The World Cup start in Offenburg, Germany wins top honors (Image credit: Scheiderbauer.com Sports)
Offenburg, Fort William, Bromont, and Ornans won the best World Cup event awards for cross country, downhill, four cross and marathon disciplines respectively after votes were tallied for the 2008 season. For the first time, the downhill and four-cross events were ranked separately.
2008 marked Offenburg's second year on the cross country World Cup calendar. The German event, organized by Anna and Jörg Scheiderbauer and their team, succeeded in taking the honours thanks to a strong organization and popular circuit. Houffalize, Belgium, has often won in past years, but had to make do with second place while Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada, finished third.
"It's an absolute privilege to win this award and gives us further motivation to excel in 2009! We would like to thank our crew and helpers, without this support the event would not take place," said Anna Baylis-Scheiderbauer.
In the downhill, the winner Fort William, Great Britain, organized by Rare Management's Mike Jardine and Lesley Beck, drew huge crowds along the course. Mont-Sainte-Anne was ranked second best downhill event while Maribor, Slovenia, finished third.
After nine years' absence, Bromont organized a triple World Cup event. A creative track featuring a corkscrew helped Bromont to a win in the 4X best event category with Fort William in second and Maribor in third.
Marathon World Cup winner Ornans, France, hosted the final marathon World Cup event. It was not only the best World Cup of 2008, but the last World Cup. The discipline will not be included in the 2009 World Cup.
Votes were counted in five categories (World Cup winners, other riders, UCI mountain bike teams, journalists, UCI sponsors and the UCI) and weighted by percentages (20%, 10%, 20%, 20%, and 30%). Voters could attribute points to three events.
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