5 Things We Learned at Snowshoe XC World Cup 2019
The final World Cup in Snowshoe provided some extraordinary racing all weekend and the XC was no exception. Here are five things we noticed from the sidelines.
1. Nino Schurter will have to wait until next year to break Julien Absalon's record 33 wins.
Not many riders can be as dominant as Nino Schurter and despite some early-season results that suggested he wasn't up to speed the Swiss rider has proved he is still one of the greatest XC riders. Schurter took the overall for the seventh time just a week after securing his 8th World Championships title and he also took his first-ever XCC short track win. He may not have taken his 33rd World Cup win after teammate Lars Forster sprinted past him just before the line but to comes back from a 30-second deficit after a puncture and be back at the front of the race shows the incredible nature of his riding talent. We can't wait to see what he will bring to 2020.
2. The women's field is deeper than ever.
The fight for the top five spots in the overall came down to the final race and Snowshoe was the host to the thrilling conclusion to one of the most exciting seasons of racing in recent years. There was a whole host of riders who could take the win with some incredible displays of prowess from the top women, including wins from Kate Courtney, Pauline Ferrand Prevot, Jenny Rissveds and Anne Terpstra and podiums from Jolanda Neff, Haley Smith, Rebecca McConnell, Elisabeth Brandau, Anne Tauber, Sina Frei and more. Kate Courtney was the standout rider for the first half of the season, with three World Cup wins, while Pauline Ferrand Prevot wrapped up the season strong with two World Cup wins and the World Championship title.
3. Mathieu Van Der Poel's second place overall comes despite missing two rounds.
He may have missed the two World Cups but the Dutch rider still had an impressive second-place finish in the Elite Men's overall showing his dominance in both the XCC Short Track and the XCO. MVDP won every XCC he entered this year and managed to take two XCO wins as well. His main goal for 2020 will be the Olympic Gold and it is rumoured he will then switch permanently to road riding but we hope he stays in mountain biking for a little while longer because he could be the sport's next greatest rider.
4. Plenty of punctures.
It has been a while since we saw so many punctures in a race and the finale in Snowshoe provided plenty of drama as some of the top riders suffered from flat tyres. Ondrej Cink truly had a disaster of a Sunday when he flatted twice and ended what had been a great season with a 54th place. A number of riders have begun using inserts in their tyres but it seems it was not enough against the American rocks as even Schurter who is widely known to use protection in his tyres suffered from a puncture that saw him fighting for the lead.
5. The track may not have been technical but it did provide great racing.
Coming from Mont-Sainte-Anne any XC track is going to look disappointing but in Snowshoe's defense, we did get some intense racing despite the lack of technical features. With the incredibly fast lap times, racers were probably glad they didn't have to face anything too challenging after blasting up one of the many steep climbs on track. At least we did get to see some technical sections and it wasn't quite as bad as the gravel and wooden bridges we saw at Albstadt. For 2020, we have riders battling it out on a brand new course for the Tokyo Olympics and it will be interesting to see if they can make a course to test riders.
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USAC May have invested in XC racing in the last couple of years. Before that, their “support” of the Olympic level XC racing was almost nothing. They’re while line about our membership dues going to support that was absolute crap.
Look at this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrbgzoPCdHc&frags=pl%2Cwn
He should stick to XC!
From there, trying to contend for shorter stage races like Paris-Nice is a realistic next step to see if he can contend with the sport's best stage racing specialists.
The kid has a ton of talent, but road racing is so specialized, he's going to have to focus if he wants to win even as much, say as Erik Dekker.
I fully agree with the bigger one-day classics and that he will really have to focus to change to be a GC rider.
That said, I think he can do it, if it is what he ultimately wants to do.
Inserts add weight, but little to no rolling resistance. Weight is less of a problem than rolling resistance, and stronger casings add both weight and rolling resistance - especially the latter.
It's a gamble. Teams try to get away with the fastest, lightest set-up that will survive the race. Usually the gamble pays off. Sometimes it doesn't.
That said, there's a lot at stake and there has to be a way to make light, fast tires that survive better than this.
Overall the light tire + insert system seems great. But hopefully the tires themselves can get better too.
And I agree with an earlier point about more races; the World Cup is about 30 years old, yet still can't manage a season with a decent number of races, i;e 10 - 12. The UCI are obviously asking too much for their hosting fees. When will they wake up?
We knew that before Snowshoe... If he had won in Snowshoe he would only have tied Julien Absalon's record of 33 wins... To "break" that record he needs 34 wins!
I'd list reasons it would make sense (ie: be financially viable and spectator worthy) but I'd run out of ink. For starters, the area has no shortage of helicopters.
Honestly it's pretty cool to see how many people made it out to such an isolated location. Wish I could have made it!
heard mama screamin, knew somethin wasn't right
he was headed down to knoxville with the weekly load
you could smell the whiskey burnin down copperhead roooooad
Albstadt - DNE (Did Not Enter)
Nove Mesto - 116th
Vallnord - 83rd
Les Gets - 94th
Val Di Sole - 47th
Lenzerheide - DNF
Mont St. Anne - DNE
Snowshoe - DNE
Ever since that crash at the Cape Epic he hasn't been the same on a MTB.
May be the best thing he can do for himself.