Who’s excited to see some XC racing this weekend?
Looks like Podcock is racing since he did the Leukerbad Swiss Cup race. Any news on MVdP racing in Albstadt?
It really looks like a lot of guys are firing on all cylinders based on preseason. I hope Nino can get the Absalon record and more importantly I hope the Kiwi’s can get back to the top.
https://www.redbull.com/nz-en/event-series/mercedes-benz-uci-mountain-bike-world-cup
I’m just excited to see the woman’s fields. Still can’t figure out why but those races are always more exciting.
I agree. The women’s racing is incredible and I really look forward to that racing too!
Yeah for racing! Need to unfollow all the racers and others to avoid spoilers!
Hopefully Red Bull TV will show in the US…I recall some previous races were georestricted…
MvdP is racing Albstadt and Nové Mesto, mainly for collecting points for his starting position at the olympics. After that he’s doing road again with Tour de Suisse, to prepare for Tour de France.
correct, I found a dutch article:
not sure if this is enough MTB preparation for the olympics… I think he should make more race miles on the MTB to get an advantage over his competitors. Too may others are probably going all in on the olympics and for MvdP that’s simply not the case this year…
Awesome, thanks for that info!
That’ll be interesting to see. It looks like the weather is pretty bad, which could make for a much more technical course.
It’ll be interesting to see how MVdP goes. If he’s managed to recover from his CX and Classics seasons then he ought to have great legs and horsepower for days. I did see a couple of Strava rides on the MTB, but who knows if that’s enough prep. The rest of the top tier World Cup racers seem to have done a heap of racing already with that Italian series and the Swiss series.
I hope Tom Pidcock can get a good start and pass some guys in a hurry. I read he was starting around 90th position. He’s built for XC MTB glory.
Hearing from folks who were there, or watched the race, sounds like Pidcock’s technical skills are not there yet, and most of the big hitters weren’t racing. So we will see how he does on the more technical WC courses.
The one I’m more impressed with, is Mona Mitterwallner’s win, as the women’s field was stacked. I’m super excited, as it looks like there are lots of women within a chance of winning.
Because they’re awesome and there are always several of them in contention with a newcomer in the mix seemingly every week. I mean, 2019 Jenni Risveds comeback? Whoda thunk?!
YEah. the georestrictions nonsense blew last year. i don’t think i got to watch the men’s world championship as a result.
Is redbull TV still televising it in the US? They have done such a good job with bringing back XC in the states. It almost looked like XC was going to die a slow and painful death but RBTV is creating some excitement for it and not just focusing on DH or the rampage.
I swear every time i race bikes i buy a redbull for my bottles just to support what they do.
My wife had an interesting take on this. Women’s menstrual cycles may be causing their performances to fluctuate enough to have one person be 1-3% off on one race weekend while another may be performing at 100%. Don’t know but it might explain why it isn’t always the same 5 riders on the podium like many of the men’s races. The men’s performances seem to be more linear than the women, which helps to make their races more unpredictable.
If that was the case you’d see more variance in all woman sports. Personally I think the top racers in the women’s field are closer in talent level to each other than the mens field. So many woman have a chance for glory in any given race, while the men’s field you basically know the race will be won by one of five.
dunno. don’t care. I just love the fact that it is so dynamic.
MVdP added a great dynamic to mens, but we need a couple more dudes to have breakout races or breakout seasons. Like last year, when Ulloa won ST. That was AWESOME. and he was contending again after that. It was so cool to see a fresh face.
The women also seem to be able to win in different ways, i.e.there is greater variance in their strengths.
Looks like it:
https://www.redbull.com/int-en/events/uci-mountain-bike-world-cup-germany
They’ve done a fantastic job in prior years.
Pidcock dynamic will be good after he rode away from the field last week. Him battling MVdP should hopefully create some highlights.
Will Nino still be able to mix it up at the pointy end or will he show he is truly now on the back 9 of his career?
What about Keegan? He looked pretty aggressive last weekend and I’ll be watching for him to have some breakthroughs this year. If he can get some favorable positioning earlier in an race, it will be cool to see if he can hang on deep into it.
I’ve been following Nino’s preseason and it looks to me like he’s back in pretty good form. I have to agree that I think he’s definitely on the back nine, as you say. Part of that is that there is a crop of young guys who have a huge amount of horsepower, and part of that may be a loss of top end. I think/hope he’ll get another World Cup.
I haven’t seen Podcock race XC except for in highlights, but based on his CX racing and E-Bike XC wins i thought he had enough technical nous to be competitive. Remember when MVdP first started the World Cups and had to start from the back of the field. By memory it took him three or four races to get a high enough call up for the front row and to feature on the podium. He only has to get into the top 40 to get into the XCC for Nove Mesto.
Anton Cooper has been doing some great training down here over summer. It’ll be interesting to see how that translates early on. I was speaking to a rider that rode the elite national road race that thought Cooper had great legs and was unlucky to miss the break.