UCI XCO World Cup 2022 Season

[babse]

Man those new lightweight Aspens are the business 🤭

[Fred van Vlaanderen]

1 minute ago, babse said:

Man those new lightweight Aspens are the business 🤭

Horses for courses… lol

[kosmonooit]

I don't know what that drone brought to the party except nice views of that rain forest.

In one of the last races this CX season they had a drone following Lucinda for a while, that was pretty good actually,.

[Hairy]

12 hours ago, 'Dale said:

“Grateful to be here… I’ve had a lot of changes, personally… it’s been a rough sort of 12 months…”

- RM, round 1 winner 

I am really happy for RM. Sha has consistently been racing well and always been close, but not close enough. Trust this will be the first of many to come over the next few years.

[DieselnDust]

as an observation......

The cape epic draws a lot of flak for it entry cost, the type of individual entrant it attracts, the route, the skills of participants, the food, the weather, the route, Special bikes, difficulty, value for money jada jada jada

However there's over 100 pages dedicated to the 2022 event..

Just goes to show that they're doing something right if they can attract that much conversation about their event

[Headshot]

14 hours ago, DieselnDust said:

Good lord the producer needs to be fired 

I couldn't believe how shite the broadcast was. About three too few camera positions, long range shots of the crowd with some riders heads moving past, long periods of empty track etc. Maybe the local RB guys are more used to football? 

[Headshot]

21 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

as an observation......

The cape epic draws a lot of flak for it entry cost, the type of individual entrant it attracts, the route, the skills of participants, the food, the weather, the route, Special bikes, difficulty, value for money jada jada jada

However there's over 100 pages dedicated to the 2022 event..

Just goes to show that they're doing something right if they can attract that much conversation about their event

It attracts very little forum comment overseas I reckon. Its only here where marathon riding and lycra are revered so much. While most of the Epic pro's are superb technical riders, most local marathon enthusiasts wouldn't dream of doing an XCO race, yourself excepted of course. 🙂 

[SwissVan]

47 minutes ago, Headshot said:

It attracts very little forum comment overseas I reckon. Its only here where marathon riding and lycra are revered so much. While most of the Epic pro's are superb technical riders, most local marathon enthusiasts wouldn't dream of doing an XCO race, yourself excepted of course. 🙂 

I’ve never understood the fascination with XCM marathon racing…. Give me a good old XCO lap course with 1-2 hrs flat out racing with some technical stuff every lap to “look forward to” and then back home again…. instead of endless jeep track for hours on end….

 

[love2fly]

1 hour ago, Headshot said:

I couldn't believe how shite the broadcast was. About three too few camera positions, long range shots of the crowd with some riders heads moving past, long periods of empty track etc. Maybe the local RB guys are more used to football? 

Worst broadcast I've ever seen. Too many overhead shows of thick jungle. Switching to a camera that has no riders in shot for what seemed like ages. Focusing on 4,5& 6 positions in the last minuted when it wax all happening in the first three. I think the director was watching Brazillian football at the same time. Absolutely shocking. At least we're back to Europe soon...

[DieselnDust]

It wasn’t just the camera work that was shocking but the course marshalling too. I. The ladies race Anne Terpstra came upon two back markers who then proceeded to try as long as possible to not get lapped. They cost her only a few seconds but the mental energy cost was probably higher not knowing what those riders were going to do next. Then when they were pulled off they crossed in front of the chasing riders causing mayhem. 
I understand that the event offered South American XCO riders an opportunity to participate in a World Cup but let’s get the execution of the 80% rule right,

same thing in the mens race but to a lesser extent 

[DieselnDust]

1 hour ago, Headshot said:

It attracts very little forum comment overseas I reckon. Its only here where marathon riding and lycra are revered so much. While most of the Epic pro's are superb technical riders, most local marathon enthusiasts wouldn't dream of doing an XCO race, yourself excepted of course. 🙂 

yeah and the typical Epic rider stereotype just seems to get reinforced.

Seven peeps I know are all keen on 2023 ACE and all are ordering S-Wroks Eric 100mm Brain equipped bikes....

Me: "enter some XCO races to help you get a flavour for the technical skills needed."

Them " Nooit, we'll fly on  the climbs and just cruise the downs......

me: Facepalm

 

Be that as it may, The XCO's are so much more exciting. AK for 40min,+ 40min of extreme fun on the downs and so easy to cover.

If we could stretch the entry fees for XCO to say R800 per rider maybe we could get some drone coverage over livestream and give the whole event more exposure. This way XCO could take on a life of its own and not be the little bastard kid of a marathon event 

Edited April 11, 2022 by DieselnDust

[NotSoBigBen]

50 minutes ago, SwissVan said:

I’ve never understood the fascination with XCM marathon racing…. Give me a good old XCO lap course with 1-2 hrs flat out racing with some technical stuff every lap to “look forward to” and then back home again…. instead of endless jeep track for hours on end….

 

I've had my go at XCO racing and with today's standard of courses there is no chance in hell I could get through even 1 lap without walking and that's on both the steep climbs and the technical downs ... as my mate Wayne says if I wanted to walk I'd get a dog!

And for the 'everyone can learn' experts I've put in enough effort but there comes a time when you realise you just don't have the talent or 'balls' ...

So for me I love marathon and endurance riding/racing, but as usual it's probably just me ....

[Headshot]

Aren't there B lines round the most tricky features as we saw in Sundays race? That said I like watching both and thoroughly enjoy the Epic coverage. DnD are they rescheduling the Coetzenburg XCO. That track is superb.

[NotSoBigBen]

1 minute ago, Headshot said:

Aren't there B lines round the most tricky features as we saw in Sundays race? That said I like watching both and thoroughly enjoy the Epic coverage. DnD are they rescheduling the Coetzenburg XCO. That track is superb.

If I look at Thaba XCO yes there are but even some of those 😳 and its only on the downs, the ups are frikkin steep

[DieselnDust]

6 minutes ago, Headshot said:

Aren't there B lines round the most tricky features as we saw in Sundays race? That said I like watching both and thoroughly enjoy the Epic coverage. DnD are they rescheduling the Coetzenburg XCO. That track is superb.

haven't heard anything about a reschedule. I guess its gone and the calendar moves on which is a moerse pity. Its an awesome course. Definitely not the sort of course you want to "race" blind.

Epics coverage as out of this world. But there's enough spare cash to justify.

For a provincial race in a small geography there's a bit of scope for drone coverage and the EPic Prologue showed what can be done. 

at maybe 250 riders at a provincial XCO @R200 of the entry fee to cover media = R50,000.00 in the pot.

That seems reasonable for a crew of 5 to 6 people setting up the live stream and co-ordinating the drone pilots?

[kosmonooit]

I'd be very surprised if BaArt paid for his Epic entry the amount of plugging it got.