How to watch Olympic mountain biking this Sunday & Monday

Would being 40s back with 2 laps to go count as insurmountable

Evidently not in his head, remember the day before where his uci team mate took some massive time dents? (Her lap vs 2nd fastest lap time)

Lap 2 31sec

Lap 3 32sec

Lap 4 25sec

Lap 5 35sec

Notably lap 6 she was 25 seconds faster than Haley batten (silver)

Pidcock getting back to the point he could put that huge pressure on koretzky was superbly impressive. No panic, took time to settle back in and then make big efforts between shifts as second wheel. Koretzky didn’t have the benefit of time or calm and to be fair, was potentially another mistake away from getting caught by Hatherly. No not gold, but silvers better than bronze.

BearBack
They weren’t even in the same race
Might want to watch more of that last lap.
With out the two errors it might at best have at best been a sprint with Pidcock in second wheel
If Pidcock had closed down that gap and it went to a sprint, my money would’ve been on Koretzky

I don’t doubt that TP was nervous about the sprint and that’s why he went past in the more technical area.  My “different race” comment was based on the pace that TP showed immediately after the pass – the speed differential in the woods after was incredible.

sure it was, koretzky put a foot down, avoided a tree, almost at a stop and had to rattle back through his gears, pidcocks momentum largely unaffected.
Great pass that Koretzky left the door wide open for

sure it was, koretzky put a foot down, avoided a tree, almost at a stop and had to rattle back through his gears, pidcocks momentum largely unaffected.

yeah – probably one of those times where the speed is not obvious on TV. Koretzky came to a near halt whereas Pidcock maintained full speed. That gets a big gap very quickly.

now we’ve had both races – my opinion on the track.
overall, good, the ‘man made’ / artificial look is a necessity from location, don’t begrudge that at all.

But, I’ll repeat an observation I’ve had over the last few years a couple of times at world cups. If a pro rider with access to their sponsors full lineup of bikes, is voluntarily choosing a hardtail and/or no dropper; then the course is not technical enough for XCO.

If a pro rider with access to their sponsors full lineup of bikes, is voluntarily choosing a hardtail and/or no dropper; then the course is not technical enough for XCO.

If a large proportion of the field was leaning towards hardtails then maybe.. but that hasn’t been the case.

The Olympic course is bound to be a bit sanitised due to location requirements / preferences but also because many of the riders further down the field won’t have been racing World Cup standard courses.

It would have been nice if the Olympic course had been less man-made but overall it did result in some great racing!

Great pass that Koretzky left the door wide open for

Watched it again last night and I reckon Pidcock’s planning to be on that inside line at the tree pass is what won him the race. He’s been through there a bunch of times, knows there’s a split in the track coming up with a faster inside line, and if he’s got it, Koretzky will have to take the outside line and cut in for the left bend following. Pidcock executed it almost to perfection, (except his back wheel slid out and clipped Koretzky cutting back in.) However, as brilliantly planned, he was on the inside, managed that effort to get just in front, so had the rights. Awesome work.

Olympic and even recent European Championships XC courses tend to be a bit more man made rather than the natural Alpine-type courses commonly seen in MTB World Cups. Who remembers the Euros at Novi Sad in 2021, or Munich in 2022?? This was better than those two tracks. It’s never going to be a World Cup course, but maybe a French Cup or even a European Championships is possible.

It produced a race for the ages in the men’s (helped by a puncture) and I know GMBN were a bit harsh on it, but there are limitations on the track designers, and the choice of venue. The Olympics are Paris, and everything within reason has to be held there; obvious exceptions are sailing, and other water-based events.

Good explanation of the overtake here if you haven’t seen it

https://escapecollective.com/tom-pidcock-and-the-art-of-a-gold-medal-pass/

The Olympic course is bound to be a bit sanitised due to location requirements / preferences but also because many of the riders further down the field won’t have been racing World Cup standard courses.

For the Women:

Lady from Mauritus who is primarily a road and ITT rider. She DNF’d (probably the only one I might say shouldn’t really be there having only raced mtb at African continental level).

There is a Rwandan who raced Les Gets U23 XCO

Never heard of the Chinese woman but she raced both Brazil XCO rounds this year and is Chinese and Continental champion.

For the Men:

The Namibian has a second in Elite World Cup Marathon, and completed the Crans-montana XCO this year. Looks more of a marathon specialist.

The Chinese man has finished 3 XCO world cups.

Liechenstein-ian has raced multiple U23 XCO

Israeli has some farely sparse results but was top 30 in Val di Sole XCO, hard to argue he cant race with the 35 other best in the world.

Unless I’ve missed someone, everyone except the Mauritian woman has completed an XCO course whether in Elite or age group.

Unsure why the Olympics course is being compared to a Worlds XC race course – they are different events – although pretty much the same thing.

However, this is the Olympics and not the Worlds MTB race series…as said, it needs to be close to the main location (where possible) and they did a great job at making a very exciting spectacle.

It worked very well as there are plenty people talking about it – not just fellow MTBers, but ‘normal’ folk in the office and out and about…it seemed to have captured the attention of many people and that can only be a good thing.

Unsure why the Olympics course is being compared to a Worlds XC race course – they are different events

Apart from the entry list being limited to 2 or 1 per country, and start grid being done by rank, rather than a short track race the day before, it is pretty much exactly the same event and rules. the O in XCO is literally Olympic.

There are many many different ways of racing mtbs. I think global viewing figures clearly indicates the most popular format is XCO, an hour and a half of multiple laps on a singletrack course. It makes sense to replicate this most popular format for our single Olympic event.

None of us know what the LA course will be, but we can be sure it will follow those rules and it wont be a downhill timetrial or an urban eliminator.