South Africa will host back-to-back elite and masters championships
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Elite men's cross country podium in Pietermaritzburg(Image credit: Marius Maasewerd)
Current UCI World Champion Jaroslav Kulhavy (Specialized) tackled the challenging Pietermaritzburg course on a full-suspension Specialized S-Works Epic 29er.(Image credit: Jonny Irick)
Manuel Fumic (Cannondale Factory Racing) flies over the rocks(Image credit: Armin Küstenbrück)
An international MTB spectacle lies ahead for KwaZulu-Natal's cycling fraternity as all is on track for this year's UCI MTB World Cup Pietermaritzburg at Cascades MTB Park. Seen here, Swiss Nino Schurter winning the 2011 cross country race. (Image credit: Craig Dutton)
The 2013 UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships were officially presented at this year's Worlds in Saalfelden, Austria, on Thursday night. Pietermaritzburg, South Africa will host next year's mountain bike world championships from August 26 to September 1, 2013.
In contrast with 2012, the 2013 edition will return to being a single-week format that includes both gravity and cross country events. Saalfelden seems to have been a one-year experiment in splitting the two major sub-disciplines onto separate weekends. The 2012 format has not been popular among racers, teams or the media.
Four cross Worlds will happen again in 2013. After being excluded from World Cups in 2012, but still being part of the 2012 world championships, there was some question as to whether the discipline would continue as part of the world championships.
Pietermaritzburg has hosted the UCI World Cup for the past several years for cross country and downhill as well as four cross prior to 2012. It has an established four cross track. Because it is hosting the Worlds in 2013, it will not host a World Cup.
Finally, for the first time in 2013, a venue will host both the masters and the elite mountain bike world championships. The two will be held back-to-back, with the masters going first. However, the organizers CRA World Events Management, assured those attending the 2013 elite world championships launch that the two championships will be run on different courses at the same Cascades venue so that the elite courses would not be damaged from traffic from the thousands of masters athletes expected in the days prior to the elite championships.
2013 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships - Provisional Schedule August 28 - Team relay cross country August 29 - Junior women cross country August 29 - Junior men cross country August 29 - Eliminator qualifying August 30 - Junior men and women downhill finals August 30 - U23 men cross country August 30 - U23 women cross country August 30 - Elite men and women four cross qualifying August 31 - Elite women cross country August 31 - Elite men cross country August 31 - Elite men and women four cross finals September 1 - Elite men and women eliminator finals September 1 - Elite women downhill finals September 1 - Elite men downhill finals
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Sue George is an editor at Cyclingnews. She coordinates all of the site's mountain bike race coverage and assists with the road, 'cross and track coverage.
