Top riders confirmed for Mont-Saint Anne Worlds

More than 600 riders have registered for the 2010 UCI Mountain Bike and Trials World Championships being held next week at Mont-Saint Anne, Quebec.  The top World Cup riders and defending world champions in cross country, downhill and 4 Cross have all signed up to race.

Here’s who’s signed up:

Cross Country – Elite Men
1. SCHURTER Nino (Switzerland)
2. ABSALON Julien (France)
3. KULHAVY Jaroslav (Czech Republic)

Cross Country – Elite Women
1.PENDREL Catharine (Canada)
2. LECHNER Eva (Italy)
3. KOERBER Willow (United States)

Downhill – Elite Men
1.ATHERTON Gee (Great Britain)
2. MINNAAR Greg (South Africa)
3. BLENKINSOP Samuel (New Zealand)

Downhill – Elite Women
1.JONNIER Sabrina (France)
2. RAGOT Emmeline (France)
3. PUGIN Floriane (France)

4 Cross – Elite Men
1. GRAVES Jared (Australia)
2. SLAVIK Tomas (Czech Republic)
3. WICHMAN Joost (Netherlands)

4 Cross – Elite Women
1. BEERTEN Anneke (Netherlands)
2. MOLCIK Anita (Austria)
3. HORAKOVA Jana (Czech Republic)

Included on that list are all of the defending world champions: Australia’s Jared Graves and Caroline Buchanan in 4 Cross, Britain’s Steve Peat and France’s Emmeline Ragot in Downhill, and Switzerland’s Nino Schurter and Russia’s Irina Kalentieva in Cross Country will all be looking to defend their crowns.

As for Canadians, there’s a strong roster showing up. Current UCI elite women’s leader Catharine Pendrel and local hero Marie-Hélène Prémont, silver medallist at the 2004 Olympic Games and 2008 UCI Cross Country World Cup champion with both be there. Then there are the under-23 and junior categories, where Emily Batty (U23) and Antoine Caron (Junior) have had some strong results on the UCI World Cup circuit this year.