2020 WC XCO, XCC Racing is back

I had the same reaction to both. Nino was all but clear of Ulloa, I can’t imagine he gave him much thought.

PFP wasn’t happy at all. Evie did move over for sure, but not aggressively. She was heading towards the fence the whole way I thought. I’m not sure if that fits in with the “lanes” sprinting rules. MTB handlebars sure don’t leave a lot of wiggle room though do they.

1 Like

If I was in Evies position, I too would have angled towards the barrier. At no time was PFP going to ride into the barrier; Evie left fair amount of room. It’s the same in the single-track where you squeeze others out near to trees to prevent them from overtaking. So long as no one chops the other, it’s all racing. PFP has squeezed others before so she isn’t squeaky clean herself. She’s just frustrated in the heat of the moment and up against a superior sprinter.

2 Likes

On a different note…anyone think Evie could drop 10-12 pounds and be a huge XCO threat?

It’s all power to weight and she certainly has the power. She needs time to adjust to more technical and longer races than what she knows from cyclocross and then she will be a force in the longer format.

And who are we to judge her genes anyway? Would you like to make comment about Yana Belomona?

On a better aside… Just wait until Ceylin Alvarado decides U23 isn’t challenging enough. She’ll podium her first elite race too.

1 Like

Just a thought and observation.

She looks very powerful. That was something I was going to say in response to the comment about her being an excellent road racer but I didn’t want to judge based on the massive variation of women at the front of the world champs last week. I think she’s probably built to tear the legs off the other girls on the flatter courses and XCC races. She’s super young though, the world is her oyster.

I just saw a post on Facebook about U23 racing, I thought they’d canned the other categories for this year. So many youngsters stepped up to Elite.

I hope Pidcock is allowed to race MTB’s after March next year once his ineos contract starts. Hopefully he has the same arrangement as MVDP and can race whatever whenever.

Totally agree. PFP in the post-race seemed to cool off a bit and acknowledge that her reaction on the course was mostly heat of the moment frustration.

Evie to her credit expressed a bit of sympathy to PFP and the rest of the field in her immediate post-race too and owned up to having the elbows out a bit much and not having the type of bunch racing experience that most of these other competitors do. I think there’s a lot to be said for that last bit.

Honestly, total class from them both. I love the competition in the men’s field, but the women riders, IMO, are all so much easier to root for.

3 Likes

Fixed this for you. Yes, she is a huge XCO threat. She just moved up to Elite’s from U23 and won both short tracks in her first week.

Her U23 results:

She got 8th in XCO against strong competition:

Pretty sure Evie is going to be just fine

4 Likes

No need to fix it for me…it was just an opinion…but hey…thanks. Just saying she could be even faster than she already is.

Lighter doesn’t automatically mean faster. Emily Batty is tiny but hasn’t won any of the world cup races, XCC or XCO. I read that Evie did lose weight but found she also lost her power so put it back on again. She also didn’t like missing her period.
Let the professionals do their job, their coaches do theirs, and just stick to watching. They probably know what they’re doing.

Can’t see that happening. Paying top money for him to be allowed to race a large chunk of the season on MTB. He maybe allowed CX as that’s in the off season.

Shame though as he’s got talent. He rides in the woods near me where there are some jumps and he’s mega on them.

Agree that riding a lot of MTB would be tricky, given the overlap with the regular road season - but I hope he still rides lots of CX in winter.
But I think the balance of power during the negotiations must have been interesting - Ineos very much want to be seen as a British team, and Pidcock is clearly the top British rider of this new generation … so it seems to me that Ineos need Pidcock more than Pidcock needs Ineos.

Very much and his dad ain’t a push over either lol :rofl:

I want to highlight Simon Andreasen’s win in the XCO as well. Stunning ride - coming from far back. And i gues the first win for the new Epic. Interesting that Stigger is riding the hardtail.

1 Like

I think Evie had some sort of eating disorder a couple of years ago. I believe she is happier now in life & cycling with what she’s doing at the moment.
I’m pretty sure I read the above with an interview she did with RedBull or perhaps it was on her Instagram, so it’s not a rumour.

1 Like

I think this is what you are referring to

https://www.redbull.com/gb-en/evie-richards-interview-red-s

3 Likes

That’s the one :+1:

Pidcock made a comment on Instagram about his bike (Specialized Epic) getting faster and faster with each ride. I wonder if Ineos is going to let him ride that Specialized Epic next year. Let me know if I’m wrong, but I haven’t seen any Pinarello frames in the XCC or XCO races.