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Great couple of races, Evie looking strong and Pidcock is just unreal, outsprinting Schurther and Gaze. He seems to be able to make up 3 or 4 places just by taking a slightly different line as well!
Not watched cross country in many years. Shocking course, seen more technical cyclo-cross races.
are you sure you're not commenting on the XCC course? XCO has barely started.
Nah, I watched a course preview for the XCO, very poor.
Was surprisingly happy with the GCN commentary, although the familiar sound of Bart helped. Who was the Irish chap?
I’d be surprised if the course is a lemon. It normally makes for some great racing.
Ah, the perennial 'why are XCO courses so easy' post.
They aren't. It's not a WC downhill, granted, but I consider myself a decent rider and the thought of doing ta WC XCO course (Hadleigh for example), at full gas, just behind someone else going full gas and just in front of 10 other blokes also going full gas including trying to overtake anywhere you move 6" off the optimum line is terrifying.
Hadleigh was slated on here from pictures and previews.
NM is a classic course, they keep going back, I assume it's therefore pretty good.
I think the course has been altered to produce bunch sprints for the ST. Which it did.
Now whether that's a good thing I don't know.
Who was the Irish chap?
Ric McLaughlin - has been doing EWS stuff for a few years.
Interesting tech titbit - Cervelo running a full sus bike in the XCC but with a static brace rather than a shock. Ingenious way of getting around the UCI 'one bike for both races' choice. Wonder if any other teams will jump on the wagon - maybe just the ones with flex stays?
Full PinkBike XCC photo epic here.
XCO at NM is usually great - looking forward to today's races.
Just seen the XCO course, much tougher than the sort course one. Looking forward to some good racing.
Good, close women's race. Shame about Evie's unfortunate puncture and slow wheel change.
I think that puncture cost Evie the race; lost 50 secs, and only finished 16 secs behind. Though she seemed as cheerful as ever in her post race interview. And Puck, like Evie is a former U23 CX World Champion, and CX World Cup race winner...and now joins a short list of riders to win a World Cup race in both disciplines.
It looks very slippery!
Anyone watch the men's race? Really enjoyed that, great last lap. With it being on GCN I'm much more likely to watch it as I tend to be on there most days during the road season.
Yes it was superb, I wasn't 100% sure that TP was going to do it until the last climb, he did look like he was struggling ever so slightly with his tyres. He did say in a post race interview that his tyres were a bit hard.
Almost feel a bit sorry for them the way Pidcock turns up and spanks them!
Evie’s wheel change was terrible, these are paid mechanics and it took ages, it cost her the race
Just finished watching. Never really watched Xc before. That was great!
It was funny how Ric kept mentioning how in the past Xc was more of an endurance sport with not much tech skill, and Bart kept saying “yeah, but 26” wheels and, and…”!
Must admit, i though Pidcock had lost it a few times. But he showed cracking power to come back and push on again...
Pretty upset I didnt get to watch the whole lot, only the highlights, but we've been round the houses on that one already!
However the coverage and commentary all weekend was good I thought. They actually did a brilliant job of covering the Marathon race - not just 'off they go' and 4 hours later' 'here they come back to the finish'!
XCO course was ace, in my opinion. Some of those rocky, slippery climbs would be brutal when your already breathing out you a**ehole and theres someone rubbing wheels behind you. And some proper fast downhill sections with a bit of air time.
Evie - looked great, good start to the year but - as has been said here and is all over the social media - that wheel change is embarassing. I took a load of flak for saying this on facebook, "duh have you ever even worked on a bike, they are tricky" etc, of course I've changed a wheel, 0000s of times. But doing it myself in dalby forest car park or in my garage is as different to that as when I change to my winter wheels on the car in the drive is to a Red Bull F1 pit stop.
These are supposed to be world cup mechanics, its the pinnacle of racing - they should have a practiced, rehearsed and choreographed dance to change a flat like that. Especially for one of the biggest teams in the sport. No excuse - it was poor.
PFP and Lecomte right up front too as expected.
Pidcock - interesting that he had a few slips and wobble but he's done that before in a few races - shows he's not afraid to push the levels of grip and he was straight back on it. None of them had done much setup change for the wet race I dont think. Absolute powerhouse though! Good for the Rockrider team having Dubau up front in the mix aswell, I've not seen them up front in world cup XC much before.
Nino is still well in the mix too, I'm sure he can get the record breaking 34th World Cup win this year.
Great couple of races, enjoyed Ric's commentary, certainly no worse that Rob's and he and Bart seem to get along OK. Racing was really amazing to watch. Interesting to see that some of the higher ranked women were thrown out the back; Haley Batten who was leading at the start, ended up in 11th, Kate Courtney who was back in the top ten ranking was 13th and Yolanda Neff; 15th.
Shocking course, seen more technical cyclo-cross races.
Said in jest presumably, some of the hills on that course would have some of us walking on lap 1 let alone lap 8.
Oh and - Pidcocks skid stop in front of the press into 'Read the name on the downtube' as he crossed the finish line was absolute class - proper dreamy stuff for the PR team at Pinarello. Thats how you earn the big bucks!
Yeah, if you're going to win on the first weekend the bike's used in anger, you may as well make sure its in all the press.
Oh, and the drone camera-man deserves some credit as well, amazing flying and some great pictures
Not watched cross country in many years. Shocking course, seen more technical cyclo-cross races.
Having (normal but bloody good riders) spoken to people who have been there and also ridden the likes of Nove Mesto and the one in OZ for the Commonwealth Games they certainly aren't easy courses, my mate said Nove Mesto was frankly scary in places.
Oh and – Pidcocks skid stop in front of the press into ‘Read the name on the downtube’ as he crossed the finish line was absolute class – proper dreamy stuff for the PR team at Pinarello. Thats how you earn the big bucks!
Suppose when you're on 4 million Euro a year for 5 years you've gotta pay them back some how 😉
Just watched the highlights & I'm so very pleased to see the coverage has gone up a notch - that drone just showing the speed & technicality of the racing. Evie would have smashed that without the puncture, she is an absolute machine & looks to be back to her best if not better. As for Tom? Well, spilling, throwing whips & coming from a long way back to win - whats not to like?!
I do hope Nino gets that record but I'm not sure he's going to...
Nove Mesto never fails to deliver..!
Amazing opening weekend, coverage was great, course was proper hard, especially in the wet and the racing was beautifully close.
Couldn't really have wished for more as a spectator. Well, maybe a quicker wheel change ;o)
I reckon everyone involved is probably feeling pretty happy today.
oh that wheel change...I've got a feeling that will not be repeated!
Some great close racing in both elite Men and Women races. And seeing the best in the world make mistakes is reassuring e.g. Pidders. I wondered what happened to Mathias Fluckiger, just found a clip which somewhat explains it: he came un clipped down the Cannondale drops and looks to have managed to keep it vaguely under control until the bottom where I assumed he tossed his cookies! Mental.
Cracking couple of races and the coverage was pretty good overall - drone footage was a great addition but I think they need to work out what CG's role will be a bit better.
Shame about ER's puncture but she was rolling the dice a bit in how aggressively she was attacking the descents. The wheel change wasn't great but it happened just before the tech support area (which was a blessing!) so they only had a matter of seconds warning.
Evie – looked great, good start to the year but – as has been said here and is all over the social media – that wheel change is embarassing. I took a load of flak for saying this on facebook, “duh have you ever even worked on a bike, they are tricky” etc, of course I’ve changed a wheel, 0000s of times. But doing it myself in dalby forest car park or in my garage is as different to that as when I change to my winter wheels on the car in the drive is to a Red Bull F1 pit stop.
These are supposed to be world cup mechanics, its the pinnacle of racing – they should have a practiced, rehearsed and choreographed dance to change a flat like that. Especially for one of the biggest teams in the sport. No excuse – it was poor.
Brad Copeland is one of the best out there, he's certainly set the bar pretty high. Why the other mechanics arn't practicing for the inevitably of a mechanical and having to swap parts out (that are preconfigured/tested) is mind boggling.
-55s for a rear mech and shifter change:
-Brake swap:
-Wheel Swap: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CS49Ribjm8R/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
That wheel swap above in around 20 seconds is brilliant!
He even got it in the right gear for the rider before she set off.
If only Evie's had been that slick......
They need a Guido !
He even got it in the right gear for the rider before she set off.
Setting off in a hard gear and shifting up under power will kill the chain. The racer isn't thinking about that, just the time they need to make up. He's thought about that for them.
oh that wheel change…I’ve got a feeling that will not be repeated
the trek support team doesn’t fill me with confidence. This is actually an improvement on the first race of last year where they gave the entire team food poisoning before the xco race.
Not the first time this spring an Alpecin rider has benefitted from a puncture from a rival leading late in the race. Wout at P-R; however his wheel change was far quicker - I even went back and checked it on Eurosport. All being well it won't happen again, and Trek will be doing wheel change practice like motorsport teams do.
One does wonder why Alvaro was allowed to leave...I always thought he was a top mechanic - now at Canyon CCLTV.