News: GB announce Mountain Bike Team for Worlds

The Great Britain Cycling team announces the team for the Cross Country event at the 2012 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships taking place in Saalfelden, Austria, from August 29th to September 9th.

The team, the biggest selected by GB for an overseas World Championships, will include three Olympians in Annie Last, Liam Killeen and Oli Beckingsale.

Last, 21, is currently ranked sixth in the world on the back of a career-best season and will compete in Under-23 category at the World Championships, where she has won two silver medals in the last two years. Kenta Gallagher, 20, is also having a career-best season with a second national title and two top-10 finishes in World Cups. He is ranked 15th in the world.

Junior Beth Crumpton has had three top 15 finishes in World Cups and also won her second national title last week. National Mountain Bike Coach, Phil Dixon, said: “The team has established international quality at the Elite and Under-23 level and will be represented in all categories which is an indication of the strength of Mountain Biking in Great Britain. We have a healthy number of boys and girls in the junior categories which is encouraging for the future.”

Elite Men
Liam Killeen
David Fletcher
Oli Beckingsale (Endura)

Elite Women
Lee Craigy

Under 23 Men
Grant Ferguson
Kenta Gallagher
Sebastian Bachelor
Steve James (Hargroves Cycles)

Under 23 Women
Annie Last

Junior Men
Iain Paton.
Michael Thompson.
Samuel Stean

Junior Women
Alice Barnes (Twenty3-Orbea)
Beth Crumpton.
Rebecca Preece.