Are XCO riders the ultimate mountain bikers?

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Found a pic of Ty after his crash. Courtesy of twitter

[Guest]

Nino with a flat tyre

[Guest]

Nino with a flat tyre going down here. Enough said!

[Rata Del Spruit]

Found a pic of Ty after his crash. Courtesy of twitter

 

I just used the Lord's name in vain.

[rock]

XCO is mountain biking, my 2nd MTB race ever was at Paarl rock in '94, anyone remember the 'drop off' that you rolled down, near vertical, with rigid forks, it was crazy, 3 laps of a 4km course for the 'sport class'.......toughest 12kms you spent on a bike back then, and this was how people got into mountain biking which was more of a fringe sport then....

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

 

I just used the Lord's name in vain.

 

Yeah. Looks like he came down HARD.

[blondeonabike]

Oooops!.........Straighten handle bars..........Back on the bike!

[Big Wheel Cycles]

On the topic of comparing our local talent to that of the Europeans and what not. I've noticed that our local women don't seem to be no where near as lean or fit as their European competitors. Why is this.. poor training, poor diet? Maybe not as dedicated? Something definitely needs to be done to close the gap between our top guys and girls and the leaders, 50th place in the elite men's just doesn't cut it.

[blondeonabike]

The girls held their own.....

[Stretch]

Found a pic of Ty after his crash. Courtesy of twitter

 

was gonna come here to post that - here's a slightly bigger pic

 

http://ep1.pinkbike.org/p5pb10822933/p5pb10822933.jpg

Edited April 14, 2014 by Stretch

[Ramrod]

was gonna come here to post that - here's a slightly bigger pic

 

http://ep1.pinkbike.org/p5pb10822933/p5pb10822933.jpg

talk about eating dust. man that had to hurt!

[Stretch]

...and tracey mosley shredding that tree house rock garden...shew...you can see the dh/enduro skills there

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Thanks man. Came via twitter the whatscrap

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

talk about eating dust. man that had to hurt!

 

Surgery to his face and a broken nose. No neck injuries.

[Dustbug]

to open the sport up a bit more and get better exposure XCO need to relax the 80% rule and allow for slightly longer time between events on the day, a lot of guys like myself would try it but the 80% rule meaning you get pulled off if you are outside of 80% of the first riders time or get lapped is a problem as many riders are not anywhere near the elites or top riders times meaning they don't get to complete the races. XCO need to run some events aimed at the general riders to get more exposure. cost wise once a course is built it is there, cascades just close off some of the very technical features for general riders using the track. and they use the B routes.

[milky4130]

That's a nice course! Watched 2 years back and it was super muddy which made is really fun to watch.

 

I think the problem in the Western Cape is the lack of awareness / advertising of the events. I tried doing the XCO ladies races and found that it was a continuous struggle to find information of when and where the next event would be. The website was never kept up-to-date. Eventually just gave up.

 

The races I did were great fun. I raced with the Elite ladies as the sports class was a bit too quick (sometimes only 2 laps, perfect for people starting out). Even though I am slow and unfit and sometimes got lapped, it was awesome. The pro's were all super friendly and encouraging and didn't seem upset that some amateur was joining them.

Well, there were a couple of sources i got my info from, FaceBook, The HUB & email. But i agree very little being done to promote the events & websites are hardly updated. As a starter like the FB Page "Western Cape MTB". Hope to see you on the XCO trails soon.