UCI Marathon Worlds most competitive field in history
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The 2017 UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships, to take place in Germany on Sunday. Singen has been the host of many marathon races, strategically situated on the border of Switzerland and Germany and the home of Hegau Bike Marathon the venue offers superior racing terrain. The line up is the strongest in the history of the event. The ladies and mens field boasts 8 present and past World Champions. South Africans will recognize the names in the classy lineup, most of the top contenders having been racing on our shores for years, at all the competitive early stage races.
The ladies field pf 77 riders includes defending Champion Jolanda Neff (Kross Racing) of Switzerland, plus former UCI World Champions Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa (Merida Gunn-Rita), Sabine Spitz (Wiawis Bikes), Annika Langvad (Specialized) and Esther Süss, of Switzerland. Spitz is the local German favourite, and won the European title in Singen in 2015. Sabine Spitz, is on the hunt for her eighth marathon world championship on Sunday. Multiple Cape Epic winner and World Cup Champion the Danish Annika Langvad last year missed the title defense just because she took the wrong turn in the lead. Current Cape Epic title holder and Ex-world champion Esther Süss and Jennie Stennerhag will be lining up in this very competitive field.
The extremely competitive South African marathon champion Robyn de Groot (multiple Cape Epic podiums) will be showing her form as a solo contender, she has shown awesome form this year. Amy McDougall who has competed in diverse events from The Munga to the Cape Epic will line up with Robyn. Will be great to see these to ladies competing and representing SA. Good luck Ladies!
The 188 men’s field includes Lakata, Kulhavy, Ferreira, Van Der Poel promises to be a great tussle. Nico Bell, Max Knox, Philip Buys and Sithembiso Masanga will represent the South African team. The courses feature short, steep climbs rather than long ones, which will make it difficult for solo attacks to succeed. The women will race 80 kilometres and the men 98 kilometres.
The line up for the World Championships reads like the starting list of the Cape Epic… as South Africans we should be proud of event organizers who develop stage races of such high quality that most of the top contenders in the world have graced our shores to race.
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http://www.uci.ch/mountain-bike/news/article/eight-current-and-former-uci-world-champions-line-for-uci-marathon-worlds/
