UCI Mountain Bike World Championships Team Announcement
The mountain bike world descends on Pal Arinsal in Andorra from 28th of August to 1st of September for the Downhill and Cross-Country World Championships.
Ireland will have three representatives in the cross-country disciplines with nine Irish riders taking on the downhill.
Current Irish National Cross-Country champion Chris Dawson will be competing in both the short-track event on the 29th of August, as well as the longer Olympic event on the 1st of September in the Elite category.
Greta Lawless will compete in the Junior Women’s category, having taken her first Elite National Title in July at just 17 years old.
Caoimhe May will represent Ireland in the Women’s U23 category in both the Olympic length and short-track events.
Ireland will have two representatives in the Junior Men’s Downhill event. Having bagged himself a top 10 finish in the UEC European Downhill Championships in Switzerland recently, to go with his Junior National Downhill Championship and Under 21 National Enduro Championship wins in 2024, Callum Morris will look to carry his strong form to Andorra. He will be joined by Ben Fitzsimon, who grabbed himself third place in this year’s Downhill National Championship.
The Elite Men’s category will see seven Irish riders take to the track, all UCI World Cup regulars, well used to the big stage.
Having won the Junior World Championship at Leogang in 2020, current National Champion Oisin O’Callaghan will look to try and get his hands on his first Elite Rainbow Jersey.
Ronan Dunne will hope to carry through his current form into the event in Andorra. 2024 has already seen him win the RedBull Hardline events in both Tasmania and Wales, as well as an early World Cup event. Having also registered a top 10 recently in the European Championships, his year is going from strength to strength.
Henry Kerr is no stranger to World Championship events, having finished second in the Snow Bike Downhill and Super G events in February 2024, and a 9th place finish in the Downhill World Championships in Les Gets, France in 2022.
Multiple time Irish National Champion Jacob Dickson has always ridden well at downhill events in Andorra, including a top 10 in the Junior category in 2015. He’ll be hoping for more of the same in Andorra this year.
21 year old World Cup regular Chris Cumming will hope to carry the form that saw him capture second place in the National Championships in 2024.
Two more riders with World Cup experience round out the Irish contingent, in Ross Ennis and Niall Clerkin. Clerkin recently had a second place finish in the iXS Cup event in Germany.