It’s just so good!

Albstadt report

Two world cups in two weekends, both of them have amazing images and great insightful write ups, accompanied by fantastic tech photos. I’m calling this the start of the XC comeback…

Pro XC Tweaks

Lots more of it in the thread linked here! 🙂 Their coverage has, it must be said, been excellent.

I watched the xc on red bull tv the weekend before last and was blown away, really technical course, superb riding, full suss bikes with wide bars, xc sure has changed since I last watched it over a decade ago! They were flying over mud, wet roots rocks and all sorts on Ikons too.

Nah, still blokes with shaved legs and wearing lycra.

Cannondale guys are often wearing baggies these days.

Nah, still blokes with shaved legs and wearing lycra. who are just waaaay faster than me both up AND downhill and waaay better at bike handling than me on pretty much anything as well

FTFY. 😉

Great coverage, I love the way they’re telling the story with the excellent photography.

Yeah… not convinced they know too much about XC over at PB (last pit walk was pretty bad and really showed a lack of XC knowledge) but I appreciate the effort… and the pictures are nice

Go on then, Show us what you know about XC that pinkbike got so obviously wrong, educate us DanW 😉

^^ just look at the other thread

Ooh look, skinny tubes. Ooh look, negative stems. Ooh look, thin tyres.

It was just written from the viewpoint of a lifelong trail rider / enduroist / DHer who had never seen XC before. Ie enthusiastic, well-written and good coverage for the pink bike audience. I doubt it would be a great read for those who follow the XC world cup but for the pink bike readership it was spot on.

They covered it at least

That’s a lot more than most websites, this one included

I think their coverage is brilliant – and the “style” of it is really good. Much more appealing than the usually dry reporting you see for XC or road. I’ve long believed that part of what makes action sports appealing is the media content it generates – xc seemed for a long time to have become really, really dull. Maybe it was actually just reported on by really dull people. Pinkbike have done a great job on it.

I can’t believe how little coverage xc gets both online and in the mags. Grant ferguson is doing really well in the u23, 4th last week, which you’ll have thought would be worth a mention on some of the british websites but I didn’t see anything.
Though the xc (mtb in general) content is pretty poor on the BC cycling website too.

Will have a look at that pb coverage later

doesn’t get much coverage because its boring, its not much better than road racing

Superficial – Member

It was just written from the viewpoint of a lifelong trail rider / enduroist / DHer who had never seen XC before. Ie enthusiastic, well-written and good coverage for the pink bike audience. I doubt it would be a great read for those who follow the XC world cup but for the pink bike readership it was spot on.

Bingo. It’s like the adventure show coverage of the downhill world cup, it’s for my dad, it’s not really for us.

doesn’t get much coverage because its boring, its not much better than road racing

Is it maybe a little complicated for you? Perhaps that’s why you don’t enjoy it.

doesn’t get much coverage because its boring, its not much better than road racing

Read: “I’ve never actually watched it, I just read about it on an internet forum 5 years ago”

I think head to head racing is way more interesting than DH where, unless somthing crazy happens, when you’ve watched a couple of runs its much of a muchness.

For the general public / mtbers with short attention spans its a shame they’ve ditched XCE, while I didn’t think the courses were always quite right (need to be a touch longer at times and more technical) I think from a viewing perspective it was probably the best.

It was just written from the viewpoint of a lifelong trail rider / enduroist / DHer who had never seen XC before. Ie enthusiastic, well-written and good coverage for the pink bike audience. I doubt it would be a great read for those who follow the XC world cup but for the pink bike readership it was spot on.

Fair comment, I think you’ve nailed it.

Bikeradar have some good XC pit walks from time to time but they seem to take a month or two to actually get it up online

Is it maybe a little complicated for you? Perhaps that’s why you don’t enjoy it.

lap after lap after lap of watching 29ers being riden by lycra clad shaven legged weight wennies isn’t my idea of fun.

Read: “I’ve never actually watched it, I just read about it on an internet forum 5 years ago

XC or road racing? forgot I could have included track racing too. maybe the last few seconds as they sprint to the finish could be exciting

wow this place is turning into the pinkbike comments section 🙄

lap after lap after lap of watching 29ers being riden by lycra clad shaven legged weight wennies isn’t my idea of fun.

Let’s be honest, no bike racing is ever that interesting live on TV. DH World Cup? 3 cameras trying to cover a 2 mile course, for 3 hours and the only excitement after the first few runs is seeing the split times.

There’s a reason the team’s produce their own 5 minute ‘edit’.

At least in the XC it’s done in an hour, there’s no need to get excited about the clock and there’s overtaking.

wow this place is turning into the pinkbike comments section

Need’s more calling people douchebags and offers to swap your bike for a PS2.

thisisnotaspoon – Member

Let’s be honest, no bike racing is ever that interesting live on TV. DH World Cup? 3 cameras trying to cover a 2 mile course, for 3 hours and the only excitement after the first few runs is seeing the split times.

Nah, disagree with that, the lourdes round was pretty damn good. Not sure how many cameras they had; enough to give reasonable coverage, they could always use more but it’s also limited by the gaps, you can’t show full runs live even with a million cameras because there’s multiple riders on track at a time.

Where is the better coverage of WC XC?
Preferably in English.

Links please.

Some super images, captions good for intended audience. What are we arguing about?

Let’s be honest, no bike racing is ever that interesting live on TV.

If you aren’t really into the sport then I think that’s true of most sport on the telly. Look at some of the Giro stages this year, for me some have been thrilling from start to finish, for someone who doesn’t really follow it or understand what’s going on it’s just a dull precession of bikes.

lap after lap after lap of watching 29ers being riden by lycra clad shaven legged weight wennies isn’t my idea of fun.

If I’m planning on watching it live I tend to go for a ride first and beast myself, have some food, watch the start and the first lap, then alf watch and doze, browse interweb/papers for the middle and watch the last 2-3 laps avidly. much better than watching football/ the grand prix / snooker etc etc …

They might be wearing lycra and riding 29ers but i reckon there are a fair few sections on WC courses that the average baggy wearing, FS riding UK trail rider would baulk at!

edit. agree with mrblobby the PB photos were really good.

I saw a bit of FB chat after the BC round at Newnham about trying to bring a world cup xco race to the uk. Probably just chatter but I’d be well up for watcing one live! Shame the Margam worldcup course isnt being used.

PB coverage really good and bringing the discipline to a new audience. Was awesome to watch Neff hit those doubles on a hardtail and the rock gardens. I hope she trys some Enduro because she has some serious skills on a bike.

It was just written from the viewpoint of a lifelong trail rider / enduroist / DHer who had never seen XC before. Ie enthusiastic, well-written and good coverage for the pink bike audience.

I half agree, but it seems like the tone and maturity of the reporting has improved from Nove Mesto to Albstadt, and I bet it will get better still.

There’s no way that website can jump straight into awesome reporting, as they don’t have the audience yet. Once people realise that those “29ers being riden by lycra clad shaven legged weight wennies” are riding stuff that they can’t ride on their endurosleds, it will improve further.

I hope she trys some Enduro because she has some serious skills on a bike.

Frosty, I understand the thinking, but part of the reason she’s winning XC is because she’s got great technical skills! They need it to compete in XC at that level.

Definitely good for XC to move on from the old days of riding round a field to something mtb riders today would appreciate as being proper XC trails. Can only help it grow in popularity.

I think it’s really nice to see them trying to extend the appeal of the format – I do wonder if the ‘short course with multiple laps and pits’ isn’t a bit too cyclo cross, and should maybe be dropped to make it more epic, maybe blend it in with MB marathon format in the same event (or same weekend – Saturday marathon, Sunday xc)) might see a bit more strategy in it.

XC eliminator had loads of potential, but I thought they sort of killed it by making it really urban/street riding and all packed in to too short a time frame rather than spread throughout the whole of Saturday before the big race on Sunday

I do wonder if the ‘short course with multiple laps and pits’ isn’t a bit too cyclo cross, and should maybe be dropped to make it more epic, maybe blend it in with MB marathon format in the same event (or same weekend – Saturday marathon, Sunday xc)) might see a bit more strategy in it.

Agreed. It’s just so tough to broadcast already that I can’t see it getting any longer in format. Hopefully it will just get even more technical to the point where hardtails (or even softtails) die once and for all.

It’s funny that people accept world cup DH runs as being beyond the reach of the average rider, but still think you could cruise around an XC course like a sunday afternoon at Cannock.

but still think you could cruise around an XC course like a sunday afternoon at Cannock

all I do is cruise around a XC course or any other course for that matter lol

Agreed. It’s just so tough to broadcast already that I can’t see it getting any longer in format. Hopefully it will just get even more technical to the point where hardtails (or even softtails) die once and for all.

Isn’t that basically enduro though? You can’t real bias it that much to the descents. They’ve also got shorter – laps and races in the last 5 years, can’t see them going back the other way.

I do wonder if the ‘short course with multiple laps and pits’ isn’t a bit too cyclo cross, and should maybe be dropped to make it more epic, maybe blend it in with MB marathon format in the same event

That is how XC is in much of North America. TV coverage is difficult, it’s not much fun for spectators and the riders don’t seem to like it either. The Marathon event already exists which Kulhavy won this time around- no need to duplicate it. I don’t see any need to try and make XC “epic”. It is what it is and that is a decent spectacle that is always bloody hard!

Isn’t that basically enduro though? You can’t real bias it that much to the descents. They’ve also got shorter – laps and races in the last 5 years, can’t see them going back the other way.

No, not really. XC races are weighted so heavily towards climbing (in terms of time gaps) that there’s a long way to go before it hits enduro territory. And it’s not just the downhills that could go up a rung in technicality. The climbs are already brutally steep, but could contain way more interesting features too.

Sweeping generalisation much?

Why should they be so tough you need a long travel bike? That seems stupid to me.

The changes in he technicality of courses since 2010 or so is huge. The first time we all raced the World Cup course at Dalby we thought it was mental; now it’s easy. No jumps or anything committal at speed. It’s certainly getting more dangerous!

GB

Interesting to look at the Singletrack news pages – rafts of articles on the recent Enduro yet almost all of them have zero comments from readers. Also relatively low reader numbers for most of them (typically just 1000-2000 views).

So regardless of the hype, there seems to be only limited interest in the Enduro format. Maybe it really is time for an XC comeback?

The changes in he technicality of courses since 2010 or so is huge. The first time we all raced the World Cup course at Dalby we thought it was mental; now it’s easy. No jumps or anything committal at speed. It’s certainly getting more dangerous

Some of the World Cup courses have always been technical – it is just that they now seem to be more deliberately “man made” (i.e. artificial rock gardens etc). My wife raced the Norway one in 1996 and it was awesome – full of natural rock outcrops and drop offs. She was well down the field but rode everything (including bits that Pezzo walked with a Fisher full-sus) and was so battered afterwards that she couldn’t lift her arms.