Teams Named For 2014 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships
Friday, August 1, 2014 at 7:33PM Seven men were selected in the elite division with automatic bids coming for Aaron Gwin (Wildomar, Calif./Factory Specialized), Neko Mulally (Pisgah Forest, N.C./Trek World Cycling) and Kevin Aiello (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif./KHS Bicycles), while Logan Binggeli (Saint George, Utah/KHS Bicycles), Eliot Jackson (Westlake Village, Calif.), Kiran MacKinnon (Santa Cruz, Calif.) and Max Morgan (Duluth, Ga.) earned discretionary selections.
Gwin received the automatic nod after winning the 2014 Gravity Mountain Bike National Championships on June 22 in Angel Fire, N.M., taking top-five finishes at the first three World Cups of the season and for being ranked second in the UCI World Cup overall rankings as of Aug. 1. Mulally’s automatic selection came after placing third at World Cup #2 in Cairns, Australia, April 25, and for being ranked ninth overall in the UCI World Cup rankings as of Aug. 1. Aiello earned his automatic selection because he leads the men’s Pro Mountain Bike Gravity Tour (GRT) rankings as of Aug. 1 with 153 points.
Receiving discretionary selections, Binggeli placed fourth at the 2014 Gravity Mountain Bike National Championships, while Jackson took 25th at World Cup #2 in Cairns, 35th at World Cup #3 in Fort William, Scotland, on June 7, and 45th at World Cup #4 in Leogang, Austria, June 15. McKinnon took top-10 results at the 2014 Gravity Mountain Bike National Championships, the April 13 Sea Otter Classic and the Pro GRT Plattekill Gravity Open in Roxbury, N.Y., May 21-25.
Also receiving automatic bids are Jill Kintner (Seattle, Wash./Team Norco Intl.) and Alison Zimmer (Lincoln, Vt. VT/Gravity Racing-Xprezo), who are the lone U.S. elite women’s selections for the 2014 Mountain Bike World Championships.
Kintner nabbed her automatic bid after taking the win at the 2014 Gravity Mountain Bike National Championships, placing third at World Cup #1 in Pietermaritzburg, Russia, April 12, taking fifth at World Cup #3 and being ranked sixth in the UCI World Cup Rankings as of Aug. 1. Zimmer’s automatic bid came from being ranked first in Pro GRT rankings as of Aug. 1.
Three juniors men took automatic bids to the 2014 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships, as Luca Shaw (Hendersonville, N.C./SRAM-Troy Lee Designs), Shane Leslie (Birmingham, Mich.) and Chase Nelson (Littleton, Colo./Trek Southridge Racing) accomplished enough in 2014 to get the nod, while Charlie Harrison (Trabuco Canyon, Calif.) and Matt Branney (Littleton, Colo.) were granted discretionary selections.
Shaw took the win at World Cup #1 and placed third at World Cup #4 to punch his ticket, while Leslie recorded the fastest junior time at the 2014 Gravity Mountain Bike National Championships to earn the automatic bid. Nelson recorded the fastest junior time among the Pro GRT rider pool at the event.
Earning discretionary selections, Harrison took second at the 2014 Gravity Mountain Bike National Championships as well as at the fifth Pro GRT competition, the July 20 Bikes, Brews and Views in Beach Mountain, N.C., while Branney recorded top-five finishes at the Pro GRT’s NW Cup April 19-20 in Port Angeles, Wash., the Plattekill Gravity Open, May 21-25, in Roxbury, N.Y., and at Bikes, Brews and Views, as well as a seventh-place result at the Gravity Mountain Bike National Championships.
Michelle Pederson (Los Alamos, N.M./Bike n Sport Racing) notched the lone juniors women’s automatic bid after winning the Junior National Championship, while Taylor Allison (Woodstock, N.Y.) got the discretionary nod for taking third at the Plattekill Gravity Open.
