The UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships cast a spotlight on Snowshoe, West Virginia this weekend, making it the first time the endurance event has been held in North America in its 22-year history. Competitions take place on Saturday, September 21.
Defending MTB Marathon women's world champion Mona Mitterwallner (Austria) will match up against the two other riders on last year's podium, Candice Lill (South Africa) and Adelheid Morath (Germany). Among the 51 women on the start list she'll also have to battle 2016 MTB Marathon world champion Jolanda Neff (Switzerland), who is on a comeback from missing three months of competition due to an ongoing illness.
From the men's 88-rider start list, a new champion will be crowned as two-time winner Henrique Avancini (Brazil) retired in the rainbow bands. Looking to take the jersey are 2023 podium finishers Martin Stošek (Czechia) and Lukas Baum (Germany) as well as 2021 world champion Andreas Seewald (Germany) and two-time world champion Héctor Páez León (Colombia).
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A robust roster for the home team includes reigning US Marathon champions Alexis Skarda and Carson Beckett, as well as women's runner-up and Marathon World Cup winner Hannah Otto and men's runner-up Bradyn Lange.
Neff, the cross-country mountain bike Olympic champion from the Tokyo Games, looks for her sixth MTB world title. She qualified for her third Olympic Games in Paris, but passed on the opportunity to focus on breathing therapy in her recovery from ongoing health issues.
After taking off several months of racing, she returned to action in Andorra for the MTB World Championships, finishing 35th in the XCO, but moved into form at a pair of Swiss XCO races, riding to fourth place both times behind top compatriot Sina Frei, who will be on the start line in West Virginia.
With dual citizenship in Argentina and the USA, Sofia Gomez Villafañe will take part in the championships for Argentina, fresh off her victory at Chequamegon MTB Festival. The win last weekend in Wisconsin gave her a firm lead in the overall standings of the Life Time Grand Prix, with two races to go. Earlier this year, Villafañe said she wanted to take advantage of MTB Marathon Worlds here in the US, so made it part of her calendar.
Along with Villafañe, Skarda and Otto are among a large number of Life Time Grand Prix women's competitors in the field, which also includes Peta Mullens (Australia), Haley Smith (Canada) and Samara Sheppard (Australia).
Some of the top men's contenders who are also competing in the Grand Prix include Lange, Matthew Beers (South Africa), Zach Calton (USA), Brendan Johnston (Australia), Cole Paton (USA), and Alex Wild (USA).
Snowshoe Mountain has hosted several rounds of mountain bike World Cups in the past, but it is a first for a world championship. The course comes in at 104km with 1,988 metres of elevation gain, with 8.5km of pavement and the majority of course on a mix of dirt singletrack and doubletrack. However, organisers have noted that 24% of the course is "unknown", which may be washed-out fire roads.
The UCI MTB Marathon World Cup season finale at Snowshoe last year, Otto soloed to victory ahead of Canadian Smith and Lithuania’s Katazina Sosna. The men's race ended in a muddy three-up sprint, won by Germany’s Simon Stiebjahn.
