Are XCO riders the ultimate mountain bikers?

[rouxtjie]

Snap :-)

 

XCO is more spectator friendly - XCM is more participant friendly.

 

The other harsh thing about XCO is unless your tech skills are hot you spend the whole day trying to catch up. With Iron and BoostedGP as friends I spend all my time on tech/XCO courses trying to close the gaps that open on the tech stuff. It adds an extra vomit factor to the red lining!!

Yep....I mean I love riding XCO courses...fountains, rietvlei blue, thaba...they are really stimulating and make you bleed through your eyeballs, but doing big participation numbers, lap type race at these venues...no fanks

 

unless its a 24hour....hahaha because you can suip after every lap

[Stretch]

anyway - semantics of suspension aside...watching the race yesterday I am convinced we are in line for an incredible XCO season. Absalon is looking stronger and fitter than I have seen in him in the last 2 years, Schurter is looking as strong as ever and as technical ever (watching him go through tree house on a rim was truly incredible...nevermind all the drop offs just before the tech zone). Those two dropped the field properly..and as soon as schurter punctured, absalon just laid off the gas and made sure of the win. The likes of hermeida, khulhavy, fontana and fumic are going to need to up their game big time to catch those two

[SwissVan]

Ultimately it's a numbers game. You can get 100 max people on an XCO course. Plenty thousand on an XCM course. XCO will never be huge.

 

Typical XCO race takes up the whole day. If you have members in different age cats you have to pretty much be there all day. Tough on a family.

 

XCO will only ever be a niche discipline.

 

WRT to family and an all day affair, its the same with XCM or more often than not XCM ends up being a whole weekend away....

 

Of course (no pun) XCO due to the length of lap cannot cater for 1000 riders at a time, its possible to have a couple of hundred at the most on todays shorter laps.

 

In the good ole days (i.e. when i started riding XCO ) the laps used to be 7 km or maybe on occasion 10 km long with a good mixture of technical stuff (usually close to the spectator / start areas) and XCM stuff (jeep track / forest roads). Even in those days with longer laps and more space there were never hundreds of people entering....

 

The modern style of XCO tracks, short, very difficult (as per world cup standards) is fine for the dedicated / serious XCO rider, but for the masses / development purposes a slightly longer less difficult lap MIGHT attract more mountain bikers to XCO

[Ride it]

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

Wanted to know what tyres he races on? I know they are glued to the rims but they didn't break apart at all even down the rock garden! Anyone know?

[Ride it]

The ultimate MTBer is the XCO rider who also rides the Epic

Hello Niño ;-)

[Lone_Ranger]

Wanted to know what tyres he races on? I know they are glued to the rims but they didn't break apart at all even down the rock garden! Anyone know?

 

See this site for full details on Nino's bikes: http://www.nsracing.ch/en/Bikes.

 

He uses Dugast tubular tires, with a custom made tread.

[Ride it]

 

 

See this site for full details on Nino's bikes: http://www.nsracing.ch/en/Bikes.

 

He uses Dugast tubular tires, with a custom made tread.

Thanks for that. Really interesting site. Another question (yeah I know - slightly off thread) what bike did Mattys Beukes ride in the World Cup yesterday? He rode a Scott 27.5 in the Epic as backup to Schurter and Buys but what did he opt for on the XCO course? 29er or 650b again?

[dev null]

Mattys was a spectator. He was sick and could not ride.

[Matchstix]

Then why did he finish number 50?

[Lone_Ranger]

Mattys was a spectator. He was sick and could not ride.

 

I think Philip Buys was sick, not Beukes.

[dev null]

Good question. They showed him on TV standing next to the track with his jeans and t-shirt on.

 

EDIT: Ah! My bad. Confusion is mine. Beukes/Buys.

Edited April 14, 2014 by Moridin

[AJP]

Johny Bravo, the xco races all (except world cup iirc) have a sports class. And if you are a student, join the university club so that you can race the.SA Student champs.

 

Where can I find out more about SA Student Champs?

USSA?

 

Thanks AJ

[Matt Lochner]

XCO at PMB is pretty much trail riding. love it! Are their any other WC XCO tracks as technical as PMB?

The slammer at willowbridge mall comes close, it is nice and steep with some tricky rocks and jumps

[PhilipV]

no idea AJ, I've been out of the varsity.loop for a couple of years. Try your local varsity cycling team. When all else.fails, Google it.