Just wrote this out but when I pressed submit it jsut disappeared! Anyway take two…

Don’t think we have a 2018 UCI XC world cup thread yet. It all kicks off again on Saturday at Stellenbosch, SA. A new venue for the xc world cup and should be pretty interesting. THey are in the middle of a droguht and so its baked hard and dusty.

All the details and a course preview from Red Bull are here: REd Bull need to know

From a brit perspective we have as usual Grant Ferguson in the Elite men and Annie last in the elite women, a fair few are out for the u23 races too, but these aren’t being live streamed. Be interested to see how Evie Richards does after her stellar performances at Namur and the CX world champs. BC write up is here: BC race guide

Lookign forward to this. In the elite men going to be interesting to see if MvdP can give Schurter a run for his money again. Last year his performance seemed quite course dependant, hopefully he’ll be more consistant this year as it would be good to have a few more tight battles at the front.

For the first round there is no short track racing but going forward there will be a short track race to determine gridding. Going to be interesting to see how this mixes things up.

Yeah really looking forward to it, just a long time before the next round may 20th

i don’t think van d p will do much my self against nino, one of nino big strengths is his technical ability which is far superior to vdp, there are a lot of riders out there who are as quick as Nino over a couple of laps but Nino can keep it up for all laps that’s where his domination is

A North Yorkshire man to watch:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/23Cm9RB]Frazer Clacherty[/url] by martinddd, on Flickr

Now with OMX Pro as their sole UK rider.

Has a shocking choice of shorts though!!!

[url=https://flic.kr/p/24VJ79A]WTF, THE SHORTS, OMG, THE SHORTS!!!![/url] by martinddd, on Flickr

Anyone know if the Red Bull app will be back for our smart tv? Otherwise i guess its just straight from the RB website.

 droguht

Is that a doughnut topped with yogurt? 😉

Not much to add other than can’t wait for Saturday 🙂

I could be wrong but from round two there is the new XCC thing which I vaguely recall is a short 20 min or so race and that will set the first two rows of the XCO start instead of it being on UCI rankings like before. Probably spice the first lap up a bit..

March 10: (XCO) – Stellenbosch, South Africa
April 21-22: (DHI) – Lošinj, Croatia
May 19-20: (XCO/XCC) – Albstadt, Germany
May 26-27: (XCO/XCC) – Nové Mesto, Czech Republic
June 2-3: (DHI) – Fort William, Scotland
June 9-10: (DHI) – Leogang, Austria
July 7-8: (DHI/XCO/XCC) – Val di Sole, Italy
July 14-15: (DHI/XCO/XCC) – Vallnord, Andorra
August 11-12: (DHI/XCO/XCC) – Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada
August 25-26: (DHI/XCO/XCC) – La Bresse, France
September 4-9: UCI MTB World Championships – Lenzerheide, Switzerland

The course looks pretty technical too. There was some nice Instagram footage of Malene jumping the doubles yesterday in practice, using a dropper too.

Looking good. some interesting battles potentially this year. Evie Richards & Annie Last will certainly be worth keeping an eye out for over the year.

I assume as normal the coverage on STW (forum excepted) will be as non-existent and as ever and I’ll have to go to PinkBike etc. for the news and results. Anyone got any other decent sites that are likely to cover it. If I’m in I might watch RedBull TV, but probably just catch the details and results either side of it on the old fashioned web.

one of nino big strengths is his technical ability which is far superior to vdp

Seriously? MVdP is just about the only rider out there I’d suggest is the equal to, if not the better of, Nino when it comes to bike handling.

You might not agree but ‘far superior’ is pushing it a bit! Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see how MVdP goes, he’s got the motivation of trying to equal WvA’s classics exploits on the road.

How many do we reckon will be racing with droppers? I’ve seen that gunn-rita and Yolanda are both training with them.

I’d say a fair few, didn’t Absalon use one last year? [Sneaky edit, jsut seen a pic and he’s not for this i don’t think] Looking forward to the pinkbike tech and practise galleries to appear. One vid I saw on instagram shows a drop thats the doppleganger of the big drop at Wasing!

What’s the ground made out of ? it’s sort of….dusty !

That’s a good preview, looks like an amazing course. Weeks you, they are in the middle of a massive drought, looks similar soil to the previous World Cup course at Pietermaritzburg- sandstone maybe?

another good vid of bits of the course here from Nino Schurter: https://www.pinkbike.com/news/nino-hits-the-world-cup-season-opener-xc-track-with-andrew-neethling-video.html

A few stills of the track up on pinkbike now ( Pinkbike article ), really like that Pinkbike are providing good XC coverage, with this article not far off their DH trackwalk coverage. The winbarrel section looks a lot of fun!

Weeks you, they are in the middle of a massive drought, looks similar soil to the previous World Cup course at Pietermaritzburg- sandstone maybe

If you have to go back and explain the joke, it wasn’t as amusing as you thought 🙂

Just watched Nino’s lap – bloody hell!

So what time on Red Bull TV ? – seen conflicting times ont tinterweb

The 37 year old legend of Julien Absalon who opted not to retire, for another year of XCO, taking time to chill before the heat of race day.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/252LPRH]2018-03-09_08-14-53[/url] by martinddd, on Flickr

Singletrack front page article says “Elite Women are on at 10:00 GMT, and the Elite Men at 12:30GMT.”

Spot the wrist brace on ^ Mr Absalon ^ ………. rumor has it he crashed recently and has a #.

Thanks Qwerty!

12th for Frazer. Fantastic. 💪

https://www.redbull.com/gb-en/events/uci-mtb-world-cup-2014-round-1-pietermaritzburg-south-africa

Evie Richards finished 3rd! Going to be one to watch for the Commonwealth games in a few weeks.

Think the season will be great and in the introduction of short track to select the starting places for the main race will be interesting too.

http://www.uci.ch/mm/Document/News/News/18/10/98/UCIJuniorsSeries-XCO-additionalinformation-Final-january2018-EN_Neutral.PDF

http://www.uci.ch/mountain-bike/calendar/

That was some performance by the Kiwi!

A great men’s race, nail biting to the end, Maxime wasn’t far behind & VdP went from 8th row to 4th place!

Isla Short achieved top ten U23.

Although I did miss seeing Nino’s signature last lap with comfortable lead showboating it was nice to see him finally beaten fair and square. The Kiwi seems like an animal (riding the last lap and a half with cramp but hiding it!) Even better to see less than 3s separating the top 3 men at the finish.  Could well be a great season to follow this year.

Is there any chance of a technical track where it might actually be wet for this years series? I’d have loved to seen close racing with them having to hit those descents in the wet. particularly the manmade multiple log drop section.

fantastic race. Gaze is a monster, those efforts on the last lap were something else. Mvdp looking strong too. Think it’s going to be an ace season in all cats.

Just caught up with the men’s race, fantastic race, really good to see a tight battle. Fingers crossed the rest of the races are as good!

What a great photo of the sprint finish. Almost makes xc racing look cool! 😉

Epic race. I love Nino but it was good to see him get beaten for a change. Hes soooo good to watch but to be honest once Gaze got into a rhythm he was techinically on a par with him.

He said in the post race interview that he had the legs to pass him in the sprint but even if his foot hadnt come out i dont think he had it in him.

Saw the womens yesterday but just caught up with the mens race. Fantastic opener to the season!

Have to say, good on Sam Gaze, he deserved that but I’m gutted to see Nino beat.

Would love a different angle of that finish sprint to see if Nino was actually gaining ground as he claimed. It didn’t look like it to me but we’ll never know I guess.

Also, BIG respect to Maxime Marrote. That was a hell of a ride and to catch up with those two and their insane pace on that last lap really was something extraordinary.

Looking forward to the next one but I really don’t like the idea of the short track counting for HALF the points. I really don’t understand the need for this at all.

Just watched the final lap of the Mens race… .Was just bonkers to see the effort these fellas can put in time and time again ….  Cracking race 🙂

Was just bonkers to see the effort these fellas can put in time and time again

Had this chat at the weekend.  I always feel destroyed on the last last lap yet the front runners / Nino’s of this world look as fast as they were on the first.  Don’t know how they do it but its missing from my race efforts that for sure.

Brilliant racing, as above I’d have loved to see Nino win again but yeah, this has made things more interesting.

Looking forward to the next one but I really don’t like the idea of the short track counting for HALF the points. I really don’t understand the need for this at all.

Wow I didnt realise that, I thought it was just to determine gridding. Agree its daft. How are they going to grid the short track? It’s only 20 minutes or so isnt it so gridding for the short track will be even more importnat than gridding for the xco. Pandering to TV in the same way as the way they changed XCE to the urban setting and in the process made it look ridiculous.

Don’t they go off in small groups, so no real need for gridding?

Then how can it be used for gridding the XCO? Sureley all would have to go off at once so are having same race or wouldnt be fair for gridding. Very confused – hopefully it will be a one year trial!

Just saw this image of the A-Line rock slab drop, figured it must be way steeper than the video made it look but not seen any photos till now. That roll-out looks harsh!! [edit. photo credit is from UCI FB since no wartermark on image]

first 16 in the short track start at the front with very top being front row. Others in behind them all, so advantage of a good start.

The short track needs to be as technical as the main course otherwise everyone will use a hardtail and full sus will be obsolete, which would be a real shame and could limit how technical tracks could get.

I dont like half points, so think many will concentrate on this to gain points and then settle for top 10 finish in main race rather than battling in both (i.e. sacrificing stamina for speed). Had it been quarter points or less then people still have to focus on the main race and getting the best finishing positions.