WES gets ready for the Sea Otter Europe Festival

The UCI E-MTB World Cup comes back to Girona

Monaco (P.ty) Tuesday 20 September 2022 – All set for the UCI E-MTB World Cup Round 5 at the Sea Otter Europe Festival, taking place in Girona, Spain next Friday 23 and Saturday 24 September. The big European bike event gets to its 6th edition this year, hosting more than 100 brands, between the exhibit and the bike test area. Competitions and amateur activities, and the new urban mobility asset, showing solutions and bringing information about sustainable mobility and green transition. For the second year in a row, WES and the E-MTB World Cup will once again be the icing on the cake of the weekend, being the top competition in the overall schedule and the Festival opener with the Friday afternoon race.

At the 2021 Girona Round, for the first time, WES track was raced clockwise and anticlockwise over the 2-day programme, setting a new rule for the following E-MTB World Cup events, also applying to 2022.

WES protagonists are coming back to Spanish soil for the penultimate round of the season, with clear goals in mind and a challenging general classification to face, on a technical course. In the Women’s field, the top-3 are within 34 points only, with 50 available next weekend. World Champion Nicole Göldi (Trek) comes with a full score in the last two rounds and will defend the standings lead. Runner-up French Justine Tonso (Lapierre) will be out for revenge after being sick at the Belgian Round, two weeks ago. She wants the lead back and German Sofia Wiedenroth (Specialized), third overall, won’t make her life easy. Good memories for Sandra Santanyes (Trek) from the Catalan Federation, who made her debut in the Series at Girona last year, taking an unbelievable double win.

Reigning World Champion Jérôme Gilloux (Lapierre) wore his first rainbow jersey for the first time at Girona in 2021, when he won Race 2, and will come back for more next weekend, after the double race win at Spa-Francorchamps. Speaking about jerseys, Joris Ryf (Bergstrom) will shine in his brand-new Swiss Champion outfit, as he just clinched the national title, achieving one of his goals for this season. 64 points separate him from the standings leader, but he’s feeling comfortable, 42 points ahead of fellow Loïc Noël (Specialized), who will miss this round for health reasons. The battle from 5th to 8th is also one to watch, as 4 riders are within 4 points only and they all know that anything is possible with a 2-race format. Motorsport hero and WES fan David Checa, 4-time Endurance World Champion makes his return to WES at the Girona Round, where he debuted last year. 10 national riders on the starting grid, between permanent competitors and wildcards, will make the battle even tougher in Costa-Brava.

The new “Hall of Fame” stage at the Festival will host a very special Meet&Greet, with some of the WES protagonists offering giveaways, autographs and taking pictures with the fans: Jérôme Gilloux from France, along with Spain-based Honduran Milton Ramos (Rockrider), local heroes Ismael Esteban (BH) and Sandra Santanyes, and more. Racing gets underway next Friday at h 17:00 CET. Follow the Live Timing and get the Results HERE Download the Event Schedule HERE Download this Press Release in PDF HERE