11.08.2024Geleen (NED)
MTB Eliminator Continental Series powered by City Mountainbike
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Turkish delight: Lindh and Tormena take sweet victories in Sakarya
A big crowd of enthusiastic fans, brave home riders, charming weather, and convincing wins for Edvin Lindh from Sweden and Gaia Tormena from Italy: race 4 of the UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup in Sakarya, Türkiye, was one to remember. Teşekkürler, Türkiye 🙏
A big crowd of enthusiastic fans, brave home riders, charming weather, and convincing wins for Edvin Lindh from Sweden and Gaia Tormena from Italy: race 4 of the UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup in Sakarya, Türkiye, was one to remember. Teşekkürler, Türkiye 🙏
The UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup returned to the impressive Ayçiçek Bisiklet Vadisi bike stadium in Sakarya for its fourth round of the 2024 season. The demanding, physical track favored the strongest riders of the eliminator peloton. A long starting straight, a gnarly climb, a rock garden, and a high-speed drop: the race had it all.
The qualifying time-trials proved highly predictive for the rest of the day. Edvin Lindh and Gaia Tormena dominated the men’s and women’s time-trials: Lindh was almost two seconds faster than the rest, Tormena over four seconds. Both riders clearly had the power in their legs to handle the tough track.
Several pre-race favorites didn’t make it to the big finals. Last week’s winner in Palangkaraya, Lochlan Brown, was eliminated in the 1/8 finals, while UCI World Cup leader Lorenzo Serres and UCI World Champion Titouan Perrin-Ganier had to settle for spots in the small finals. Serres ended up losing his leader’s jersey to Lindh.
In the finals for gold, Tormena and Lindh continued to dominate, leading the race from the first corner to the finish line. Tormena bested Didi de Vries from the Netherlands and Line Mygdam from Denmark, while Lindh preceded Theo Hauser from Austria and Jakob Klemencic from Slovenia. Yes, that’s six different countries represented in today’s top threes.
Even for an award-winning rider like Tormena, winning a UCI World Cup race remains special: “The level gets higher every year, so of course I’m happy to win both the qualifying time-trial and the final of the eliminator race today. This was a good opportunity to score points for the overall UCI World Cup ranking, in which Didi also proves to be a tough opponent. I always thought she was very strong, and now she’s starting to believe in herself more too. I’m happy for that!”
Lindh was overwhelmed by emotions after taking his first-ever win in the UCI World Cup: “Oh man, this feels so F* special,” he cheered. “I already had two second places and a bunch of fifth places, but from today’s qualifiers I knew I had the legs to make it happen. I was just hoping that both me and the bike would hold together, and they did! The Turkish fans were great: seeing the whole arena basically filled up gave me extra power!”
In the new UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup standings, Gaia Tormena owns 320 points, 43 more than De Vries. In the men’s category, new leader Edvin Lindh totals 276 points, while Lorenzo Serres now sits second with 260.
Next Sunday, the UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup heads to Leuven, Belgium, for its third consecutive week of racing. All action there will unfold on a lightning-fast, obstacle-filled urban track in the heart of this historic city – it will be a night and day difference from the tough racing in Sakarya!
Results
Men’s results – UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup Sakarya
1. Edvin Lindh (SWE)
2. Theo Hauser (AUT)
3. Jakob Klemencic (SLO)
4. Ede-Karoly Molnar (ROU)
5. Titouan Perrin-Ganier (FRA)
Women’s results – UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup Sakarya
1. Gaia Tormena (ITA)
2. Didi de Vries (NED)
3. Line Mygdam (DEN)
4. Coline Clauzure (FRA)
5. Madison Boissiere (FRA)
Standings
Men’s UCI World Cup standings after Sakarya
1. Edvin Lindh (SWE) – 276 points
2. Lorenzo Serres (FRA) – 260 points
3. Theo Hauser (AUT) – 222 points
4. Ede-Karoly Molnar (ROU) – 187 points
5. Titouan Perrin-Ganier (FRA) – 159 points
Women’s UCI World Cup standings after Sakarya
1. Gaia Tormena (ITA) – 320 points
2. Didi de Vries (NED) – 277 points
3. Madison Boissiere (FRA) – 230 points
4. Annemoon van Dienst (NED) – 145 points
5. Marion Fromberger (GER) – 142 points
