WORLD CHAMPS IN LES GETS GETS LOOSE!
The 2022 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships were held in Les Gets, France in late August. After two years of reduced numbers on the Australian Team, a full squad of Junior and Elite racers donned their sports tracksuits and green and gold kit to represent Australia in 2022. Les Gets had really turned it on for the race, with prime conditions on the dirt and for spectators.
Racing kicked off with the Team Relay, which has 6 riders from each nation racing in a relay format on the XCO course. The team needs to involve a male and female rider from Elite, U23 and U19. Australia’s team was made up of Dan McConnell, Zoe Cuthbert, Ruby Dobson, Katherine Hosking, Sam Fox and Jack Ward. ‘The race itself was pretty topsy turvy,’ said Matt Rousu, who was photographing the event. ‘Well, even more topsy turvy than usual. It looked like France and Italy were going to duke it out all race long until the junior French woman Tatiana Tournut crashed and snapped her seat off.’ This opened the door for Switzerland, who ended up the race winners with Italy in second and the USA in third. Australia had a great finish for 14th.
The eMTB World Championships are continuing to evolve. They’re run on a highly modified version of the cross-country course, and this included going up some of the downhill technical features. Josh Carlson is a multiple eMTB National Champion, full-time vibe guy and a professional eMTB racer. He took a sharp focus on the Championships and raced a very blinged up Giant Trance X Advanced. On the day, there was enough rain to keep things
