No mention of Chloe Woodruff?

No mention of how bad Annika has been?

To hell with their ability to burst and recover, im jealous of their handling abilities. I mean dayyyyyyyum, last week in the mud no less. My mtb is a glorified townie bike right now...

It was definitely an exciting race. I think Nino is building while MvD was peaking. MvD is now taking some time off - they didn't say how long but since after the next two rounds, there's a several week break then I'm assuming he won't be back until Andorra. I saw where Kate is back in the states for a break, so I'm assuming she isn't racing this weekend. I wonder if she is skipping the next round too?

Chole Woodruff spanked everyone hard on the short course. MVDP (the JCVD of cycling, obviously) and Courtney both also won on breakaways. With short course being so chaoitc I wonder if that's the secret sauce.

And poor Annika! Winning Cape Epic but struggling in the XCO season. I can only speculate that her night job fighting crime is cutting into her recovery but I'd love to hear a more informed explanation. Perhaps what is required at Cape Epic is too contrary to what is required in the comparatively short world cup races (Nino too?) and we will see her get some explosiveness back in Andorra. Nobody who kicked ass at Cape Epic is having what would be considered their best early season.

My go to trainer material...

Nino peaked and the new wave is starting their take over. That's not to say Nino isn't elite, there's just a lot more people at the same level now. MVDP is a joy to watch - I like the more mature/professional rider he has seemingly become. Looks to me like Kate Courtney found the endurance she lacked last season. Personally routing for Woodruff though.

Way too much woodwork at Albstadt. That being said I still wouldn't be able to ride a lot of it lol

yeah, the sanitized 90 degree corner that they bridged in Albstat still looked like tight as hell to me. I tried to unclip just watching on TV.

The XCC at Albstadt was great though, how MVdP attacked when he caught up to the group, damn. Nove Mesto was a way nicer track though, one of my favorites next to Stellenbosch. The average speed during XCC at Nove Mesto was incredible, around 37kph. They don't seem to be going really fast up the climbs but they were trying to kill eachother there. The speeds over the tree trunks and jumps was ridiculous.

The women's races are so much fun to watch, mainly because there are so many strong riders and you never quite know who will take the lead.

that surely is a typo? not even CX races are that fast

XCC are the short track races. Given that I bet that number is accurate.

Annika won Cape Epic in 2018 as well and it didn't impact her like this. But yeah, it seems her heavy race schedule earlier this year, maybe coupled with her age finally getting to her, has really hit hard. I hope she comes back, I'm a big fan.

Courtney clearly figured something out, and I wonder how much of it was mental and confidence. But she looks like somebody who can dominate for many years. I'm also very happy for Woodruff and felt horrible for Tauber. I wanted to see a Tauber / Courtney sprint finish.

I'm not kidding you, they even say so during the broadcast if you watch it again on redbull.tv. They had a 1.2k loop I believe, which they completed in less than 2'. Ridiculously high tempo.

I'd love to see Annika up at the front again, I think she's in need of a bit of a rest. As you say, Cape Epic and then going all in to the Spring classics on the road with Boels Dolmans has probably left her a bit overcooked coming into the XCO World Cup season.

I stumbled upon XCO last year in December and have been watching all the old seasons, very entertaining on the trainer. One question though, why so few races in a season? I would love a race every weekend but obviously know that’s not possible but could we get like a 10 or 12 race season?

Good question. I'm not sure, I know the answer.

I had a look back and seems that eight rounds has always been the maximum, and sometimes six.

I'd like to see another couple of weekends of racing through the year, but I guess XCO and downhill have to play nicely in the calendar and I don't know what the availability overall of suitable courses might be like. There must be enough to add a couple more rounds a year though.

If you can find some Cape Epic highlights, there's a race that looks amazing.

https://www.strava.com/...8/analysis/4214/5471
6.5 mile race in 21 minutes, about 19 mph

LMAO I know exactly what you mean. Their handling skills are really next level and it blows my mind that they’re riding over some of that stuff on 100mm hardtails.

This has been my go-to trainer material as well. The women’s races are a ton of fun to watch because you really don’t know who is going to win.

I think the road races and the associated training must have overcooked Langvad. She won Cape Epic with Courtney last year and hit the World Cups flying.

I hope that's the case and she shows out for the next part of the season. Neff vs. Courtney is exciting but throw Langvad in there and it's a party.

MvD is a pretty scary guy. Outside chance he could wear the CX,MTB and Road WC jerseys in a year. And a pretty fair chance in his lifetime. He says MTB at the Olympics in Japan is his main goal. He already has a big enough pile of cash he can dictate his schedule and training path. Be an interesting guy to watch in the next 8-10 years.

this is good; i just watched the replay on RedBull.

Holy s***, this stuff looks quite fun. None of the course screams overly technical, but they sure roll over them at speed. As a roadie without much in terms of MTB skills, I think this would be up my alley. And also, the announcers kept on mentioning pelotons; all those packing drafting skills will sure come in handy.

That course was more technical than you think. Flying over the jumps at speed and in close proximity to other riders takes a lot of skill. Frischknecht (spelling?) bit it over the doubles nearly taking out Nino.

Spot on. The stuff they're riding usually isn't too technical *until* you realize how fast they're going and how close they are to each other. At that point it's actually very technical IMO.

https://m.pinkbike.com/...d-in-local-race.html

Well that’s not going to help Annika get back on track for the remainder of the season

Whatever Courtney had figured out didn't quite workout this weekend in Vallnord. For some riders a top ten finish is the highlight of their career but this seems off from the results Kate has been getting this season.

Uneducated opinions on this? I'm speculating something about the pacing needed for this particular course. It didn't seem to help to be in the front at the beginning but it looked like a hell of a lot of work. Maybe some courses favor an early break and this one didn't. The big lead Avancini had at the beginning didn't pan out either.

Yeah, she hit a wall. I'm guessing it was mostly the altitude. She chose to stay and race in the US last weekend, so she had little acclimation. Maybe even some jet lag affecting her sleep through the week. We'll see this weekend.

Seriously, isn’t this the best racing?! Finally the Men’s races have stepped up to the excitement of the Women’s. In 2018 it was all about the women in terms of exciting racing. I thought this weekend was awesome. I think KC raced awesome based on the past couple weeks of travel, etc., and I am bullish that this may be part of her plan - race fast early with the rainbow and get a lead in the points then build back up for the back part of the year. I am hoping she gets it this weekend.

One surprise for me was Emily Batty. She really was down in the results, very unlike her. However, I know she was training hard over the time off so she may be trying to get on the back end as well. I am really pulling for her to win a WC race this year.

My favorite was when, I think, Flueckiger was trying to hold off Schurter but needed a drink and put the bottle in his mouth and was bombing the downhill holding the spout by his teeth!

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I miss you "Sports Night"

Well whatever it was Courtney seems to have worked it out. She just killed everyone on the short track at Les Gets.
It's really considerate of them to schedule the race for right on my lunch hour.

There are actually tons of races, but only a handful of World Cups. There are several big national race series in Europe (Switzerland being one of the most high profile), but there's basically no coverage of them stateside. In the US, XCO is basically dead unless you live in one of a handful of places in the US (I'm being a little hyperbolic, but you get the idea), especially when it comes to USAC sanctioned races. Heck, I live in Colorado and there are only a couple of XCO style races and we have the Rocky Mountains to play in. Most of our stuff is a) not sanctioned and b) large single loop races (and many of them much longer than XCO typically is).

Yep, impressive attack and hold. I think last week was just altitude and jet lag, maybe just an off week. I love her facial expressions in a race, you know how much it's hurting.

Batty can't seem to put 2 good years together, she's on one year, off the next. This year seems a down year.

As much as love seeing KC win, I'm missing Annika. I hope she's back soon.

Agree. So, so good today. That was a really fun short track course. I am getting pretty fired up, and can’t believe I am saying this, actually looking at how to possibly volunteer and/or spectate in WV!

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I miss you "Sports Night"

Short Track was a fantastic idea by UCI or whoever thought of bringing into the WC weekends. Genius level.

I haven't watched the men's Les Gets race yet on replay, but damn, did Kate Courtney dominate this weekend! She won the short track and then totally controlled the XC race. I was impressed with Neff's comeback to take 2nd too as she was down in 7-8th for awhile.

Anyone know what happened to Van Der Poel? His 16th place is out of step with his other results this year (or even this weekend). Maybe someone slipped some kryptonite in his water bottle.

Kate seems to be a more complete package than Yolanda. Yolanda doesn't seem to have the power when it comes to uphill and her faster cycling cadence seems almost silly at times (I still think she has been great and still is)

He took 6 weeks off so he can rebuild for road worlds. On IG he has been posting vacation pictures and his trainer said he took an extended period of time off the bike to let the body reset. He has raced most of the CX season, spring classics, then first two XCO races, guy needs a break.