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June 22, 2024
MTB – XCC – World Cup 2024 ME – 5 – – Crans-Montana, Valais, Switzerland 🇨🇭
As the name suggests, these races take place on shorter versions of the XCO tracks,
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June 22, 2024
MTB – XCC – World Cup 2024 ME – 5 – – Crans-Montana, Valais, Switzerland 🇨🇭
As the name suggests, these races take place on shorter versions of the XCO tracks, and are usually around 20 minutes in length. It’ll have fewer big features than the main XCO course, and is an all-out race from start to finish. The XCC kicks off the weekend of racing, taking place on the Friday evening. Short track was initially introduced to the World Cup series in 2018, when it was used to determine the start grid for the XCO race, and fed into the overall points. From 2022, the short track still determines Sunday’s start and there are points available for the XCO overall, but it also has its own overall competition.
The sound of the start gun had barely time to finish reverberations when the Olympic MTB champion slipped out of a pedal from his second-row start position, causing Pidcock to plummet in the field. On a descent in the first lap, he then collided with another rider to disrupt any momentum and leaving him 23 seconds behind the early lead group led by Schurter and Luca Schwarzbauer (Canyon CLLCTV).
“I didn’t make it easy that’s for sure. At the start I unclipped then I was at the back, and I was actually getting dropped on that first climb, they were going so fast,” Pidcock said after his worse-to-first race in Switzerland.
“Going into the descent if you’ve got riders in front, you can only lose time so I was trying to time it right so I could make up time on the descents.”
After the opening lap, Pidcock rode in 33rd place, 23 seconds behind leaders Schurter and Luca Schwarzbauer (Canyon CLLCTV). The duo had broken away with a slight lead but were soon caught by Blevins and Thomas Litscher (Lapierre Mavic Unity).
All remained quiet on the middle laps, which allowed Pidcock to pick way back through the field, but he dragged a rested bunch with him when he finally made contact on a descent to Schwarzbauer and Schurter.
“I got there and I was suffering and I looked around and no one was pulling so I thought ‘Oh God, these guys have had it easy’ but I just carried on and obviously they were suffering.”
Pidcock made first attack from the front at the start of the penultimate lap, and at the start of the final circuit was caught by Charlie Aldridge (Cannondale Factory Racing) to make it a British one-two, for a short time.
Schelb then made his move by punching past Aldridge, Schwarzbauer and other tiring riders, taking the reigns in the chase in second.
Pidcock is expected on the start line for Sunday’s cross-country event at Crans Montana, which will be his final MTB appearance before defending his Olympic Games title in Paris. In between he will be in the Ineos Grenadiers lineup for the Tour de France, coming off a sixth-place on GC at the Tour de Suisse last week.
“Coming from a week-long stage race it’s something a little bit different but I was just riding it full, just to pick off riders every time on the climb and it was just my tactic, just ride full gas,” Pidcock said.
Results :
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“I didn’t make it easy that’s for sure. At the start I unclipped then I was at the back, and I was actually getting dropped on that first climb, they were going so fast,” Pidcock said after his worse-to-first race in Switzerland.
“Going into the descent if you’ve got riders in front, you can only lose time so I was trying to time it right so I could make up time on the descents."
After the opening lap, Pidcock rode in 33rd place, 23 seconds behind leaders Schurter and Luca Schwarzbauer (Canyon CLLCTV). The duo had broken away with a slight lead but were soon caught by Blevins and Thomas Litscher (Lapierre Mavic Unity).
All remained quiet on the middle laps, which allowed Pidcock to pick way back through the field, but he dragged a rested bunch with him when he finally made contact on a descent to Schwarzbauer and Schurter.
“I got there and I was suffering and I looked around and no one was pulling so I thought ‘Oh God, these guys have had it easy’ but I just carried on and obviously they were suffering.”
Pidcock made first attack from the front at the start of the penultimate lap, and at the start of the final circuit was caught by Charlie Aldridge (Cannondale Factory Racing) to make it a British one-two, for a short time.
Schelb then made his move by punching past Aldridge, Schwarzbauer and other tiring riders, taking the reigns in the chase in second.
Pidcock is expected on the start line for Sunday’s cross-country event at Crans Montana, which will be his final MTB appearance before defending his Olympic Games title in Paris. In between he will be in the Ineos Grenadiers lineup for the Tour de France, coming off a sixth-place on GC at the Tour de Suisse last week.
“Coming from a week-long stage race it’s something a little bit different but I was just riding it full, just to pick off riders every time on the climb and it was just my tactic, just ride full gas,” Pidcock said.
<strong>Results : </strong>
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