MOUNTAIN BIKE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS IN LUGANO, SWITZERLAND
by Michelle Bienias
The best mountain bikers in the world descended upon the small city of Lugano in the southern Swiss canton of Ticino a few weeks ago (Aug 31 – Sept 7) for the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships.
The 78 km marathon on August 31st provided a rare opportunity for amateurs who are members of a national cycling association to test their mettle against the pros and was the inaugural edition of this event at the World Championship level. Over 1,000 riders from 36 countries tackled the challenging trek through the foothills of the Swiss Alps; about 600 crossed the finish line.
The race came down to the final 100 meters as hometown hero Thomas Frischknecht (SUI) outsprinted Bart Brentjens (NED) at the finish line. The race start and finish was at the Cornaredo in Lugano and the course was comprised of 28km of asphalt, 22 km land and grass and 28km of single track, reaching its apex of 1650m at the Capanna Bar.
Our good friend Massimo Donati, a film director with the Swiss-Italian national broadcast channel TSI, and a passionate amateur mountain biker, rode the marathon and achieved a very respectable 155th place. “I found the marathon extremely hard,” he says, “but it was truly a return to the origins of mountain biking: adventure, discovery, and a feeling of brotherhood between all participants. Not like the Italian ‘Grandondo’ races. The great Frischknecht was the only one able to keep cycling on the way up Monte Baro, with winds reaching 90 km/hour.”
As Donati points out, “MTB is a fantastic sport! It is probably the only sport on earth where an amateur can participate in a world championship, racing aside the top professionals in the sport.” He finished just 50 minutes behind the leader.
The marathon was just the start of this eight-day event, which also featured cross-country, downhill, 4-cross, trial and team relay races. There was an inauguration ceremony in the town square, drawing a large crowd, which was followed by the spectacular Siemens Mobile X-Lake Jump.
That evening, some of the world's top mountain bike and BMX stunt riders jumped off a seven meter high and fifteen meter long ramp to catapult some five meters high in the air. The daredevil bikers demonstrated freestyle stunts with names as wild as the action -- double backflips, superman seatgrabs, heart attacks, heal clickers, cordobas or 720°s -- before they and their bikes plunged into the waters of Lake Lugano. VRMAG shot some great photos of these stunts, including one of beautiful former world champion, Paola Pezzo (one of our photographers fell in love). Following the lake jump, Seimens hosted a large open-air party in the main square with a live band.
Donati credits the inauguration ceremony, followed by the evening lake jump, with heightening awareness and drawing huge local crowds to the rest of the events. The Lugano native was particularly impressed to see groups of people from all walks of life enjoying the events. “Lugano brought back MTB to its origins, a place where athletes partied the night, a place where the public encouraged all riders, a place where the hysteria of the street bike didn’t exist, a place where the stadium fans didn’t come.”
“XC was an extremely hard race and the trail demanded his victims” Donati says. “The very dusty route, with a lot of nervous ups and downs, combined with large tree roots and rocks, created a magnificent spectacle. Very different from the street racing of the Olympic games, here in Lugano you needed truly to be able to ‘drive’”.
According to Donati the downhill trail had a very tough design. “The truly great Greg Minnar demonstrated that victory sometimes smiles on those who race for fun. His downhill ‘driving’ was effective and highly spectacular; he even found the time to amuse the spectators. This should be the true biker spirit,” he says.
VRMAG’s editorial director, Marco Trezzini, and photographer, Giuseppe Pennisi, attended the downhill race and managed to capture some great shots and anecdotes. Trezzini says, “ Pennisi and I walked down the mountain on the race trail; at times it was dangerous to walk and scary, we could only imagine it on a bike. On TV it looks far less difficult than it truly is being there.” He was also impressed with the overall organization of the event, citing the army, civil protection corps, helicopters, rescue teams, security and police services, in all thousands of people who worked to make the event orderly and enjoyable for everyone. “For days now, all of Ticino was on a bike, in the city, in the woods, it was complete bike craziness, but very nice, clean, beautiful, a big party where everybody was involved,” he says. Friends helped their injured friends in wheelchairs get to the viewing stations, the elderly struggled up the mountain with smiles on their faces and young families hoisted children on their shoulders. “I saw one young guy come alone with his wheelchair, and stopped to watch him, wondering how he could reach the last corner under his own force. Then, a group of guys and girls, some with bikes, approached and ask him, as it would be the most normal thing to do, if he may want to go with them, with a smile.
 Shoot Details:
Camera: fuji s2 pro, iso : 200, exposure: 500' /f 5,6, light: natural, lens: 17mm (nikon 12 - 24mm)
original file: 3024x 2016 pixel
Tripod Head: manfrotto
Shots: 12
Links:
Photos from USA Cycling
MTB Results and Rankings
Summary of each event and winners
A good description of the course, written by the track planner
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