the unofficial UCI Mountain Bike World Cup thread

[DieselnDust]

If hip hop dancing on the front wheel can be considered an attack…

dude styled his way forward, he

the Lukelander

[Action_Man]

11 hours ago, Shebeen said:

awesome. Where you guys in his tech zone and bottles etc? 

seeing two ZA privateers with top10s from this Brazil trip is quite something.

We invited him to come stay with us in the accommodation we had booked, cooked for him, etc. 

Basically I did everything for him that I do for Candice at the World Cups - take care of all the logistics, bike mechanics (Mondraker also picked up some of Luke's bike mechanics), tech zone support, etc. everything that a bike racer needs done for them in order for them to be able to just fully focus on their race and not have to worry about anything other than that.

I'm basically just a do it all "kippie", but it is a lot of work. The normal ratio in a Pro XCO team setup is minimum of 3 staff per athlete. 

If we could find a big enough sponsor, I would set up a full team setup including support staff for Candice, Luke, Tyler and one or two other young SAFFA talent's that are coming through, but it's difficult for a South African company to justify the cost, as they don't get a lot of airtime relative to how expensive it is do a whole XCO season, especially in ZAR terms. 

[MBMtbGirl]

2 minutes ago, Action_Man said:

We invited him to come stay with us in the accommodation we had booked, cooked for him, etc. 

Basically I did everything for him that I do for Candice at the World Cups - take care of all the logistics, bike mechanics (Mondraker also picked up some of Luke's bike mechanics), tech zone support, etc. everything that a bike racer needs done for them in order for them to be able to just fully focus on their race and not have to worry about anything other than that.

I'm basically just a do it all "kippie", but it is a lot of work. The normal ratio in a Pro XCO team setup is minimum of 3 staff per athlete. 

If we could find a big enough sponsor, I would set up a full team setup including support staff for Candice, Luke, Tyler and one or two other young SAFFA talent's that are coming through, but it's difficult for a South African company to justify the cost, as they don't get a lot of airtime relative to how expensive it is do a whole XCO season, especially in ZAR terms. 

THIS would be MAGIC! 

[DieselnDust]

3 minutes ago, Action_Man said:

We invited him to come stay with us in the accommodation we had booked, cooked for him, etc. 

Basically I did everything for him that I do for Candice at the World Cups - take care of all the logistics, bike mechanics (Mondraker also picked up some of Luke's bike mechanics), tech zone support, etc. everything that a bike racer needs done for them in order for them to be able to just fully focus on their race and not have to worry about anything other than that.

I'm basically just a do it all "kippie", but it is a lot of work. The normal ratio in a Pro XCO team setup is minimum of 3 staff per athlete. 

If we could find a big enough sponsor, I would set up a full team setup including support staff for Candice, Luke, Tyler and one or two other young SAFFA talent's that are coming through, but it's difficult for a South African company to justify the cost, as they don't get a lot of airtime relative to how expensive it is do a whole XCO season, especially in ZAR terms. 

Have you trashed out some numbers ? If yes maybe there’s an opportunity. Your thinking is along the same as mine and I think Ciska may like to hear it too….

[babse]

52 minutes ago, Action_Man said:

We invited him to come stay with us in the accommodation we had booked, cooked for him, etc. 

Basically I did everything for him that I do for Candice at the World Cups - take care of all the logistics, bike mechanics (Mondraker also picked up some of Luke's bike mechanics), tech zone support, etc. everything that a bike racer needs done for them in order for them to be able to just fully focus on their race and not have to worry about anything other than that.

I'm basically just a do it all "kippie", but it is a lot of work. The normal ratio in a Pro XCO team setup is minimum of 3 staff per athlete. 

If we could find a big enough sponsor, I would set up a full team setup including support staff for Candice, Luke, Tyler and one or two other young SAFFA talent's that are coming through, but it's difficult for a South African company to justify the cost, as they don't get a lot of airtime relative to how expensive it is do a whole XCO season, especially in ZAR terms. 

Respect for your efforts Darren!!! 

[SwissVan]

1 hour ago, Action_Man said:

 

If we could find a big enough sponsor, I would set up a full team setup including support staff for Candice, Luke, Tyler and one or two other young SAFFA talent's that are coming through, but it's difficult for a South African company to justify the cost, as they don't get a lot of airtime relative to how expensive it is do a whole XCO season, especially in ZAR terms. 

One day when I win the euro lotto………I’d like to buy a farm and set up a base for talented saffa cyclists so they give it a go here in euroland

🤘

[DieselnDust]

I knew there was a reason why i gravitated to Luke using Andorra as a base. Visa requirements are less stringent which is what was swimming about in the bottom of my memory banks 

enjoy
 

[babse]

5 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

I knew there was a reason why i gravitated to Luke using Andorra as a base. Visa requirements are less stringent which is what was swimming about in the bottom of my memory banks 

enjoy
 

Yoh 2hrs. I should be done by sunday if i start this evening.

[DieselnDust]

41 minutes ago, babse said:

Yoh 2hrs. I should be done by sunday if i start this evening.

But worth it

[Shebeen]

On 4/14/2025 at 8:46 PM, Action_Man said:

We invited him to come stay with us in the accommodation we had booked, cooked for him, etc. 

Basically I did everything for him that I do for Candice at the World Cups - take care of all the logistics, bike mechanics (Mondraker also picked up some of Luke's bike mechanics), tech zone support, etc. everything that a bike racer needs done for them in order for them to be able to just fully focus on their race and not have to worry about anything other than that.

I'm basically just a do it all "kippie", but it is a lot of work. The normal ratio in a Pro XCO team setup is minimum of 3 staff per athlete. 

If we could find a big enough sponsor, I would set up a full team setup including support staff for Candice, Luke, Tyler and one or two other young SAFFA talent's that are coming through, but it's difficult for a South African company to justify the cost, as they don't get a lot of airtime relative to how expensive it is do a whole XCO season, especially in ZAR terms. 

and with consecutive weekends of racing, I guess you know your way around a brazilian laundromat with portugeuse instructions now too

 

please keep these updates coming here, they might seem mundane but it's really interesting for us punters to see how the wheels of this circus turn!

[Action_Man]

On 4/12/2025 at 4:24 PM, BikeisLife said:

Guess it’s the travel to get there. But also makes no sense to me. If the course suites rider X, rider X is going to do two weekends in a row. 
 

Candice seems to be extremely strong, but she rather takes the B line down the tech section which costs her a lot of time each lap and energy to get back to the wheels too. Pity for her, because I think she would have won last week otherwise. Sucks that it’s the same course again, because it lessens her chances of winning again this week. 

Just to share some behind the scenes as to why Candice was skipping the big gap jump in Araxa - She had a big crash while practicing jumps just 2 days before we flew to Brazil. A gust of wind took her wheels out from under her and she came down hard. 

[rock]

XCO courses are getting wild with the jumps now, I know they have droppers but they all still have really aggressive positions with negative stem angles - to hit those jumps after 8 or 9 laps takes some skills. 

[BuffsVintageBikes]

19 minutes ago, Action_Man said:

Just to share some behind the scenes as to why Candice was skipping the big gap jump in Araxa - She had a big crash while practicing jumps just 2 days before we flew to Brazil. A gust of wind took her wheels out from under her and she came down hard. 

I certainly won't judge her negatively for that, these XCO course are just becoming more and more insane with how technical they're getting. Riders are having to up their tech game tremendously.

While it makes for great viewing, I can't help but feel that it's getting a bit too ridiculous now and they're starting to put riders lives at risk. A simple over the bars on a gap jump and poor landing can put you in a wheelchair for life. At some stage the riders are going to have to say enough is enough.

[BikeisLife]

19 minutes ago, BuffsVintageBikes said:

I certainly won't judge her negatively for that, these XCO course are just becoming more and more insane with how technical they're getting. Riders are having to up their tech game tremendously.

While it makes for great viewing, I can't help but feel that it's getting a bit too ridiculous now and they're starting to put riders lives at risk. A simple over the bars on a gap jump and poor landing can put you in a wheelchair for life. At some stage the riders are going to have to say enough is enough.

100% agreed. 

If it looks partially big on TV, it will be a lot bigger once on the actual bike. 

[ChrisF]

1 hour ago, Action_Man said:

Just to share some behind the scenes as to why Candice was skipping the big gap jump in Araxa - She had a big crash while practicing jumps just 2 days before we flew to Brazil. A gust of wind took her wheels out from under her and she came down hard. 

 

OUCH !!

 

Hope she feels 100% soon.

 

Even though I only have access to the limited YouTube feeds, I DO watch and cheer for the SA riders.

 

 

Next time you are in SA and playing at Tygerberg trails, give us a heads up.  First round is on me 

[DieselnDust]

1 hour ago, rock said:

XCO courses are getting wild with the jumps now, I know they have droppers but they all still have really aggressive positions with negative stem angles - to hit those jumps after 8 or 9 laps takes some skills. 

Jumping is the skill that differentiates the field  atm. If you’re struggling with the jumps You’re losing 5sec a lap that you have to pedal to make up. The aggressive positions don’t really have an impact because they can’t use a much more upright position due to the steepness of the climbs. So you either learn to jump with low bars or you have to give up oodles of time on the climbs.