90 of the world’s best MTBO athletes travel to Targovishte in northeastern Bulgaria this weekend to race for the CX80 MTBO World Cup titles of 2022.
Three races await: Sprint in urban terrain in the city of Kardam on Friday, the Long distance on Saturday and a Mixed Relay on Sunday, both in the hilly forests around Momino outside Targovishte.
Besides deciding the overall World Cup, the races in Bulgaria will determine the first ever U23 MTBO World Championships, the new U23 World Cup and an additional 150 athletes will fight for medals in four WMMTBOC races as well.
Kardam looks to offer very fast sprint racing with rather flat terrain and good rideability around town. The forest terrain in Momino is quite hilly, rather open and the athletes will be allowed to ride off the tracks with the chance of some controls being placed in the terrain as well.
Søgaard has commanding lead
In the women’s World Cup, Camilla Søgaard (DEN) has taken a huge lead after great performances at both EMTBOC in Lithuania in May and the WTMBOC in Sweden in July. Søgaard won the Mass Start in Sweden and went home with impressive five medals after five WMTBOC races.
With 295 points, she is favorite to claim her first overall World Cup title after finishing second two times earlier. Fellow Dane, Nikoline Splittorff is in second position with 226 points and Marika Hara (FIN) is third with 196 points.
The World Cup is decided by the athletes six best point scores out of eight races. Therefore, Splittorff and Emily Benham Kvåle (GBR) currently in fifth position are the only ones who can catch up with Søgaard’s lead.
Bogar 10 points ahead
Krystof Bogar (CZE) has a narrower lead in the men’s World Cup standings after his two gold medals at WTMBOC. With 271 points, he is 10 points ahead of Samuel Pokala (FIN) and the reigning World Cup champion, Simon Braendli (SUI) has 206 points but only scored points from five races. Just as Pokala and Braendli, Long distance world champion Marcus Janson (SWE) can still catch Bogar’s lead with some great performances in Bulgaria.
The first ever U23 World Cup will come to an end this weekend too. Nikoline Splittorff (DEN) seems impossible to catch with 300 points in the women’s standings, where Elena Yllan Ortiz (ESP) is 93 points behind in second place. The men’s U23 World Cup is lead by Jan Hasek (CZE) with 288 points , Ignas Ambrazas (LTU) is second (268 points) and Miika Nurmi (FIN) has 216 points in third position.
In the Team World Cup, Finland and Czechia are tied for the first place with 50 points, Sweden has 38 points in third position.
Go to CX80 World Cup standings
The races can be followed at IOF LIVE, where a basic web-tv production with English commentary, live GPS tracking and live results are offered.
Organisers Homepage – Facebook:
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Program for CX80 MTBO World Cup Round 3
(Time Zone – EEST UTC+3):
Friday, Sep. 16
11.30 Sprint, first start
Saturday, Sep. 17
12.00 Long distance, first start
Sunday, Sep. 18
9.30 Mixed Relay, mass start
Program for WMMTBOC 2022
Thursday, Sep. 15
11.00 Mass Start
Friday, Sep. 16
9.30 Sprint, first start
Saturday, Sep. 17
9.00 Long distance, first start
Sunday, Sep. 18
12.30 Middle distance, first start
Photo: EMTBOC 2022 / Donatas Lazauskas