UCI MTB World Cup (All forms!)

[jmdirt]

If a rider stops mid-season without a physical injury, is a team obligated to pay them their full salary?

Depends on her contract.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

Looks like PFP will race both MTB Worlds, and possibly Road Worlds, as announced on The Move (subject to approval from the French Federation).

 

[Mina.S]

PFP said that the olympics was her has olympic MTB race but she will finish out the year. Ineos are having a pretty meh season so they need her to keep winning.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

With PFP moving to the road, and Puck riding so well in the Tour-Femmes, you wonder if it has inspired any of the top MTB riders to give it a go. Stigger is a former Junior Road World champion, and I've always thought Mitterwallner is climber waiting to be unleashed, and without the handicap of her poor starts.

 

[JR1012]

Looks like PFP will race both MTB Worlds, and possibly Road Worlds, as announced on The Move (subject to approval from the French Federation).

When PFP will be selected for the road, then this would be a slap in the face for all the other top french road riders.
PFP has no good road result in the last couple of years and therefore a selection for the road would be a huge suprise.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

When PFP will be selected for the road, then this would be a slap in the face for all the other top french road riders.
PFP has no good road result in the last couple of years and therefore a selection for the road would be a huge suprise.

The main reason for her lack of results is that she hasn't raced on the road. They have 7 spots, so they will still be able to fit all their best riders in there. Whether it will be a well balanced or functioning team with PFP in it is a different question, but the route isn't bad for her.

3 of the spots should be taken up by Kerbaol, Labous and Muzic, and they're likely to also give Cordon-Ragot a last ride in the national colours. The remaining places can then go to 3 of PFP, Wiel, Curinier, Berteau and Verhulst-Wild.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

With PFP moving to the road, and Puck riding so well in the Tour-Femmes, you wonder if it has inspired any of the top MTB riders to give it a go. Stigger is a former Junior Road World champion, and I've always thought Mitterwallner is climber waiting to be unleashed, and without the handicap of her poor starts.

With 4 years to the next Olympics, it does seem like the perfect time for more riders to give the it a go. Stigger took part in that one SD Worx camp in February, and the team still has spots to fill for next season, but I don't know how interested she actually is in riding on the road.

 

[Coffeeplanter]

https://downloads.ctfassets.net/761l7gh5x5an/3D47uIXGmyqUzhgDTkhceP/4d13c157eabb9622d271700e40e06be8/2024_UCI_MTB_WCH_PAL_ARINSAL_Rider_Entry_List.pdf

Entry list for the world championships in Pal Arinsal next week.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

No Dutch male Elite riders again in XC; Vader seems to have abandoned MTB, and MvdP we know about.....though they have 4 in U23, but Schellekens seems destined for a road career being on Visma dev team.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/we-want-the-sport-of-mountain-biking-to-be-far-larger-things-we-learned-chris-ball-interview-en-roue-libre.html

This has gone down like lead balloon on Pinkbike and VitalMTB..........

 

[glassmoon]

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/we-want-the-sport-of-mountain-biking-to-be-far-larger-things-we-learned-chris-ball-interview-en-roue-libre.html

This has gone down like lead balloon on Pinkbike and VitalMTB..........

The top comment under the article sums it up basically:

What I learned from the interview. 1.They regards 'growing the sport' as getting more subscribers to their streaming services. 2.'Adding value' to the sport just means Wb can charge more. 3.'Professionalising' the sport means being elite only........but they aren't interested in providing a pathway to get there. 4.The UCI don't care what they do with it as long as they get payed. You don't have to be a genius to realise they their aim is to create a package that is cheaper to run, generates more income, can be watched by a non cycling audience in a condensed TV friendly format. 'We' are not the target market and riders are an easily replaced resource so pissing off both groups is not a concern. (watchmen)

 

[Coffeeplanter]

The mixed relay starts in approx. 8 hours and not a single start list is to be found. What is the point of sustaining it if you can't be bothered to do the simplest things?

 

[Axel Hangleck]

The top comment under the article sums it up basically:

What I learned from the interview. 1.They regards 'growing the sport' as getting more subscribers to their streaming services. 2.'Adding value' to the sport just means Wb can charge more. 3.'Professionalising' the sport means being elite only........but they aren't interested in providing a pathway to get there. 4.The UCI don't care what they do with it as long as they get payed. You don't have to be a genius to realise they their aim is to create a package that is cheaper to run, generates more income, can be watched by a non cycling audience in a condensed TV friendly format. 'We' are not the target market and riders are an easily replaced resource so pissing off both groups is not a concern. (watchmen)

Yeah, he is somebody who is switched on to the realities of the sport, and his comments are pretty sensible. I look at so many similarities to the WRC......and what happened to that.
When you try to attract the casual fans to your sport - you end up alienating the true fans, as you change the whole ethos of what the sport is about.

In my opinion, I wonder whether the whole MTB World Cup should be run by one Promoter.......In my view, XC & Downhill are too different, and should separate. I look at ski-ing; you don't have XC & Alpine together, they're completely different.

You could include 4 Cross in a Downhill weekend, whereas XC has XCC & XCO.

I'm not sure about Enduro, as currently it's not working. And I know people moan about the lack of live coverage, but motorcycle Enduro ( both Hard Enduro & EnduroGP) don't have it, just highlights, and You Tube recaps. Erzbergrodeo os the only one live, and that's in one massive venue.

The WRC only went fully live in about 2017 - as it's hugely expensive to cover a multi stage event; no chance Enduro can afford to do that; though I think they should/ could film one stage that is repeated, but seemingly don't want to do that.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

The mixed relay starts in approx. 8 hours and not a single start list is to be found. What is the point of sustaining it if you can't be bothered to do the simplest things?

And is there any live stream for this? If you can't provide that for your World championships, why bother having the event?
Every event SHOULD be live. If an organiser can't provide this, then they shouldn't be hosting the MTB Worlds. It's 2024......not good enough.

 

[Coffeeplanter]

And is there any live stream for this? If you can't provide that for your World championships, why bother having the event?
Every event SHOULD be live. If an organiser can't provide this, then they shouldn't be hosting the MTB Worlds. It's 2024......not good enough.

No live stream for the mixed relay, no live stream for the junior events. It's sad. Everything in mtb is stationary, it's a circuit. How hard can it be?

 

[Coffeeplanter]

That said, the start list is online now. The best pro's on the list are probably Braidot, Blevins and Aldridge. Not the crème de la crème, but be interesting to see how their times compare to Albert Withen Philipsen, who is the first rider for the Danes.

I also got my eye on the Brazilian named Henrique Bravo. Last weekend he did a prep ride on the road, and subsequently put minutes into everyone on the Laguna Negra climb, the highly regarded Hector Alvarez included. He and Nicholas Konecny (USA) sit 3rd and 4th on the world ranking respectively behind the untouchable Withen Philipsen and Hougs, but have done very little racing in Europe. Very hard to say if they can compete in XCO, so today could be a good indicator.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

No live stream for the mixed relay, no live stream for the junior events. It's sad. Everything in mtb is stationary, it's a circuit. How hard can it be?

And yet it was live last year, as I recall Philipsen sliding out at the end of the first lap of the relay.

I'm guessing it's a financial decision; but it's not good enough......The UCI should demand hosting venues live coverage for all races - it's their championship. Not a great look.

 

[ChewbaccaDefense]

No live stream for the mixed relay, no live stream for the junior events. It's sad. Everything in mtb is stationary, it's a circuit. How hard can it be?

Sh!t, I can't find a replay anywhere. Complete BS.

 

[ManicJack]

4 of 6 are Colorado kids and a 5th just moved here to start school. Maybe Polis will name it State MTB Day.

Edit: I was wrong. Thought Lopez de San Roman was going to CMU. 🤷‍♂️

 

[glassmoon]

Sh!t, I can't find a replay anywhere. Complete BS.

I don't think anything was/will be "televised" (live or not) until the Friday's elite XCC races...

 

[Axel Hangleck]

When CX can cover all races of their Worlds live, and MTB can't you know there's a problem.

 

[jmdirt]

USA with the win!

 

[Coffeeplanter]

As expected Albert Withen Philipsen is just not in the same stratosphere as the others. He could win with 5 minutes if he wanted to. As not so expected but the race still very young Nikolaj Hougs not an immediate shoe-in for silver after 1 lap.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

Philipsen winning isn't a surprise - and is now a 2 time XCO Junior World Champion - and I will look at his lap times later. His XC relay lap time wasn't a lot slower than Braidot's......

Viktoria Chladinova won the women's Junior title; and after a 3rd in the CX Junior Worlds is a rider to follow. Unlike Gery & Ferguson, she doesn't seem to have WWT teams after her.

 

[Ricco']

The top comment under the article sums it up basically:

What I learned from the interview. 1.They regards 'growing the sport' as getting more subscribers to their streaming services. 2.'Adding value' to the sport just means Wb can charge more. 3.'Professionalising' the sport means being elite only........but they aren't interested in providing a pathway to get there. 4.The UCI don't care what they do with it as long as they get payed. You don't have to be a genius to realise they their aim is to create a package that is cheaper to run, generates more income, can be watched by a non cycling audience in a condensed TV friendly format. 'We' are not the target market and riders are an easily replaced resource so pissing off both groups is not a concern. (watchmen)

Completely true.

As a (former?) MTB follower, I'm completely alienated from the sport nowadays.

During RedBullTV era followed every event I could follow, most of the times in replay, but since they rebadged it for the new era it didn't felt the same.

And now, with the complete disrespect that Eurosport and their owners have done for the cycling fans that were loyal to them for years, that I actively chose to refuse to be a part of it (even if as an already Max subscriber the sports package would mean only a 1€ price hike for now in my case), with Tiz as my only source of digital cycling coverage, the will to watch isn't there anymore.

Couldn't be less excited for this year's worlds tbh.