In the finish straight
After a long season, we are days away from wrapping up with the final two World Cups in North America. Here is a quick update on what happened at Worlds, what to expect in the final races, plus rumors for the 2025 season.
Zoe Cuthbert is a name you will start to see popping up around here a bit more. She is a World Cup XC racer for Team 31 and is doing her design internship with Misspent Summers. Zoe has put together this mid-season XC newsletter, with Piper Albrecht supplying the photos.
Who are the new World Champions?
The Elite Women XCO was won by Puck Pieterse, who lead from the start of the race. Second also went to the Netherlands, with Anne Terpstra ahead of Martina Berta. Candice Lill closely followed in fourth after sitting in a medal position for most of the race.
The Elite Men XCO saw Alan Hatherway attack on the last lap to get the men’s title over Victor Koretzky. Third went to Olympic gold medalist Tom Pidcock ahead of fellow Great Britain rider Charlie Aldridge.
In the Elite Women XCC Evie Richards won the sprint finish with Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. Jenny Rissveds rounded out the podium in third.
The Elite Mens XCC saw Victor Koretzky finish first with Charlie Aldrige in second. The men’s also had a sprint, with Alan Hatherway taking the bronze medal over Chris Blevins.
In the U23 Women Isabella Holmgren took home the U23 Womens XCO and XCC title, with a dominating performance that would have placed her 5th in the Elite XCO
In the U23 Men, Luca Martin won the U23 Men’s XCO title despite American’s Riley Amos and Bjorn Riley being the favourites after dominating the World Cups all season and taking home gold and silver in the XCC.
Schedule Changes: There were some big last minute schedule changes announced at 8pm the night before the race in anticipation for an afternoon lightning storm, despite a week of warm sunny weather (no storm came).
The biggest of these changes being the combination of U23 and Elite women in one mass start of over 100 riders. Whilst podiums of each category remained separate, riders did the same number of laps (reducing the elite women’s predicted laps) and started on the same gun. Start order was based on UCI ranking, mixing the two categories together. This made for a very chaotic start with a lot of traffic back in the field as riders came to standstills when the track narrows.
The schedule changes also effected the men, with U23 riders racing much earlier then anticipated with little time to prepare for there 8:30am start and 5:30am wake up.
All categories, excepting U23 women, had there race reduced by one lap. If and how this effected the racing is hard to tell, but it likely would have meant last minute changes to race strategies.
All photos by Piper Albrecht
What is next? Riders are in North America for the final rounds, starting with Lake Placid this weekend. Many riders reported feeling burnt out after weeks at altitude and World Champs, but many are also still scrambling to sign contracts and prove themselves for next season. The final stretch offers the promise of the off-season and celebrations after six months of World Cups, and even longer of racing and training.
Lake Placid: Another new venue for riders, described as ‘bike-parky’ and ‘man-made’ before the race – but lashing rain and mud all week might change that opinion. Either way, it is impossible to judge a course until it has been raced on.
2025: Rumours are circulating about big changes to how the 2025 World Cup season will be run and the number of athletes/teams that will be allowed to compete. Whilst this are yet to be confirmed and the effect it will have is unknown, it is undoubtedly making many riders and teams anxious. Many teams are changing, either collapsing, merging with other teams, or completely changing there riders. Next season will undoubtably see a lot of riders on new bikes and big adjustments for everyone.
List of where you can watch the last two World Cups here.
All photos by Piper Albrecht
BONUS:
Really looking to procrastinate the rest of the emails sitting in your inbox? See if you can find all 5 raccoons photoshopped in this newsletter.
