Hello!
World’s 2024 is fast approaching and I want to give you an update on the cross-country season so far and some insights as to what Worlds prep looks like for the XC riders.
I take my job as self-appointed head of XC coverage very seriously, and to ensure the accuracy of this newsletter, I will be competing at Worlds and am currently on a high-altitude training camp to get the inside scoop.
Enjoy!
Zoe (+ the Misspent Summers Team)
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.
All photos by Piper Albrecht
So what has happened in the season so far?
Brazil: the first two races took place in Brazil. Racing outside of Europe on new venues offered challenges and excitement for the riders, including jumps on an XC course (!), four-way sprint finishes, and very hot conditions. Check out more here.
New venues: this year brings riders to four new venues; two in Brazil, a highly controversial track in Crans Montana, next year’s World Champs venue, and a yet-to-be-seen course in America. Crans Montana’s track featured many last-minute course changes and some questionable features such as a log-garden, rock spines and a creek gap A-line that ended up being substantially slower than the B-line. There was a lot of debates about how dangerous tracks should be and when is it too late for track changes to be made.
Selection: for many riders, the start of the season was about Olympic selection with a focus on performing in the first few races. This made for exciting racing early in the season leading to unexpected last-minute changes to the Olympic lineup. These include siblings Isabella and Gunner Holmgren claiming Canada’s spots at the final selection race and Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Jolanda Neff relinquishing her Olympic spot due to health issues. A handful of top athletes and athletes from less competitive nations will have secured their Olympic spot before the season started and have been able to focus all their attention on the Olympics. This was the case for most of the athletes that ended up medaling.
Olympics: speaking of, the Olympics happened a month ago in Paris. There were a lot of flat tyres. Pauline Ferrand Prevot stayed true to her promises and took home the gold medal on home soil in a dominating performance. Returning Olympics gold medalist, Tom Pidcock added another gold medal to his collection despite a front flat on the fourth lap and having just finished the Tour de France a few weeks prior.
World Cup Overall: After six rounds Alessandra Keller is leading the overall points standing over last year’s winner Puck Pieterson – notably Puck missed the first two Brazil races and yet is still in second. In the men’s, Alan Hatherly leads by a narrow 40 points over previous winner Nino Schurter.
All photos by Piper Albrecht
What to expects at this years Worlds:
Altitude: held at 1900m elevation, the high altitude of this year’s World Champs track has seen riders at altitude camps weeks before the event. Many riders will also use altitude tents and heat chambers. Altitude makes racing more unpredictable as athletes respond to altitude in different ways.
Venue: Andorra is a venue many of the riders know well, having previously hosted World Champs and many World Cups. Not only does it’s high altitude make breathing difficult, but it also means the weather can be extremely unpredictable, with past years boasting everything from extreme heat to snow.
Track: The course is the same as previous years with lots of natural rocks and roots, loose dust and short steep climbs. A largely uncontroversial course that doesn’t have huge technical features, but is still a technical course, doesn’t have any long climbs, but still has a lot of climbing. Check out the preview here.
Post-Olympic: taking place five weeks after the Olympics, it is hard to know if Olympic athletes will be able to carry great form to Worlds, or will be struggling with fatigue, either physically or mentally. Usually riders can only perform at their best twice in a season, for many Olympic riders, this will have been a key selection race and then the Olympics themselves.
Season break: Riders not competing in the Olympics have had a two-month break since the last World Cup. Many nations had national champs during this time and most riders will have competed in a few smaller racers, but it can be hard to gauge form after such a long mid-season break.
Want more XC stuff? Here is some cool content from the XC circuit:
Why Bjorn Riley describes himself as “mundane yet sporadic”, and how he weaves his artwork into life as a World Cup mountain bike racer.
Chapters is a creative project by Christopher Blevins and Stilspoke, with support from Specialized, which follows his life as a World Cup XC racer through the 2024 Olympic year.
Raw footage from practise at the new Crans Montana World Cup course. For anyone who thinks XC tracks are easy.
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.
