all seven rounds of the 2016 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup – becoming the first person to do so and setting a record 13 consecutive wins dating back to June 2015.
The 29-year-old defending champion will face firm competition from fellow Brits Manon Carpenter and Tahnee Seagrave. Carpenter, world champion in 2014, was second overall in the world cup with Seagrave fourth. In the elite men’s category, 2011 world champion Danny Hart enters the competition in excellent form on the back of three world cup wins in a row, his most recent in Andorra last Saturday. Gee Atherton crashed in Vallnord but the experienced two-time world champion is expected to start in Italy, as is last year’s bronze medallist Josh Bryceland.
2015 junior world champion Laurie Greenland makes the step-up into the elite category. Elliot Heap and Matt Walker were third and fourth overall as they impressed in the junior men’s category in the world cup this season, while Aston Tutt flies the flag for Great Britain in the junior women’s event.
Schedule (UK time)
Thursday 8 September
7.30pm: Four cross seeding round
Friday 9 September
7.45pm: Four cross world championships
Saturday 10 September
10.30am-2pm: Downhill seeding round
Sunday 11 September
10am: Junior men’s and women’s downhill
11:45am: Elite women’s downhill
2pm: Elite men’s downhill
