World Champs XCO course preview

Course preview for the XCO at glentress was up yesterday.

I can’t recall there being a XC course with mandatory gap jumps before.

I’m not at all surprised that many of the features won’t be staying. Looks on par, if not moreso than the other XCO courses on the circuit.

Looks great!

Yeah, it’d be good if most of that stays. Can’t some of it just be graded as optional harder lines and the b-lines kept as the generally red grade trail (or whatever) it will be?

I think some of the B anc C lines could, but the gaps, probably not, unless there’s a way to make them rollable.

The drop in looks very steep so will likely be either removed totally, or tamed a bit for your average mincer (like me)

I can’t place where any of it is in the forest!

Very impressive!

I can’t place where any of it is in the forest!

The first climb is on the hill behind the pods (you can see them in the background when Scotty stops to talk about it), the final descent bit is on the hill above the cafe / SFC building. Not sure of the rest of it but I’m dragging the family up complete with STW cowbells!

As andyr says the first climb is behind the pods and is up the final descent of the Glentress 7 route (at least when I did it).  I think they then cross onto the Falla Brae descent with some specially built stuff down to that rock roll which is basically at the end of the red squirrel car park.  Then back on to the end of Falla Brae and the gap jump.

It then seems to use the newly built climb up to the new swoopy descent plus some extra WC only bits and pieces down into the finish.

Looks good. Tickets booked!

What’s the mandatory 3m gap going to look like in the back of the pack on the first lap?

The big one has a B line – or it least it looked like it did when we were up there a couple of months back. You drop off the side. I’d be looking for the C line as even that wasn’t all that easy. [edit] it really is mandatory!?

Looks challenging but then these are the best in the world so normal riders shouldn’t be looking at it thinking they could easily ride it.  It would be nice if a lot of it stayed. It would be relatively straight forward to turn a lot of the gaps into table tops?

Is there a map anywhere. I recognise a lot of that but there are a couple of bits I couldn’t place.

Found the map:

From technical guide on the UCI website on this page.

(that blue rectangle on the top left is just my heavy handed mouse control)

Spectator info here

 best in the world

yes and no.. there’s an entry allocation by country so there could be riders there that have never ridden a gap jump and potentially riders that have never ridden a world cup level xco

I assume the quota is there to be filled if you have the budget to send athletes

That mandatory gap is a big ask.. Easy for Scotty on his 160/150 bike though 🙂

I worry for MvdP 😉

Scotty was on his 130/120 spark tuned

There is a b-line for the gap jump, sharp left just before the takeoff take you down a rock drop. It will properly screw up anyone following close behind though.

I can see Evie Richard’s loving this course – she’s been working with T Mo to improve her descending!

I can see Evie Richard’s loving this course – she’s been working with T Mo to improve her descending!

LOL funny you mention that…. No she hasn’t…. She has been working with another female coach though 🙂

I can’t wait for the whole schedule. It will be an incredible couple of weeks. The Gran Fondo is right on my doorstep and should be a great day out in Perthshire. I’m hoping it will really showcase that we can do big cycle events at the highest level!

https://www.cyclingworldchamps.com/championships/gran-fondo/

Looks like the standard tickets for elite finals are gone already. Does anyone know what areas are available without tickets?

I don’t believe any spectating is possible without tickets for XCO. XCM is a good option for free spectating.

Looks like any course any where in the world in reality, very much following the flavour of the month.

I’ve never been a fan of riding along smooth terrain then just to hit a man made feature and then back to smooth groomed trail and berms.

Course looks ace for World level XCO, will certainly suit some more than others though.

Was at GT over the weekend, bonkers amount of work done / going on, even fireroads way away from the course.