Race guide: Great Britain Cycling Team at the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, Nove Mesto na Morave

Race guide: Great Britain Cycling Team at the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, Nove Mesto na Morave

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Great Britain Cycling Team are out in Nove Mesto na Morave as cross-country gets under way at the 2017 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup.

Three British riders will compete in colours of Great Britain across the under-23 races on Saturday 20 May and Sunday 21 May - Senior Academy athletes Evie Richards and Ella Conolly are joined by Frazer Clacherty for the event in Czech Republic.

British champions Grant Ferguson and Annie Last are also in action for their trade teams, in the elite men’s and elite women’s races respectively.

Team

Schedule

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Under-23 cross-country

Great Britain Cycling Team's Frazer Clacherty at Hadleigh Park International

Saturday morning’s under-23 men’s race sees Frazer Clacherty looking to build on his early season form which saw the 19-year-old finish 11th in the elite men’s race at the Hadleigh Park International.

Second in the elite men’s event at the weekend’s HSBC UK | National Cross Country Series underlined Clacherty’s encouraging form, which coach Simon Watts has attributed to a strong winter block of training which included a healthy programme of cyclo-cross racing.

Sunday’s women’s under-23 race features cyclo-cross under-23 world bronze medallist Evie Richards alongside Ella Conolly.

Great Britain Cycling Team's Ella Conolly in training

Richards, 20, was fourth in the category at last year’s UCI Mountain Bike World Championships and is ‘targeting a top-five finish’ according to Watts.

Richards has two victories in the elite women’s category at the HSBC UK | National Cross Country Series so far and took seventh at the Milan International in March.  

Nineteen-year-old Conolly claimed a podium spot with third behind Richards in the National Cross Country Series on Sunday, and 13th at the Hadleigh Park International elite women’s race.

“This world cup represents a development opportunity for her,” Watt said. “We’re looking for Ella to focus on her first lap time, rather than the overall result.”

Elite cross-country

British champion Grant Ferguson at the HSBC UK | National Cross Country Series

CST American Eagle’s Grant Ferguson has found form at the ideal time with victory in last weekend’s National Cross Country Series. The 23-year-old Rio Olympian was fifth at the Hadleigh Park International while also racing rounds of KMC Bundesliga.

The Scot’s highest world cup finish in the elite men’s category came in Cairns last year, when he took 17th place.

Britain's Annie Last at the Hadleigh Park International

British champion Annie Last has been in superb form, with victory at Hadleigh Park International coming on the back second places at the Absa Cape Epic and South African XCO Cup Series.  

Twenty-six-year-old Last also took eighth at the Milan International.

Schedule (UK times)

Great Britain Cycling Team's Evie Richards trains in Mallorca

Saturday 20 May

9am: Under-23 men
12.15pm: Elite women

Sunday 21 May

9am: Under-23 women
1.15pm: Elite men

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