Moritz Milatz (BMC Mountain Bike Racing Team) on a downhill(Image credit: Armin Küstenbrück)
Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå (Multivan Merida) wins the 2012 Bike The Rock in Heubach(Image credit: Johannes Tsopanides / EGO-Promotion)
The German cross country mountain bike national series, MTB-Bundesliga, announced its calendar for 2013, including four weekends of racing from March through July.
The series will kick off on March 31 - April 1, Easter weekend, in Bad Säckingen, which hosted the 2012 German national championships. Next up will be two back-to-back weekends of competition: the Spring Classics in Münsingen on April 13-14 and Bike the Rock in Heubach on April 20-21. Saalhausen will host the finals on July 6-7.
With just four events, the series is smaller than in many past years. Bad Salzdetfurth is not part of the series in 2013 because it will be hosting the German national championships instead. Its organizers took over the nationals after the organizer who was originally awarded the bid for the 2013 German nationals gave it back.
Albstadt was also to be a round of the 2013 Bundesliga, but it stepped up to become a round of the UCI World Cup on short notice a few weeks ago.
Bad Säckingen, Münsingen and Saalhausen will also host an eliminator while Heubach is expected to host another still-to-be-announced short format style race.
There is also expected to be a sort of "second division" for the Bundesliga series in 2013. In it, riders would get half the points of regular series events in races tha tare nationally registered or UCI category C3 events. Details are to be confirmed.
The MTB-Bundesliga is expected to have more than four rounds in 2014.
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2013 MTB-Bundesliga International March 31 - April 1: Bad Säckingen (C1) April 13-14: Münsingen (C1) April 20-21: Heubach (HC) Juli 6-7: Saalhausen (C1)
