The 2003 World MTB Championships kicked off yesterday in Lugano, Switzerland with the first ever Marathon World Championship. The Lugano courses are reputed to be some of the most challenging Worlds tracks that there’ve been, and the Marathon course set the mood. 78km, 9,300ft of climbing and a stout breeze made for a tough race, but it still came down to a sprint in the end…

After nearly four hours of racing, Thomas Frischknecht and Bart Brentjens were neck-and-neck, with 78km of to-ing and fro-ing settled in the last 300m with Frischknecht winning by just a couple of metres and 1.4 seconds. Both riders had averaged over 20kmh on the way round, with Frischknecht’s winning time being 3:48:01.9. Germany’s Carsten Bresser was third, four minutes down. Top placed Brit was Barrie Clarke in 80th, actually not at all shabby in a field of 1,014…

It’s probably fairly noteworthy that Frischknecht won the race on a 125mm Scott Genius MC – a bit of a turnaround from the ultralight steel frames he’s favoured in the past.

The women’s race was held over the same course and was won by Poland’s Maja Wloszcowska in 04:32:06.7.

Next events in the World Champs week are the Junior Women’s XC and Team Relay on Wednesday. Results as they come in…