PIETERMARITBURG TO HOST 2011 MTB WORLD CUP OPENER
19-Jun-2010
Supplied by TreadMag from Tread Magazine
South African mountain bikers have welcomed the return of a round of the 2011 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup to Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, confirmed on Friday after a meeting by the UCI Management Committee in Birmingham, England.
Pietermaritzburg successfully hosted the opening round of the UCI World Cup in 2009, but the decision by Nissan not to extend it’s global sponsorship of the UCI towards the end of 2009, forced the UCI to create a more budget-conscious calendar for 2010. This resulted in Pietermaritzburg being omitted from the 2010 calendar due to the high travel costs incurred by the competitors, who hail largely from North America and Europe. But next year the UCI World Cup will again kick off in Pietermaritzburg, which hosts a triple (DHI, XCO and 4X) on 23 and 24 April on the forested slopes adjacent to the Cascades Shopping Centre on the north-western border of the city.   The 2011 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup calendar: ·      April 23-24 - Pietermaritzburg, South Africa (XCO/DHI/4X) ·      May 21-22 - Yorkshire, Dalby Forest, Great Britain (XCO) ·      May 28-29 - Offenburg, Germany (XCO) ·      June 4-5 - Fort William, Scotland (DHI/4X) ·      June 11-12 - Leogang, Austria (DHI/4X) ·      July 2-3 - Mont Sainte Anne, Quebec, Canada (XCO/DHI/4X) ·      July 9-10 - Windham, New York, United States (XCO/DHI/4X) ·      August 6-8 - La Bresse, France (DHI) ·      August 13-14 - Nove Mesto Na Morave, Czech (XCO) ·      August 20-21 - Val di Sole, Italy (XCO/DHI/4X)   Source: UCI media service