A 28-strong Great Britain Cycling Team head to Val di Sole in Trentino, Italy for the 2016 downhill and four cross UCI Mountain Bike World Championships from 8-11 September.
The team
Downhill
A star-studded downhill team features several riders to have won world titles including Rachel Atherton, Gee Atherton, Danny Hart, Manon Carpenter, Laurie Greenland and Tahnee Seagrave.
Three-time world champion Rachel Atherton will be aiming to complete a perfect season having won all seven rounds of the 2016 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup - becoming the first person to do so and setting a record 13 consecutive wins dating back to June 2015.
The 29-year-old defending champion will face firm competition from fellow Brits Manon Carpenter and Tahnee Seagrave. Carpenter, world champion in 2014, was second overall in the world cup with Seagrave fourth.
In the elite men’s category, 2011 world champion Danny Hart enters the competition in excellent form on the back of three world cup wins in a row, his most recent in Andorra last Saturday.
Gee Atherton crashed in Vallnord but the experienced two-time world champion is expected to start in Italy, as is last year’s bronze medallist Josh Bryceland.
2015 junior world champion Laurie Greenland makes the step-up into the elite category.
Elliot Heap and Matt Walker were third and fourth overall as they impressed in the junior men’s category in the world cup this season, while Aston Tutt flies the flag for Great Britain in the junior women’s event.
Four cross
2015 silver medallist Luke Cryer will hope to go one better and is joined by Scott Beaumont, Duncan Ferris, Alex Metcalfe, Will Evans, David Roberts and Nathan Parsons in the elite men’s event for Britain.
Great Britain has yet to win a men’s four cross world title since its inception at the 2002 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships.
2014 four cross world champion Katy Curd is part of the downhill squad. Natasha Bradley and Hannah Escott represent Britain in the elite women’s event.
Schedule (UK time)
Thursday 8 September
7.30pm: Four cross seeding round
Friday 9 September
7.45pm: Four cross world championships
Saturday 10 September
10.30am-2pm: Downhill seeding round
Sunday 11 September
10am: Junior men’s and women’s downhill
11:45am: Elite women’s downhill
2pm: Elite men’s downhill
Courses
Downhill
The famous Val di Sole Black Snake Track is known for being one of the most technically challenging in the world. Totalling 2,200m in length, the track drops 519m with a huge bridge jump at the finale.
Four cross
Jumps, obstacles and tight corners are packed into the 600m track in a flat out race to the line, with a 100m drop from the start to the finish.
- Watch the downhill finals from 11.30am on Sunday on Red Bull TV.
- Report and galleries will appear on British Cycling website throughout the championships.
- Updates will appear on Twitter @BritishCycling
