16.50 BST for the short track tonight

In my opinion the best short track course of the calendar (or possibly the best filmed, as I’ve never been to any)

Evie Richards and Yolanda Neff have been quiet so far this season – by their standards.
McConnell still the woman to beat on a wave of form right now. Think she has a new coach this year, and has had an explosive start to the season, especially as all the antipodeans got screwed over by the last two years.
However theres a couple of killer climbs in sundays XCO so could favour the lightweights of Lecomte and Mitterwalner.

Would you bet against Pidcock in either race? Especially Sunday’s climbs. The short track, will his road and CX skill see him slip effortlessly through traffic, or will the bigger stronger riders out muscle him?
Based on the last two races (Avancini in Brasil and Scharzbauer in Germany), Cink should attack early spurred on by the home crowd, only to realise he has bitten off more than he can chew and drop back.
Dascalu seems to be be brewing up a big performance. His comeback last week following seatpost issues showed what he can achieve if his mechanic does all the bolts up.

OP can you put “contains spoilers” in the title before its too late? Ta

too late, have asked the mods

XCC coverage starting now (16:50) on Red Bull TV – looking forward to this.

Kryton57

OP can you put “contains spoilers” in the title before its too late? Ta

Who would click on a thread about the race if they didn’t want to know what was happening?

XCC coverage starting now (16:50) on Red Bull TV – looking forward to this.

Might put this on when I get home – thanks.

Proper battle and awesome by Neff. Cracking jump on the last double

Wow, a five rider photo finish.

that looked brutal and ridiculously fast!

Where did Pidcock come from?!

He seems to take places effortlessly.

Oh I dunno, it looked hard in the last 500m.

The German is a big strong boy isn’t he!

I thoroughly enjoyed muttering ‘go on lad’ at scharzbauer in the final. In yer face global superstars! Pidcock looked well peed off after the race. Hee hee! Don’t worry, Pidders will be just fine. He’s a cracking rider and an uber-superstar. He’ll cope.

Great racing, the speed they were going was crazy. Luca Schwarzbauer still trying to get his breath back in the interview.

Don’t know why Pauline Ferrand Prevot pulled out of the women’s.

PFP snapped her chain on lap 4 I think

Ah thanks, that was a shame.

Strong win from the German, he’s huge. A new era of XC sprinters?
I thought he had gone to early but he kept rolling on the power. Classy finish line shot as he could sit up and celebrate while the pack gurned away in the background for 2nd.

They changed the course compared to previous years. Not as good IMO, but it kept the pack together so maybe it was exactly what they wanted.

Good to see Neff back. Evie still nursing an injury apparently.

Reading the pink bike comments, they have really turned on Kate Courtney.

they have really turned on Kate Courtney.

Just had a scan, there are some pretty ugly comments on there. I have huge amounts of respect for anyone who straps a number board to their bike, and in my opinion anyone who’s ranked top 40 in either DH or XC as far as I’m concerned has a claim to be amongst the world’s very best.

There’s even comments about her weight (carefully disguised as watts/kg obvs) I thought we were done with all that?

There have always been haters of Kate Courtney for some reason, even in the past attacking her for having a privileged childhood.

I like Kate and hope she gets back on top form soon.

Have to say, Schwarzbauer was seriously impressive – led the last lap, with riders well placed to come round him. And into a headwind on the home straight – and he blew them away….would love to know what watts he was producing – probably enormous.

Agree about the new track; I’m not sure. They amended it last year to include a rock garden, and this year it’s completely different.

As for the comments on Kate, not great. I’ve always thought criticising sports people is fine as long as it’s fair, constructive, and doesn’t become personal. Those comments look like a vendetta.
She’s still a young woman, who is struggling for form for whatever reason. Imagine any of her friends/ family reading that…..awful.

There have always been haters of Kate Courtney for some reason, even in the past attacking her for having a privileged childhood.

I got the impression that she was pretty universally loved (by the yanks at least) while she was winning.
In 2022 there is sadly still a feature where the most attractive North American or (possibly just native English speaker, and as I only read the English speaking media, this could be happening elsewhere) gets doted on by hoards of misogynistic men until they get bored and find a new doll.
Before Kate it was Emily Batty, who has a similar fall from grace a few years back.

Happy for the big german after the repeated efforts he put in at last week’s xcc.
What’s equally impressive though is seeing where pidcock came back from having lost significant position in the tight right hander on the climb and was back in 10/12th or so before the dropping into the speedway descent.
He made up a mind bending amount of track and positions to take that second.

Not seen the Pinkbike comments; I find Courtney a bit of an offensive self-promoter but I guess trying to hawk sports cars is part of the job nowadays.

It’s funny how form ebbs and flows, Loana Lecomte was smashing last year like KC was a few years ago and she’s a few steps from the top at the moment. Now it’s Rebecca McConnell, or at least it is so far in XCO.

Great to see McConnell doing so well. Feels like she’s always been there or thereabouts for the last few seasons, but not quite made it.

As for the Kate Courtney detractors. How many of them have earned the right to wear the world champ bands on their sleeves?

Looking forward to tomorrow’s races, just need to get back in time from my ride.

To be fair, we see riders peaking at different times, particularly in the women’s field.
Remember Loana destroyed everyone in the early season races but then went off the boil, comparatively bonked the Olympics then unfortunately quit the season early as she wasn’t able to recover.
Rebecca could simply be on a tear right now and PFP’s eyeing up the world champs.
Evie finished last season in impressive form but illness and injury has messed the start of this year up.
Evidently it doesn’t take much bad luck to throw a spanner in the works.
I’ll keep hoping for good results for Jolanda, Jenny and Evie, the rest is just good telly.

Was expecting Pidcock to be out muscled by the bigger sprinter types so impressed with his position.

Phenomenal effort from Nino playing catch-up.

This is an incredible watch, back with the leaders!

Wow….. that was spectacular.

By Eck that was a race from Pidcock, well not just him. Awesome

That is insane, not just the power and lungs but the bike handling at full gas on those descents when I assume you can barely see because of the stars in front of your eyes from the effort. What a finish….

Amazing race by Nino to come 3rd after that puncture and another strong race from Rebecca McConnell in the women’s race.

Pidders was muttering about his bike not being right today, but not being specific. Anyone got any details?

Pidders was muttering about his bike not being right today, but not being specific. Anyone got any details?

No insider info, but I wondered if it had anything to do with the automatic suspension lockout system?

Yes, doesn’t he have a Suntour electronic prototype system?

I was keeping an eye out for Eli Iserbyt, but just read he never started due to back problems.

“After the past cyclocross season, Eli Iserbyt’s first back problems arose during the preparation for the summer program”, it sounds in a press release from Pauwels Sauzen – Bingoal. “Despite treatments, the back pain continued to return and unfortunately became so severe last Sunday with his debut in the Mountain Bike World Cup in Albstadt, Germany, that Eli dropped out of the competition prematurely. Afterwards, he did not travel to Nove Mesto in the Czech Republic for the next World Cup competition, but Eli returned to Belgium for medical examination.”

Shame, I was looking forward to seeing how the CX riders got on as they gained experience.

He was pretty aloof when asked about his bike problem just saying it didn’t work as it should. Was it about the 7th lap he was seen bouncing his bike up and down like something wasn’t right?

Yep it was his electronic/automatic suspension control that wasn’t working – he was playing the company linein the interview by not saying it but you could hear him taking to his team of you rewind back a bit.

Regardless… Nino Schurter. Just wow. He is incredible. Half an hours of solid full gas to catch them, and he still managed to drop 4th.

A podium finish after he lost so much is remarkable.

What races is Pidcock in this year, i.e. enough to win the whole thing?

I’m not even sure he plans to do any more now? When does le tour start?