Some race teams kicked off their World Championship campaigns by picking through the wreckage of their storm damaged tech tents, as the UCI MTB & Trials World Championships got underway in Vallnord in tempestuous weather conditions. 

Maybe the elements were gathering themselves for a seasonal finale or perhaps it was Vallnord’s way of telling the teams that they had better be prepared for an extremely completion on all fronts.

SR Suntour WERX’s week could not have started any brighter; Daniel Federspiel led from start to finish and brought home the gold medal in the XC Eliminator event. The entire team from athletes to mechanics were on a high and, the product set up was absolutely spot on.

The Women’s XC race cam next, a recognised target for the SR Suntour Werx Team.

The 2015 season had been a tough one for BH-SR Suntour-KMC and Rabobank LIV with Julie Bresset and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot side-lined through injury and health issues but as the season stretched on the results started to come in and consequently both teams were optimistic as the riders lined up 1pm on Saturday afternoon.

Jolanda Neff opened up a lead early on and then the field came back together after the first challenging descent. With a combination of strength and staggering bike handling in slippery conditions, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot gradually moved up through the pack of riders to take her position at the head of the race.

The Women’s XC race cam next, a recognised target for the SR Suntour Werx Team.

The 2015 season had been a tough one for BH-SR Suntour-KMC and Rabobank LIV with Julie Bresset and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot side-lined through injury and health issues but as the season stretched on the results started to come in and consequently both teams were optimistic as the riders lined up 1pm on Saturday afternoon.

Jolanda Neff opened up a lead early on and then the field came back together after the first challenging descent. With a combination of strength and staggering bike handling in slippery conditions, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot gradually moved up through the pack of riders to take her position at the head of the race.

Once at the front, Pauline steadily took control of the race and the conditions with a masterful display of racing. Her lead grew to as much as two minutes at one stage before she closed the race out with a safety first approach on the final lap. After more than 2 hours in the saddle, she was rightly crowned World Champion and pulled on the coveted rainbow stripes.

Huge respect and congratulations to Pauline from all of us here at SR Suntour.

Our very own Adelheid Morath rode superbly with a strong display of handling skills and determination to finish 13th.

Sunday was the turn of the DH junior women with Marine Cabirou the bookies favourite for the title. Despite having dominated the season, Marine was not taking anything for granted; her early season crash had shown her how quickly fortunes could change in DH racing.

True to form and expectation, Marine did indeed take the title, an incredible achievement to go with her string of victories from the season.

We are delighted for her and the Voul Voul team and would like to say a big thank you to them for adding so much fun to the 2015 season.

With an equally outstanding season behind him, Germany’s junior XCO champion Maximillian Brandl slugged it out with Columbia’s Egan Bernal for silver. The SR Suntour Axon Werx fork took everything the technical course had to throw at it and it was on the treacherous descents that Brandl finally managed to shake the Columbian.

As if not to be out done by the weather, the U23 men put on a storming display of racing, in fact their race was considered by many to be one of the best world championship races ever.

Great Britain’s Grant Ferguson, New Zealand’s Sam Gaze and Anton Cooper fought tooth and nail with France’s Victor Koretzky in a relentless battle, which at one stage had the top seven riders separated by less than 30seconds.

After an epic fight, Cooper outsprinted Koretzky to take the crown with Ferguson finishing a handful of seconds down in third.

With Maxime Marotte piloting into sixth in the men’s elite race, Team BH-SR Suntour-KMC have finished the 2015 ranked third in the world. Such a ranking does not fall out of the sky. It is the result of hours and hours of training, product testing, discipline and commitment. Thank you to all our riders whose passion for the sport is matched only by our passion for the products.

Huge congratulations to everyone involved at this year’s world championships, from riders to spectators, from marshals to medics, it was an enormous success.