The 2010 season gets under way: from Dalby Forest to Mont-Sainte-Anne
Every world championship season starts months earlier on the World Cup circuit. In 2010 the opening cross-country round took place at Dalby Forest, in North Yorkshire, on 25 April. Over the following four months riders crossed Europe and North America before converging on Mont-Sainte-Anne in early September.
A new venue to open the year
Dalby Forest was a new World Cup venue in 2010, two years before the London Olympics, at a time of fast-growing interest in mountain biking in Britain. The race came only days after much of European airspace had been closed by the ash cloud from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano, a disruption that briefly threatened the travel plans of teams across the sport. Switzerland's Nino Schurter and Russia's Irina Kalentieva, the reigning world champions in men's and women's cross-country, won the opener.
The cross-country season
| Date | Venue | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 April | Dalby Forest (GBR) | Nino Schurter | Irina Kalentieva |
| 2 May | Houffalize (BEL) | José Antonio Hermida | Eva Lechner |
| 23 May | Offenburg (GER) | Julien Absalon | Catharine Pendrel |
| 25 July | Champéry (SUI) | Florian Vogel | Nathalie Schneitter |
| 31 July | Val di Sole (ITA) | Nino Schurter | Maja Włoszczowska |
| 28 August | Windham (USA) | Jaroslav Kulhavý | Catharine Pendrel |
Schurter and Pendrel won the overall standings. Six rounds produced ten different winners across the two races, a sign of how open the season was. Note that the future world champions both appeared on that list: Hermida won in Houffalize and Włoszczowska in Val di Sole.
Gravity events
In downhill, Gee Atherton and Greg Minnaar won two rounds each and Atherton took the overall title; on the women's side Sabrina Jonnier, Rachel Atherton and Emmeline Ragot shared the wins, with Jonnier first overall. In four-cross Jared Graves dominated with four wins out of six. None of the three overall winners went on to take the world title at Mont-Sainte-Anne, which says a lot about the difference between a season-long series and a one-day championship.
The last stop before the Worlds
The final World Cup round was held at Windham, in New York State, on 28 and 29 August. Its timing made it a natural dress rehearsal: the same time zone, similar North American forest terrain, and only a short trip north to Québec. Jaroslav Kulhavý won the cross-country there and went on to take silver in the world championship a week later.
What the season told us
- Form travels. Hermida, Kulhavý and Włoszczowska all won World Cup races in 2010 and medalled at the Worlds.
- Consistency is not enough. The overall winners in every discipline missed the rainbow jersey.
- Home riders were rising. Pendrel's two wins and overall title set up high expectations for Canada; she finished fourth at Mont-Sainte-Anne and won the world title the following year.
For the championship itself, read our pages on cross-country and downhill, or the history of the Worlds at Mont-Sainte-Anne.
Sources
- Wikipedia, "2010 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup" (round winners and overall standings).
- Wikipedia, "Air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption".
- Wikipedia, "2010 UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships" and "2011 UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships".