Let the Sun shine

It will be the 20th time that Cyprus host the Sunshine Cup making it a go-to starting point for the seasons racing and, close to, a tradition for riders around Europe. With a week to go, before kicking of the the 4-day stage-race, organizers are adding Olympic and World Champions medalists to the line-up. Maybe one of the most prestigious so far in the Sunshine history.

How about London gold medalist Jaroslav Kulhavy (Cze) and Athens Olympic champion Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesjaa (Nor). In men´s elita category Kulhavy is joined by for example Ondrej Cink (Cze – 3rd Worlds) and Manuel Fumic (Ger) that battled Cink for the bronze at the Worlds… Then bring in Italian Marco Fontana with medals from the Olympics and Worlds and we are set to go. However last year Florian Vogel took the overall victory and he´s back in town. Maxime Marotte (Fra) that came 2nd and the Rio test event will also have a go. Also we think several is looking curiously at what former CX world champion Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) could accomplish on a XCO-course. He has his eyes set on the Olympics.

Athens gold medalist Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesjaa (10 rainbow jersyes) will have quite the experienced company in Julie Bresset, London gold medalist and Beijing gold medalist Sabine Spitz. Eva Lechner, 2nd at the Euros 2015 and with 3 world cup along side a really good CX-season will have a go. Also count on seeing Tanja Zakelj (Slo) up front together with Germanys Adelheid Morath.

And as said Swedes like sun and getting a bit of rest from the snowy conditions in February. To what we know there will be a large group of Swedish riders registered to compete for points, results and combating for the spots in the National Team at the Euromtb in Sweden in May!

Swedish riders we are counting on seeing competing in Cyprus are (Elite, U23, J);

Mattias Wengelin, Emil Linde, Emil Lindgren and Alexandra Engen (LIndgren, Wengelin, Linde and Engen already made the Swedish Euromtb-team), Axel Lindh, Martin Setterberg, Dennis Wahlqvist, Max Wiklund-Hellstadius, Adam Gustavsson, Erik Gunnarsson, Åsa Erlandsson, Linn Gustavsson, Felicia Ferner (please let ut know if we missed out on riders or might included somebody not going…)

Good luck all!

//Tobias Dahlberg