33 days until the world arrives

With just over one month before the best mountain bikers in the world arrive for the World Championships at Mont Sainte-Anne, Quebec, the organizers are putting the finishing touches on the courses. Katherine Sdicu, one of the press relations officials, said things are coming together well.

“All of the courses are getting ready right now. Last week they were putting the last updates on the four-cross course, but they are working on the downhill and cross-country ones as well,” she said. All of the course maps can be found at www.montsainteanne2010.com in the Competitions section.

Because there’s a UCI World Cup event in the U.S. Aug. 26-29^th, the riders aren’t expected to arrive until just before the championships get under way. “We expect riders to arrive right after (the World Cup) as the competitions here start on Aug. 31.”  The official team and athlete  presentation and the opening ceremony will be held in Quebec City Aug. 31.

For spectators, there’s no admission per se, but parking on site will cost $10/day per car. And if you can’t make it to Quebec to watch the championships in person, there will be plenty of opportunities to catch the races online and on television. CBC and its sister French channel will air the cross-country race Sept. 4 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and the English channel will show a rebroadcast of the downhill race Sept. 11 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Online, CBC will have live broadcasts of the 4-cross race Sept. 3, the cross-country race Sept. 4 and the downhill race Sept. 5.