Nice that Saxo-Tinkoff are allowing Peter Sagan to do this within his road racing contract. I’d love it if he was able to race a UCI XC World Cup – Sagan vs Schurter would be awesome!

http://www.tinkoffteam.com/news/peter-sagan-return-mountain-bike-roots-tinkoff-colours/

THIS I would watch.

Interesting – be good to see how he stacks up. You’d have to assume that for fitness and power, etc., he’ll be right at the pointy end of competitive, but given that he won’t have ridden anywhere near as much technical stuff as his opponents, how much that’ll count against him. Clearly he’s got a high level of innate skill, but how much is MTB specific practice (and Schurter style conditioning) worth?

Good news this, think he will be ok.
The report not mentioning what events just where.
Are those UCI XC WC races?

If there is no “un-luck” then he will be fine. Maybe even competitive!

Are those UCI XC WC races?

Won’t be those. No XCO in Austria. And Czech Republic is the first weekend of the Tour. Article also says it’s before the ToC which starts at the end of April, so that would narrow it down a bit.

Would be funny if it was some local race to be lined up next to Sagan 🙂

That’s funny I was just thinking this morning I’d love to see Sagan racing XC, or even enduro.

I actually reckon he’d beat Schurter on most courses.

I would love to see the race.

Will he be using discs?

😉

No he will be on his sister’s bike with a coaster brake.

I actually reckon he’d beat Schurter on most courses.

Schurter rode the 2014 Tour de Romandie and finished 17 minutes down on GC, ahead of some pretty respectable riders.

Neff’s been getting some very respectable results on the road too. Finished in the leading bunch at the road worlds if I remember correctly.

The man to watch for XC this year is Matty Van der Poel, Dutch CX rider as he’s looking to ride the Olympic MTB as is Sven Nys for Belgium.

Any of you cyclists out there recognise the guy in the middle? He was riding our trails today!

Posted by Ash Smith on Thursday, April 14, 2016

Thanks Brant. No idea what that’s about, but I see it links to something on the Facefart website. I gather that this is quite a popular website with the oldies.

No idea what that was about though (other than I see a barely recognisable glimpse of someone looking like CS, with what seems to be an erection).

fella at the back wearing a flat cap?

This for Olympic qualification for either himself or his country? ex World CX champ Mathieu van der Poel is looking to qualify for the Olympics too so could be an interesting season in XC racing for once rather than the usual 2 battling it out.

Will he have the appropriate cardio levels though? An hour of sprinting vs 6 hours mostly at threshold (or whatever)..

An hour of sprinting

lol

The man to watch for XC this year is Matty Van der Poel, Dutch CX rider as he’s looking to ride the Olympic MTB as is Sven Nys for Belgium

Nys has done plenty of MTB stuff (including London and Beijing Olympics IIRC) and whilst good, he’s not challenging for the win. Sagan will be a different game I reckon. I do reckon he’ll have the fitness, and whilst I suspect Nino’s technical ability to be better (only through practice and targeted training mind, and I still Don’t think it’s a given), I suspect Sagan will not lose out much there.

Ahh, this will be good.
We’ve got some CXer boys in the mix, some roadies too and some steadfast XC heroes too, can’t think of a better mix.
Let’s hope the courses throw up some surprises ….

Will he have the appropriate cardio levels though? An hour of sprinting vs 6 hours mostly at threshold (or whatever)..

Doesn’t seem to have bothered Voss or PFP when they’ve gone back for a bit of XCO or CX.

Be interesting to see how he goes. Huge power but he’s also a fairly big guy. I’d have thought Olympic XCO a bit unlikely.

It’d be interesting if he was riding any of the UCI marathon races, there’s a fair chance he’d do very well in those.

I reckon he’s checking out the form of the riders and type of courses for the Olympics.

Well that didn’t go to plan.
http://road.cc/content/news/187640-video-sagan-returns-mountain-bike-racing-finishes-foot

He wasn’t looking very positive at all there in the video.

mmm not so good on at Mtb 7 years on by the looks… Shame no report where he was!!

Reports he crashed? Not a mark on him too and not looking happy

Wrong wheel size clearly.

Not a mark on him too and not looking happy

Did you really miss the chunks of dirt stuck in his helmet on the left side?
I guess he went down pretty hard on his head to scoop up chunks of dry earth!

Any post race interview?

Looks like he came 4th in the Teplice Czech MTB CUP

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTe5fFI4_wk[/video]

And now wants to ride XC at the Olympics …
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/olympic-games-slovak-cycling-association-seeks-wildcard-mtb-place-for-sagan/

That would be fantastic, for us and for XC as a sport.

I know he is a great rider but only 4th?!!! would have expected better… was he up against any world class mtb riders???