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MTB world’s: American Wells out, too

By Jason Sumner, VeloNews associate editor
Published: Sep. 4, 2003
The world's layout.
The world's layout.

You might have guessed that the tough and technical cross-country course would pose the biggest obstacle for the U.S. national team here at the world mountain bike championships in Lugano, Switzerland. But with three days of racing remaining, it’s the UCI’s mandatory medical monitoring policy that’s giving the Americans the biggest headache.

First came word that under-23 medal contender Adam Craig had been told he couldn’t race after failing to get a battery of medical tests done during the spring. And now 2001 U.S. short track national champ Todd Wells has had the same ax fall on him. Wells, too, had not undergone the mandatory medical check-up done in the spring (the UCI requires riders to be tested twice, once in the spring and once in the summer), and now he’s out of the race and on his way back to States.

“The UCI sucks,” Wells wrote on his personal homepage. “I’m not very motivated to sit in my hotel for a week and a half before the World Cup finals.”

Apparently the Americans are not the only country to lose riders to the monitoring rule, but to this point a complete list of casualties has not been released.

On Thursday morning, Giant-Pearl Izumi rider Craig was still holding out hope that he might get a reprieve, but USA Cycling’s international competition director Jiri Mainus didn’t seem optimistic.

“Right now we are just trying to figure out how this happened,” he said.

The map of Monte Tamaro
The map of Monte Tamaro

Competition on Thursday was limited to trials as well as qualifying for the downhill and four-cross. Friday brings the under-23 and junior’s men’s cross-country, and the four-cross finals. All downhill winners will be decided Saturday, while the elite cross-country crowns will be passed out on Sunday.

Buckle up
With another day of downhill practice underway and qualifying set for Thursday afternoon, the talk among the gravity set is that fitness will be key come Saturday’s DH finals.

“It’s really physical and tiring,” said Aussie Nathan Rennie. “It’s one thing to do practice and stop part way down, but it’s so much different to do a full fun. It’s really fatiguing.”

The guess is that the men’s winner will cross the line in around 5:30. As for set-ups, there’s no talk of any wholesale changes, though several riders have said they raised their front end because the course is so steep.

ACC in the house
After taking most of the summer off from racing, French phenomenon Anne-Caroline Chausson is in Lugano preparing to chase after for her eighth straight world title in the elite downhill. Chausson, now riding for Commencal after leaving Cannondale at the end of last season, was completely off her bike for two months after cutting her hand in a freak kitchen accident early in the summer.

...and her bike.
...and her bike.

“I was holding a glass in my hand and I turned around and smashed it into a pan that my boyfriend was holding,” she explained.

The resulting damage included 12 stitches in her right hand and damage to some nerves and tendons, which required surgery. To this day Chausson says she still doesn’t have full feeling in her thumb, but she doesn’t think it will hamper her too much come the downhill finals.

Location explanation
Though the 2003 world’s are billed as taking place in Lugano, the reality is that the base for the event is 15km north of the lakeside city in the small town of Rivera. More side-of-the-highway locale than resort area, Rivera has little in common with the last two world championship sites, swanky ski resorts in Kaprun, Austria and Vail, Colorado.

New twist to the concept of 'road gap.'
New twist to the concept of 'road gap.'

One of the more interesting features is the fact that both the cross-country and downhill courses pass underneath the A2, a busy six-lane highway.

Access to the downhill is via the Monte Tamaro gondola, which passes above the highway during its run up the mountain. Racers get off at the midway point at Piano di Mora, but you can take the lift another 380 meters up, where there’s a rectangular redbrick church at Alpe Foppa, 1530 meters above the sea.

The only events that actually take place in Lugano were the start and finish of the marathon last Sunday and Thursday night’s opening ceremonies.

Regardless the small city is a picturesque as they come, set in the foothills of the Swiss Alps and wrapped around the shore of the finger-shaped Lago di Lugano. The city traces its history back to the Roman Empire and it didn’t become part of the Swiss Confederation until 1803. Back then, fishing was the Italian-speaking city’s primary staple, but today its shop-lined streets and mild climate draw tourists from all over the world.

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