I must admit - i don't really watch much sport, maybe the TdF highlights when i remember (like tonights Ventoux finish). I've had a rekindled interest with the XCO this year as a friend is involved with a team, and i've found the Nino / Julian thing a bit addictive to watch and to see it played out over the course of the race.
Why does none of this make it onto the front page for news coverage? Enduro / DH / the extreme end of riding does, do why no coverage of the XCO?
We now have [i]a[/i] rider going to the Olympics, so maybe that will change.
But, in the interest of giving growth to all aspects our sport, via the XCO route, would it not be in everyones interest to cover this discipline also?
Be particularly nice to see the UK XCO riders receive some attention.
Enduro / DH / the extreme end of riding does, do why no coverage of the XCO?
"We" win stuff?
The DH stuff is cracking to watch, I enjoy the XC but it doesnt have me screaming at the telly like Danny Hart did the other week!
Yea i get that. But it'd be nice to see some mention of the XCO. The Absalon/Schurter thing is fantastic to watch regardless of nationality.
Suprisingly, pinkbike do pretty good coverage.
GB youth and u23's are in cracking form too. Be good for them to get more exposure.
Bizzarely you need to go to Pinkbike for good XCO coverage, always had that pegged as a superRadGnarShred website for acne ridden teens but great 'photo-essays' of the XC recently.
Agreed its a shame that UK media doesnt care, be nice to get coverage of UK events too, even UKXCnews seems to be struggling on that front though.
edit. Jambo types faster than me!! and agree with Yak
Yea - maybe STW have left it up to them. I always thought PB as more "rad" and STWs origins was muddy XC races round a local field!
Maybe Enduro killed XCO off and put the carcass in a fanny pack.
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/pro-xc-tweaks
More about the bikes than the racing, but still.....
XCO... Is that like Enduro but more hardcore cos they don't have a break at the top and use hardtails/small FS travel 😆
Maybe Enduro killed XCO off and put the carcass in a fanny pack
I kind of think that too, I think the industy decided they can make a lot more money from enduro/trail bikes and selling fun over fitness. You only have to look at STW coverage of the new whyte range, they only have one xc bike.
At the end of the day, while my purchasing habits dont back it up 😳 you can race XCO very competitively on a pretty budget hard tail whereas its easy to sell the 'need' for a 140-160ish travel FS for Enduro.
What is XCO ?
its easy to sell the 'need' for a 140-160ish travel FS for Enduro.
This probably. But it would be interesting to see what the participation levels are in xco compared to enduro. Are there more xc racers than enduro racers, but more people associate with enduro more, even if they don't race?
As above DH is pretty exciting. XC is for taking part in not watching, live certainly. I do try and catch the mini-highlights 2-3 mins max
xco = is just xc racing. 'O' is Olympic as that's format raced at the Olympics.
I love XC, and the crowds on the WC circuit are fantastic. Top end xc bikes is a small slice of the industry, and I reckon a harder sell than trail centre/uplift focused bikes.
My family all love watching the XCO races on red bull, but I have to admit we end up shouting at the tv more curing the DH segments!
I have found the XC circuit to be really good at encouraging childrens racing, with on site coaching, medals for the children and adapted circuits! Hopefully that will pay dividends in years to come, despite BC's woeful support!
My son (6) races XC and loves it, however after watching lots of DH with him on red bull he has just been bought a set of ramps to play on 😀
I watched the XCO world champs a few weeks ago. It was ace.
I think it's a Euro thing. Interesting that when they had XC and DH at Fort Bill it was XC on Saturday (side show) and DH Sunday (main event). At the recent Leinserheizdethingy world cup, it was the other way around.
I'm a fan of XCO too - and think that the recent Schurter/Absalon duels have been fab.
Unfortunately, we've not had (the staff or budget to have) anyone at the races themselves and in this situation have had to rely on coverage we've been sent in.
It seems that every DH team and Enduro organiser has a well-oiled team ready to send us great photos and reports from every event, within hours of them finishing. But that's not always the case with XCO - and definitely hasn't been my experience with British Cycling, who'd much rather send me town-centre crit reports than tell us how we did at the World Cups (even if our top riders didn't podium - which is obviously BC's only focus...)
Hopefully things will improve on all fronts.
Chipps
BC probably don't even realise they have riders doing the world cups.....
Big event at Hadleigh Park at the end of July with a lot of the WC riders coming over for it [url= http://www.hadleighparkinternational.co.uk/site/index.php ]http://www.hadleighparkinternational.co.uk/site/index.php[/url]
Various riders mentioned here [url= https://twitter.com/Hadleigh_IntMTB ]https://twitter.com/Hadleigh_IntMTB[/url]
There is, we're going to get a story up as soon as this issue is at the printers (today!)
The XCO racing is bloody brilliant. I can recommend it to anyone.
Its way better than it used to be years ago when it was just narrow bars, flat fields and no more challenging than a road race.
Much more like racing round techy trails with proper drops, jumps and gnarly stuff.
There are racing FS bikes with droppers now. No difference to what we use for Afan / CyB on a weekend.
I've watched all the races this year on Redbull TV - some of those courses have bits in a lot of us would struggle with, never mind race round.
The last race had Schurter doing whips off table tops and drops - easily as entertaining as Rat boy doing whips off the DH jumps.
Perhaps a write up or article on the race / their training / the bikes etc. would be good.
I have to go to Pinkbike and Redbull TV for it at the moment.