the unofficial UCI Mountain Bike World Cup thread

[OVERDRIVE]

Can someone put up the actual schedule please, or maybe we just give it up. 

[babse]

23 hours ago, Rowl said:

For those that also couldn't find it (the Elite schedules):

XCC is on tomorrow from 16:25

XCO is on from Sunday from 17:45

As in today (xcc) and tomorrow (xco)

[Headshot]

U23 mens and women's on Youtjoop today at 1525 and later for the men's.

[DieselnDust]

The U23 XCC wasn't livestreamed unfortunately.

[DieselnDust]

7 hours ago, nathrix said:

 

No one crashed heavily but many of the riders expressed concern that some of the features required too much speed to clear and if someone got it wrong it would result in the race being stopped to clear bodies. The changes won't stop the front riders from leaping it but the mid field to tail end now have a bale out option if someone gets it wrong.

Remember there are 120+ riders in the mens elite field, 80+ in the ladies elite and not all are within 5% of the top 10

 

[babse]

7 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

 

No one crashed heavily but many of the riders expressed concern that some of the features required too much speed to clear and if someone got it wrong it would result in the race being stopped to clear bodies. The changes won't stop the front riders from leaping it but the mid field to tail end now have a bale out option if someone gets it wrong.

Remember there are 120+ riders in the mens elite field, 80+ in the ladies elite and not all are within 5% of the top 10

 

Apparently the course looks as technical as the Tygerberms trail to some xco specialists on this thread 😏

[Shebeen]

https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/sport/2024-04-14-how-many-medals-can-team-south-africa-win-at-the-paris-olympics/

Alan is listed as a possible medal contender, of which we have very few.

I'd say he has a 15% chance of a medal at best, he has been consistently in the top6 for this olympic cycle, but not enough 123 podiums to think he can pull it off on the day with so much pressure. plus pidcock and mvdp will be there to complicate things further.

 

Honestly, the whole gold silver bronze metric is not conducive to an inclusive games in the modern era. Anyone who makes an olympic final should be measured on the table, instead we only get the big countries and a few outliers.

[Jewbacca]

3 hours ago, babse said:

Apparently the course looks as technical as the Tygerberms trail to some xco specialists on this thread 😏

Dunno

Jumps are not the same as 'technical'?

I've seen far more 'technical' courses with rocky climbs, rooty kickers and tight, off camber turns on rough, uneven terrain. 

Jumps aren't really the same as 'technical'. 

There could be a difference in what people would term what. I've done massive jumps on my BMX but couldn't ride it down the Plumber or round parts of Coetzenberg with much success. 

[tinmug]

... we all saw what PFP and VDP did with the previous Olympics' first big drop ... 

And to think neither of them are in Araxa. 🤷‍♂️

[DieselnDust]

4 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

Dunno

Jumps are not the same as 'technical'?

I've seen far more 'technical' courses with rocky climbs, rooty kickers and tight, off camber turns on rough, uneven terrain. 

Jumps aren't really the same as 'technical'. 

There could be a difference in what people would term what. I've done massive jumps on my BMX but couldn't ride it down the Plumber or round parts of Coetzenberg with much success. 

Having been participatory to some XCO courses in Wales and NW England as talking to to guys like Bennet and Meurant I've learned a few thigs about course requirements.

What you and I consider a technical challenge doesn't work when you have 120 people all trying to William Wallace  the feature. Technical climbs have to be either narrow and fast or slow and wide to allow riders to clear it. There has to be a flow that sets a rhythm for the race. Creating bottlenecks is a disaster because you then break the race within 500m.

So course designers have taken the idea of spreading the field out with a wide steep climb at the beginning leading into a fast flowing section before the techy stuff starts. Hence start loops often don't have techy features but rather hurding features that thins the field gradually before the race settles on lap 1.

Then a series of races also has to have a variety of courses Some are steep (Albstadt, Andorra) some fast (Stellenbosch, Snow Shoe, Mairipora), some a mix (les Gets, Mt St Anne). 

Then there's the 2Dcamera flattening features on the trail. i'm sure we can ride more technical trails any day of the week but I can assure you that the easiest World Cup course is a more technical than any most trail we ride daily

[OVERDRIVE]

6 hours ago, babse said:

As in today (xcc) and tomorrow (xco)

Thanks mate was getting irritated. But now BSB Qualy is on. Damn you VPN/GCN/OBGYN people. And Rallying. And soccer 😭

[Jewbacca]

14 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

Having been participatory to some XCO courses in Wales and NW England as talking to to guys like Bennet and Meurant I've learned a few thigs about course requirements.

What you and I consider a technical challenge doesn't work when you have 120 people all trying to William Wallace  the feature. Technical climbs have to be either narrow and fast or slow and wide to allow riders to clear it. There has to be a flow that sets a rhythm for the race. Creating bottlenecks is a disaster because you then break the race within 500m.

So course designers have taken the idea of spreading the field out with a wide steep climb at the beginning leading into a fast flowing section before the techy stuff starts. Hence start loops often don't have techy features but rather hurding features that thins the field gradually before the race settles on lap 1.

Then a series of races also has to have a variety of courses Some are steep (Albstadt, Andorra) some fast (Stellenbosch, Snow Shoe, Mairipora), some a mix (les Gets, Mt St Anne). 

Then there's the 2Dcamera flattening features on the trail. i'm sure we can ride more technical trails any day of the week but I can assure you that the easiest World Cup course is a more technical than any most trail we ride daily

I get that

As someone who has also raced UK/Wales XCO, New Zealand and a number of other places, I was lucky to have a hand in building Hadleigh park olympic venue and a few others over the years

We have always joked that a Gopro would make Godzilla look like a garden variety lizard.

BUT, this track isn't 'technical' as far as some other World Cup courses go. Jumps are different. 

Lots of features doesn't equal technical.

So while the climb is steep and loose in places, most of the course lends itself to pretty good under tire conditions when not hitting one of the jumps. 

While I'm not suggesting the average person would get around there easily, saying it's technical because there are lots of jumps isn't quite the terminology I would use. 

So clearing that up without going further is probably what I was trying to do. Not saying it's easy, just that differing definitions of what the features bring is where sarky comments seep in.

There are jumps on the course I would not be overly comfortable hitting on lap 6 with my heart rate revved on tired legs. 100%

[OVERDRIVE]

3 hours ago, Shebeen said:

https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/sport/2024-04-14-how-many-medals-can-team-south-africa-win-at-the-paris-olympics/

Alan is listed as a possible medal contender, of which we have very few.

I'd say he has a 15% chance of a medal at best, he has been consistently in the top6 for this olympic cycle, but not enough 123 podiums to think he can pull it off on the day with so much pressure. plus pidcock and mvdp will be there to complicate things further.

 

Honestly, the whole gold silver bronze metric is not conducive to an inclusive games in the modern era. Anyone who makes an olympic final should be measured on the table, instead we only get the big countries and a few outliers.

All this is 100% correct and I agree. 

Alan is riding out of his skin, if he wasn't thats one thing. He's there at a time where everyone has guns so its whoever draws first. 

Edited April 20 by OVERDRIVE

[Rowl]

Lekker Alan!

[DieselnDust]

1 hour ago, Jewbacca said:

I get that

As someone who has also raced UK/Wales XCO, New Zealand and a number of other places, I was lucky to have a hand in building Hadleigh park olympic venue and a few others over the years

We have always joked that a Gopro would make Godzilla look like a garden variety lizard.

BUT, this track isn't 'technical' as far as some other World Cup courses go. Jumps are different. 

Lots of features doesn't equal technical.

So while the climb is steep and loose in places, most of the course lends itself to pretty good under tire conditions when not hitting one of the jumps. 

While I'm not suggesting the average person would get around there easily, saying it's technical because there are lots of jumps isn't quite the terminology I would use. 

So clearing that up without going further is probably what I was trying to do. Not saying it's easy, just that differing definitions of what the features bring is where sarky comments seep in.

There are jumps on the course I would not be overly comfortable hitting on lap 6 with my heart rate revved on tired legs. 100%

Agreed, 

Araxa does have highly complex features but it is a fast course. It is not Nove Mesto  instance where 60% of the lap is getting over roots. However the features that are present are extreme enough to have warranted intervention by the course commissaire.

[DieselnDust]

Luke 10th

candice 10th

alan 3rd

great results all round from teamSA