There have been significant changes from this year to the World Cup. The opening round in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa has been dropped, and instead the season will open in Dalby Forest, Great Britain for a cross country only event. Dalby Forest is a completely new venue in the northeast (the nearest major city is York). From there it goes back to Houffalize (XC and 4X) and then the downhill begins in Maribor, Slovenia (DH and 4X), followed by Offenburg, Germany for an XC.

The cross-country takes a break for a while, with gravity events in Fort William (Scotland) and Schladming (Austria) in June, before starting up again in late July with an XC/DH combo at the 2011 Worlds venue of Champery (Switzerland), followed by a triple at the 2008 Worlds site of Val di Sole, Italy.

From here it goes to North America for the World Cup Final in Windham (New York, USA), just before the Worlds at Mont Ste Anne.

Conspicuously missing from the list are Bromont, Quebec and Madrid, Spain, and the number of events has been pared to six in each discipline. This is very likely due to the lack of a World Cup sponsor, since Nissan’s agreement ends this year (and given the current state of the auto industry, it is no surprise that they are not renewing). With the dropping of Bromont, it will mean the first time in the history of the World Cup that that there will be no World Cup event in Canada.
The following press release was published:

PIETERMARITZBURG LOSES OUT AS CYCLING UNION CUTS WORLD CUP BUDGET

The lack of a replacement title sponsor of the Mountain Bike World Cup after 2009 has forced the International Cycling Union (UCI) to downsize the 2010 edition of the world’s most prestigious mountain bike racing series and South Africa, Australia and Canada will lose out.

After having staged a very successful inaugural round of the Nissan UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Pietermaritzburg this past April, South Africa has been cut from the 2010 World Cup schedule. Australia, a host of a World Cup round for the past few years, and the World Championships later this year, has also been left without a major international event next year. And Canada, a traditional host of two World Cup rounds, has also been eliminated from the 2010 roster, although the country will have some consolation in hosting the World Championships.

“It’s come as a big shock for us,” said Alec Lenferna, Event Director of the Pietermaritzburg event. “I was phoned by the UCI on Friday to tell me that the loss of Nissan as a sponsor after 2009, with no replacement, forced the UCI to downsize the series virtually only to Europe and Great Britain. The United States has been added to the schedule for 2010, but only because the World Championships are in Canada a few days later and the world’s top riders and officials will be travelling to North America anyway.”

Lenferna was disappointed at not being given any notice by the UCI of the possibility of the Pietermaritzburg round for 2010 being at risk.

“It’s a huge blow for mountain biking in particular and cycling in general, not only in South Africa, but in Africa,” said Lenferna. “This continent has been the missing piece in the World Cup puzzle for almost two decades and after only one chance, it gets unilaterally removed with not even an option for us to find a local sponsor to keep it on the schedule.”

The 2009 World Cup comprises 12 events in 11 countries. There are eight rounds for each of the three disciplines – cross-country, downhill and four-cross. The 2010 World Cup will be trimmed to nine venues in eight countries. There will only be six rounds for each of the three disciplines (not all venues host all three disciplines).

Statistics released by the UCI last week indicate that the Pietermaritzburg round of the 2009 World Cup had gained 939 hours, 41 minutes and 31 seconds of global television coverage, which translates to an estimated 2.134 billion viewers in 188 countries. This combined with the huge crowd support at the event and high standards of organisation and racing, put Pietermaritzburg on par with the top World Cup host venues.

“Cycling South Africa share my frustration and I have asked them to make urgent representation to the UCI to at least give us an opportunity to try and keep the South African event on the 2010 schedule by finding funding to cover the costs that would have come out of that Nissan International sponsorship. We have to have a local sponsor to cover the event costs anyway,” said Lenferna.

“We have been asked by the UCI to bid for the 2013 World Championships. And they told me that the 2010 cut-back is purely budgetary related and that Pietermaritzburg is on the provisional schedule for 2011 and 2012,” said Lenferna. “A lot of work went into securing the rights to host a World Cup here. I’m making sure we do everything in our power to try and save it.”

The full schedule is here:

April 24-25 UCI World Cup XCO Round 1 – Dalby Forest (GBR)

May 1-2 UCI World Cup 4X Round 1, XCO Round 2 – Houffalize (BEL)

May 15-16 UCI World Cup: 4X Round 2, DHI Round 1 – Maribor (SLO)

May 22-23 UCI World Cup XCO Round 3 – Offenburg (GER)

June 5-6 UCI World Cup 4X Round 3, DHI Round 2 – Fort William (GBR)

June 19-20 UCI World Cup 4X Round 4, DHI Round 3 – Schladming (AUT)

July 7-10 XCO European Continental Championships – Haifa (ISR)

July 17-18 XCO/DHI/4X National Championships

July 24-25 UCI World Cup XCO Round 4, DHI Round 4 – Champéry (SUI)

July 31, August 1 UCI World Cup XCO/DHI/4X Round 5 – Val di Sole (ITA)

August 8 UCI MARATHON WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – St. Wendel (GER)

August 28-29 UCI World Cup XCO/DHI/4X World Cup Round 6 – Windham (USA)

August 31, September 5 UCI XCO/DHI/4X WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – Mt-Ste-Anne (CAN)

September 25-26 XCM National Championships

Bookmark this