The cross-country mountain bike competitions on the Paris Olympic Video games happen on the opening weekend of the worldwide sports activities extravaganza, with biking occasions spanning July 26 to August 11. Elite girls start the XCO competitions on Saturday at Élancourt Hill, situated 25km exterior Paris, with the elite males following the following day, July 27.
There are 36 riders on the beginning checklist for every contest, balanced fields for men and women. Cross-country mountain biking made its debut within the Olympic Video games in 1996 in Atlanta, the place Bart Brentjens of the Netherlands took the first-ever gold medal for males. Just one man has ever gained two gold medals within the XCO race and Frenchman Julien Absalon went back-to-back in 2004 and 2008.
A 4.4km course awaits the boys at Élancourt Hill, on which riders took strong notes at a Check Occasion final September with its groomed gravel paths, a technical rock backyard, twisting terrain and one signature, difficult climb, which is bypassed on the opening 2.2km lap. The primary circuit, with 110 metres of elevation achieve, crosses the very best level within the Paris space, providing views within the distance of the Eiffel Tower.
Two gold medalists are within the discipline for the boys, 2016 Rio winner Nino Schurter (Switzerland) and the Tokyo defending champion Tom Pidcock (Nice Britain), in addition to the silver medalist from 2021 Mathias Flückiger (Switzerland). In actual fact, Flückiger’s evaluation of this yr’s battle was simple, “Tom Pidcock is the highest gold favourite”.
Ought to a brand new Olympic champion be topped in Paris, there’s a sturdy argument that France’s Victor Koretzky will carry a bonus, particularly after he gained the Mountain Bike Check Occasion final yr in addition to the latest World Cup spherical in Les Will get.
Additionally within the combine might be World Cup chief Alan Hatherly of South Africa and a pair of US riders, 22-year-old Riley Amos and fellow Coloradoan Christopher Blevins.
Tom Pidcock comes into Paris because the best choice to take a second gold medal, as he isn’t solely the defending cross-country Olympic champion but additionally the reigning XCO world champion, a primary for a British male.
He’ll journey double-duty for the UK on the Paris Video games by competing every week later within the males’s street race. The 24-year-old stated he’s, nevertheless, firmly centered on the MTB repeat.
Driving for Ineos Grenadiers, Pidcock completed second on stage 9 of the Tour de France, the rigorous route marked by 14 gravel sections round Troyes. However mid-way by means of the Tour’s second week, the Brit suffered from COVID-19 signs and pulled out for relaxation at dwelling. His preparations for Paris appear to be clean.
His WorldTour street schedule didn’t allow many alternatives to compete on the MTB World Cup circuit this season, however he gained the 2 races he began – Nové Město and Crans-Montana.
Whereas the Olympic course doesn’t have plenty of elevation achieve, it does have an abundance of technical sections that go well with Pidcock’s punchy attacking type.
Switzerland is properly represented by a pair of mountain bike veterans, Nino Schurter and Mathias Flückiger, the duo each proudly owning Olympic Video games medals. On a heavy schedule of World Cup races this season, 2023 sequence winner Schurter was second total within the present standings after six rounds whereas Flückinger, who was third final yr, was sixth total.
Schurter has a group of all three Olympic medals, incomes the bronze in Beijing in 2008, the silver in London in 2012 after which capturing the gold in Rio 4 years later. He completed one spot off the rostrum in Tokyo. He continues to mild up the leaderboard within the World Cup races, constructing momentum with a podium at Nové Město and the win at Val di Sole.
Final yr, Schurter was the lone Swiss consultant on the Mountain Bike Check Occasion and completed third, simply 4 seconds behind French winner Victor Koretzky. He’ll have one final shot at a win at Elancourt Hill and a fourth Olympic medal, because the 10-time XCO World Champion in XCO makes his closing look within the Olympics, and perhaps his closing season of racing.
It’s the third Olympic Video games for Flückiger, who was sixth in Rio earlier than driving to silver in Tokyo. The 36-year-old ramped up his health earlier than Paris with second-place finishes on the final two World Cup occasions. He gives a second card for the Swiss one-two punch and appears to particularly thrive on technical programs. The Swiss duo might be a fierce pair in Paris, and both might declare the highest step of the rostrum.
On the Olympic mountain bike cross-country Check Occasion in September final yr, Frenchman Victor Koretzky sprinted to victory on dwelling soil forward of Anton Cooper (New Zealand) and Nino Schurter (Switzerland). Whereas Cooper is not going to be in France this time and Schurter might be powerful to drop a second time, search for Koretzky to shine irrespective of the climate on Sunday.
The 29-year-old competed for a number of years within the professional street peloton, successful a stage on the Alpes Isère Tour in 2022 with B&B Accommodations, however turned his focus to mountain biking to compete in his third Olympic Video games.
He was main the XCO World Cup standings earlier this season, however suffered a crash within the brief observe race at Nové Město and had a bout with COVID-19, lacking Crans-Montana. Upon his return at Val Di Sole, he took second within the XCC race however didn’t carry out properly the following day in XCO. He might be a wildcard in Paris.
Alan Hatherly (South Africa)
The Paris Olympic Video games might be a 3rd likelihood for Alan Hatherly to make historical past for South Africa with a medal of any color within the cross-country occasion. After twenty sixth place in Rio in 2016, he completed eighth in Tokyo.
The 28-year-old hasn’t waited for Paris to make some historical past, as he turned the primary South African to win an XCO World Cup race earlier in July. It was a “dream weekend” on the sixth spherical of the sequence at Les Will get, France, Hatherly successful each the XCO and brief observe races.
The victory, together with two different podiums this yr, gave him a strong lead within the World Cup XCO standings, plus an enormous enhance for Sunday’s cross-country contest.
Riley Amos, the 22-year-old from Durango, Colorado, makes his debut on the Olympic Video games for Crew USA, steamrolling throughout the U23 division of the World Cup to this point this yr with 5 consecutive victories.
He gained the XCO title on the Pan-American MTB Championships in Halfway, Utah in early Might, which helped the US safe two quota spots for Paris, the primary time since 2012 that the USA would have multiple man within the Olympic MTB occasion. He adopted that efficiency with wins at Nové Město and Crans-Montana and sealed his spot for Paris to race alongside fellow Coloradoan Christopher Blevins.
“It’s truthfully unreal – I positively didn’t suppose at first of the yr that one thing like this was attainable, for positive,” Amos stated in a Crew USA report after successful at Crans-Montana. “That is my fourth season within the under-23 class, so I’ve had 4 years to develop as an athlete bodily and mentally.”
After the win in Switzerland, Amos returned dwelling to the US to relaxation for a number of weeks to be contemporary for his journey to France, the place the US males look to attain a medal in mountain biking for the primary time.
The 25-year-old Blevins completed 14th within the XCO contest in Tokyo. He’s eighth total on this yr’s World Cup standings, based mostly largely on his victory in Mairiporã, Brazil in April, however spent the final two weeks at a coaching camp in Annecy, France to arrange for his second Video games.
When is the Paris Olympics males’s mountain bike cross nation?
The boys’s race begins on July 29 at 14:10 CET or 8:10 EDT. Discover out find out how to watch biking on the Paris Olympics
Males’s MTB Begin Checklist
- Maximilian Foidl (Austria)
- Pierre de Froidmont (Belgium)
- Jens Schuermans (Belgium)
- Ulan Bastos Galinski (Brazil)
- Gunnar Holmgren (Canada)
- Martin Vidaurre Kossmann (Chile)
- Diego Alfonso Arias Cuervo (Colombia)
- Ondrej Cink (Czechia)
- Simon Andreassen (Denmark)
- Joni Savaste (Finland)
- Victor Koretzky (France)
- Jordan Sarrou (France)
- Julian Schelb (Germany)
- Luca Schwarzbauer (Germany)
- Charlie Aldridge (Nice Britain)
- Tom Pidcock (Nice Britain)
- Tomer Zaltsman (Israel)
- Simone Avondetto (Italy)
- Luca Braidot (Italy)
- Martins Blums (Latvia)
- Romano Puentener (Liechtenstein)
- Adair Zabdiel Gutierrez Prieto (Mexico)
- Alex Miller (Namibia)
- Samuel Gaze (New Zealand)
- Knut Roehme (Norway)
- Jiujiang Mi (China)
- Krzysztof Lukasik (Poland)
- Ede-Karoly Molnar (Romania)
- Alan Hatherly (South Africa)
- Jofre Cullell Estape (Spain)
- David Valero Serrano (Spain)
- Mathias Flueckiger (Switzerland)
- Nino Schurter (Switzerland)
- Oleksandr Hudyma (Ukraine)
- Riley Amos (United States)
- Christopher Blevins (United States)
