Snowbike World Champs this weekend: Super-G and Dual Slalom

Snow joke. The first Snowbike World Championships take place in Châtel this weekend. UCI World Champion titles will be awarded in two race formats: Super-G and Dual Slalom.

Saturday 10th, 10:30am CET: Super-G

“The Super-G races will descend the Aity piste then the Stade Linga (total of 1,957 metres long with a vertical drop of 600 metres). The distance between the gates will be at least 25 metres, as in alpine skiing. The riders will start one by one, a minimum of 40 seconds apart, for a single run. The distance between the gates will be around 20-25 metres, as in Alpine skiing. The racers will start one by one, at regular intervals.
This Super-G is used as a qualifying race for the dual.”

Sunday 11th, 9:00am CET: Dual Slalom

“The dual slalom (comparable to the parallel slalom in snowboard and alpine skiing) will take place on the Linga piste, which is 510 metres long with a 155 metre vertical drop (around 30 seconds of descent). The competition will be composed of a series of elimination races in which two riders go head-to-head on two parallel slalom courses. They will compete against each other in two heats, switching courses for the second heat. The rider with the fastest combined time advances to the next round of the competition, up until the final.”

How to watch?

You’ll need to be trackside; there doesn’t appear to any live streaming of the event. You try checking on the UCI’s YouTube channel nearer the time, just in case they stream it there.

UCI: “The UCI recommends that participants compete on downhill mountain bikes, although this is not mandatory. The same bike must be used for both competition formats. The use of studded tyres will be regulated according to the condition of the piste.

“The races are open to all UCI-affiliated National Federation licence holders aged 17 and over.

“Each country may enter a maximum of 15 riders per gender. The list of entrants will be published on the UCI website on February 1 at 14:00 CET. The start orders will be published at a later date.”

Competitior, French Snow Bike Champion and Châtel resident Pierre Thévenard says: “This event is going to raise the profile of snow bike and build its reputation thanks to the UCI World Champion jersey.

Cédric Gracia says: “It’s going to be incredible!” So that’s nice.

Who’s competing?

The complete entry list is below. Some names that stand out: Sabrina Jonnier, Morgane Charre, Veronika Widmann, Scott Beaumont, Danny Hart, Dylan Levesque and Vincent Tupin.

Elite Women

Lisa Baumann, Switzerland
Morgane Charre, France
Sidonie Jolidon, Switzerland
Sabrina Jonnier, France
Jolanda Kiener, Switzerland
Lucie Paltz, France
Veronika Widmann, Italy

Elite Men

Léo Abella, France
Miguel Abrantes, Portugal
Fridolin Amiguet, Switzerland
Scott Beaumont, Great Britain
Francescu Camoin, France
Julian Claudi, Germany
Thomas Di Litta, France
Stefan Dolder, Switzerland
Erik Emmrich, Germany
Benoit Fellay, Switzerland
Claude Gex, Switzerland
Danny Hart, Great Britain
Geoffrey Heuzard, France
Erik Irmisch, Germany
Baptiste Jalladeau, France
Henry Kerr, Ireland
Florian Kulike, Germany
Jules Laffay, Switzerland
Clement Laugier, France
Hannes Lehmann, Germany
Dylan Levesque, France
Théo Mathieu, France
Simon Maurer, Germany
Kévyn Mayeur, France
Kevin Meyer, France
Filip Miksa, Poland
Harry Molloy, Great Britain
Benjamin Moore, Great Britain
Jonathan Moret, Switzerland
Marius Perraudin, Switzerland
Stefan Peter, Switzerland
Jack Piercy, Great Britain
Kevin Rivera, France
Tobias Schafferhans, Germany
Tilmann Schwab, Germany
Emilien Serpaggi, France
Pierre Thevenard, France
Jules Troillet, Switzerland
Vincent Tupin, France
Josh Turner, Great Britain
Antoine Vidal, France
Myles Weber, Switzerland
Mirco Widmer, Switzerland

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