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All being well, the 2020 World Championships are still happening – so who’s in it to win it?
While 2020 hasn’t exactly gone to plan for racers, organisers or anyone else for that matter, we’re hoping the World Champs – scheduled for 7-11 October in Leogang, Austria – will go ahead. Although there’ll probably be a less-than-full field, we can still expect to see some outstanding racing. Plus, with this event being the first world-level racing of the season, it could well throw up a few surprises as to who ends up wearing the rainbow stripes.
Cross-country cats
Being (what should have been) an Olympic year, you’d think the XC stars would be in peak shape. However, in the women’s field, two of the top three racers – Jolanda Neff and current world champ Pauline Ferrand-Prévot – have undergone surgery this year, and the reigning World Cup champion, American Kate Courtney, might not make it to the start line either. This throws the race wide open for any on-form up-and-comers to take full advantage, and potentially the win.
In the men’s race, it’s hard to look past eight-time world champ Nino Schurter for gold. With the Olympics postponed, his biggest challenger in 2019, Mathieu van der Poel, pulled out of the MTB competition to focus on road racing. Leogang last hosted the XC World Champs in 2012, when Nino won. However, with such a big target on his back, you can be sure he won’t have it easy this time around.
Downhill demons
As in the XC, the women’s DH field also has two of its most dominant riders returning from injury. Unfortunately for us, they’re both from the UK. Rachel Atherton and Tahnée Seagrave are back on their downhill bikes, but whether they’ll be at the very top of their game come race day is open to question. Plus, they’ll have to beat the hard-charging French duo of Myriam Nicole and Marine Cabirou, and let’s not forget newcomer and local favourite Vali Höll. While it’s her first year racing in Elite, the Austrian does have homefield advantage and took the fastest time of the day last year at the Les Gets World Cup as a Junior.
In the men’s DH, it’s a similar story to the men’s XC. You might hedge your bets on Loïc Bruni to take his fifth gold medal in six years. He also won the opening round of last year’s World Cup series, so he knows how to start with a bang. However, there are plenty of people looking to spoil the ‘Bruni show’, including a fellow Frenchman, the relatively unknown Benoît Coulanges, who just became the 2020 French DH champ ahead of Bruni and Loris Vergier. Can the Brits, including Danny Hart and Laurie Greenland, put up a fight against the current French domination, or will the experience of someone like South Africa’s Greg Minnaar spoil the party? The rainbow jersey could be anyone’s.
With all the uncertainty around racing, who can attend and who can’t, and who’s been putting in the training, 2020 is sure to be one of the most exciting, unpredictable and wild World Championships ever hosted.