Team Manager Simon Burney summed up his thoughts on the GB Team’s performance at the Championships.

”We’ve been generally successful and the trend is upwards. Looking at the Cross-Country, we had two highly competitive Juniors in Nicole Cooke and Liam Killeen. Nicole picked up a bronze and Liam was fifth, but less than a minute behind the winner, in easily the tightest race of the week. In any other category, that gap would have seen him on the podium. He was well prepared and when the racing’s that close, it’s down to who has it on the day. In the Under-23s all the riders we have are at roughly the same level, but not yet competitive internationally. Phil Dixon looked like he could have made top twenty, which would have been an excellent ride, but his saddle broke and forced him out. The real problem we have is lack of strength in depth. World Class Potential and World Class Start will start addressing this, but it is very hard to raise the level of a lot of riders very quickly. We really only have one or two riders per category capable of performing at this level.”

”In Downhill we have world class riders in all categories and it showed, with two silvers and a bronze. The Junior and Elite Women are particularly strong, especially when you consider riders like Tracy Moseley and Emma Guy were not riding. Perhaps the only category we lack depth in is Elite Men. Below Steve Peat, there’s quite a gap to the other riders.”

Medals

Great Britain finished sixth in the medal table, with two Silvers (Helen Gaskell and Steve Peat) and two Bronzes (Fionn Griffiths and Nicole Cooke), easily the team’s best showing at a World Championships.

Medal Table

Country Gold Silver Bronze

France 4 – 4

USA 3 2 1

Spain 3 2 –

Switzerland 1 1 1

Australia 1 1 –

GB – 2 2

Canada – 2 –

Finland – 1 –

Poland – 1 –

Italy – – 2

Netherlands – – 1

New Zealand – – 1

British World MTB Championship Medal Winners

1990 Bronze, Tim Gould, Elite Men’s Cross-Country

1992 Bronze, David Baker, Elite Men’s Cross-Country

1997 Silver, Tracy Moseley, Junior Women’s Downhill

1999 Silver, David Wardell, Junior Men’s Downhill

Bronze, Helen Gaskell, Junior Women’s Downhill
Silver, Helen Gaskell, Junior Women’s Downhill

Silver, Steve Peat, Elite Men’s Downhill

Bronze, Fionn Griffiths, Junior Women’s Downhill

Bronze, Nicole Cooke, Junior Women’s Cross-Country

Philip Ingham, reporting for the British Cycling Federation