Yes, agreed, he looked especially lean.
Yesterday, I saw a pic of him next to Kate Courtney at that race, and I could have sworn she had bigger quads (maybe the same size, but close). ![]()
Saw that pic. I thought it was interesting that their knees were almost the same height but Keeganâs femur was much longer. Kinda curious how that impacts biomechanics & physiology of pedaling.
I think it means he can push a longer crank for more torque (or that bigger chainring he uses)? Am I looking at that right (with the alternative being him having longer tib/fib and shorter femur)? Less hip pinch on top, better angle when the pedal is at bottom.
We did a power file analysis with Keegan on his UCI Cross-Country Marathon World Champs win here!
Anybody else want to do Grand Raid now after seeing everything surrounding World Champs? Course looks incredible/insane!
If I am correct, at one time Kate was running a 30t chainring for World Cups. Regular-ish by our standards. But even on the hilly races for the pros, thatâs small. So maybe she is the one thatâs not average? Idk, just guess.
Maybe now these marathons get some more interest worldwide. There is a ton of similar races in Europe, some running for 30+ years. There are pictures from same exact parkours with rim brakes, rigid forks and 30cm wide handlebars, ridden by dudes with mustaches. No kidding.
I havenât gotten through the whole episode but did they discuss why there were other riders on the course at the same time as the world championship? I know there was a âshorterâ public race but why were they on the course? Did anyone slow down those competing for a world championship? Seems crazy to me.
I donât recall it being discussed on the TR podcast, but it was covered in another video with some good content. I canât remember whoâs coverage it was, but they were in a helicopter jumping from point to point in the race and had some video of amateurs getting out of the way as pros came through. Itâs no different than a lot of the races these guys do on the long distance events. Probably not too many UCI events that follow that format, but I donât think itâs affecting anyoneâs race significantly. The 2 guys on ebikes coming through the finish with Keegan was kind of busch league though, I canât believe they didnât hang back as they approached the line. I initially thought they were amateur racers that happened to finish at the same time.
I imagine that many bush leagues are also Busch leagues, but officially, it is âbushâ league.
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The âpublicâ aka open race was yes on the same course, not just the shorter ones. The open category started 15 minutes later than the pros in Verbier (start village for the world champs track). The shorter tracks started even later, but each from a different village. So the pros just caught the slower ones at some point, with this amount of participants (3000+) i guess logistically and financially not viable to hold the open on a different day.
BTW next year the XCM Worlds and the XCM Master worlds will be held on the same day-same track and the open category on the next day (Italy, 2026 September)
There are rarely special courses and organizations for xcm worlds-donât remember one but there might be. It is always slapped on one of the existing organizations. And those are not changing anything for the worlds, uci has to adapt to them. xcm races are very hard to organize and uci cannot give two rats to investing in one. Just hop on to an existing one for a fee and move on.
Funny to see this turning into in your face Europoors message but if anyone did not see him at least podiuming on this course should stop arguing bike performance. I would, if I cared enough to check where it is and who is starting.
I see next year is in Italy and a region I know well. This is the event they are hopping on: https://mythosprimiero.com
82km-3400m, which is more inline with other climbing heavy xcm courses. They will finish it way under 4 hours, more like 3:40. So a fast and furious race.
Not sure thatâs being said at all.
Mythos looks like an awesome course - Italy getting a lot of action from the XCM Worlds!