An incredible home crowd, a perfect summer day and two well-deserved winners: the 2021 UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Championships in the Austrian city of Graz were a delight. German veteran Simon Gegenheimer and young Italian Gaia Tormena are XCE world champions.
Source: press release
After losing last year's UCI world title with thumbs, Italy's youngest star Gaia Tormena has never lost focus on the World Championship title. Gaia Tormena won the qualifying time trial by more than three seconds, made a clean sweep in the quarter-finals and semi-finals and controlled the final race from start to finish, winning her second UCI world title by a large margin.
French Noemie Garnier was the surprise of the day with a silver medal, ahead of Ukrainian Iryna Popova. Marion Fromberger (GER) narrowly missed the podium, while Ella Holmegaard (SWE) took fifth place in the final, after nearly crashing in the semifinals.
The mustache marks its highlight
Just like last year's race in Leuven, Lorenzo Serres set the fastest time in qualifying time trials, but the French bombshell was eliminated in the ¼ final. It was a disastrous quarter-final for France, with reigning UCI world champion Titouan Perrin-Ganier also out of the race due to a broken chain.
In a thrilling final, European champion Jeroen van Eck from the Netherlands put pressure on from the start, but after perfectly executing the last corner and final straight, UCI World Cup leader Simon Gegenheimer took his first UCI world title.
Van Eck (silver) and Swede Anton Olstam (bronze) completed the podium, German Felix Klausmann and Frenchman Hugo Briatta entered the top five. Local hero Daniel Federspiel put on a great show in front of his home crowd, taking eighth place at the end.
“I'm on top,” smiled 32-year-old Simon Gegenheimer after the absolute highlight of his career. “I have won the overall UCI World Cup title, seven World Cup races and four UCI World Championship medals, but never the title. At this time, I have completed my career. This was all I wanted, and now I have it! "
“I'm so happy to be back in the rainbow. I really wanted this title. I had something to prove to myself, after last year's UCI World Championships ", Gaia Tormena enjoyed her second world title, after the 2019 one." It was great to do it with the fans cheering us on. Running without an audience last year was pretty sad. I have to thank all the people in Graz for cheering for us: it was incredible ”.
“I worked hard for months, wanting to be ahead of this race from the very first meters, and so I did. I was in control throughout the race. It is something that I have worked on for a long time, together with my mental coach. As long as you are in control, you can also control yourself. Once the limit is crossed, there are many risks. It worked, with a big thank you to the super team behind me! "
Results elite men
- Simon Gegenheimer (GER)
- Jeroen van Eck (NLD)
- Anton Olstam (SWE)
- Felix Klausmann (GER)
- Hugo Briatta (FR)
Elite Women Results
- Gaia Tormena (ITA)
- Noemie Garnier (FRA)
- Iryna Popova (UK)
- Marion Fromberger (GER)
- Ella Holmesgard (SWE)
COMPLETE RESULTS
