Start List for the Nove Mesto XC World Cup 2021

 The fact that they have stood together on cyclocross, road and mountain bike podiums in the last three-4 months is mental! So awesome.

 World Cup xc racing is getting more and more interesting every season!

 Think he can do top 3 this time...

 How does she sit down with stones that big?

 General standing gets a rider placed to start in the Short Track. Short Track result earns start placement for XCO (plus points).

So last week, Tom Pidcock was not qualified for Short Track, but his XCO performance earned him a ST start this week. His ST result this week earned him a start placement at the front for XCO. He will start all the future Short Track races this season.

 @Swervsroundsquirrels: ty but how do you explain the top 24 is the ST result list, but then it seem to include other criterias...

Exemples : PFP is 25th, but she didn't finished the ST (37 finishers), Jolanda Neff is 26th (she finished ST at the 35th place), Peter Disera finished 26th and Keegan Swenson 27th at the ST (they are 41th and 29th on the startlist), just how ?

 @Lolo-the-frenchie: Only first 3 rows of XCO race are determined by XCC, the rest is based on rankings. That means top24 finishers in XCC will start with numbers 1-24. PFP is the highest ranked rider to not finish top24 in XCC, so she starts with number 25. Hope that makes sense...

 @Jango997: Makes sense ty

 NCh means National Champ jersey
WCh means World Champ Jersey
CCh means Continental champ jersey
N means National jersey (no team sponsor)
WCL means World Cup leaders jersey.

 It indicates any riders wearing a special jersey of some type, where jersey = outfit. Wch = world champion, Nch = national champion, Wcl = world cup leader, Cch = continental champion. I'm not sure what the N is for. Maybe for riders who are not attached to UCI registered MTB trade teams? If you are curious you can examine the full list of 2021 UCI MTB trade teams at www.uci.org/mountain-bike/teams and see if the teams of the N riders are not on the list to check if my suggestion holds true.

 Awesome, thank you

 @mrousu: I'm splitting hairs here, but do you think the N designation means national "jersey", or just registering their entry under their national team? Using Pidcock for an example (solely because a huge amount of posts lately are related to him) he's wearing his Ineos Grenadiers jersey, which is not a national team jersey. However, since Ineos Grenadiers isn't a registered UCI trade team he probably needs the approval of his national federation to get on the entry list as a "national team member". Kind of one and the same thing for practical purposes I suppose. I actually think it's weird if non-team riders have to enter as national team riders but can then wear something other than the national team jersey during races. Kind of half in, half out.

 @Ginsu2000: yeah it is a bit weird with Tom, I can only speculate that because Ineos is a British team there must be an agreement that he has to wear their jersey. Also I think that all you need is a certain amount of UCI points to not have to wear the National jersey. If you don’t have enough points (I think it’s a lot more than previous years) you have to register with your country to enter.

 @mrousu: Thanks. Admittedly, I can't keep 100% track of all the rules and regs surrounding the sport these days. I'm not judging whether that's a good thing or bad thing since I guess they are manifestations of a desire by the UCI and national federations to make things as fair as possible in every situation. That's a good goal in principle, although there seem to be many misses mixed in with the hits. I'm just moaning about the complexity since it makes it more difficult for casual followers of the sport to stay engaged with the goings on.

 Top 24 are XCC order, then it's another ranking (WC standing or UCI standing). Otherwise how do you explain PFP, Neff Griot, Disera, Swenson...

 @Lolo-the-frenchie: That's exactly how it works (I looked it all up the other day!)

Top 40 riders in current World Cup standings get to race the XCC on Friday night - start position is based on their current world cup standing.

For XCO race on Sunday, first 24 places on the grid are determined by Friday night's XCC results, then for all other riders, their gridding position is based on their UCI standing.

For example - Gerhard Kerschbaumer is ranked 17th on current world cup standings, so he was allowed to ride the XCC race and started in 17th position on the grid (ie 3rd row).

He finished 28th in the XCC race on Friday night - ie outside the top 24 - so he hasn't earned a place on the front 3 rows of the XCC race start this week.

However, he is the highest UCI ranked rider in the rest of the field (4th in UCI standings), so he gets the 25th start position in XCC race. Stephane Tempier is the next highest UCI ranked rider (11th in UCI standings) so he starts in 26th position etc etc.

 @alpowell: This is not totally right.

As we still are in the qualification phase for the olympics game, the uci ranking which determinate place from 24 to the end (after xcc) is not base on the ranking you can find on the uci website.
It is based on a specific ranking which is the ranking from 2019 + the point from nove mesto/World champ 2020 + the point of albstadt / nove mesto race of 2021.

This is a nightmare to understand. Look at the current ranking uci in the women field and look at the start list, you will see the big trouble this rule made.

 @bohemi: Thanks, I'd forgotten to mention there's a temporary, different UCI points allocation system being applied during the Olympic selection period due to Covid - ie it's a total nightmare!