Crans-Montana MTB World Cup Preview

We have a new World Cup course on tap in the Swiss Alps this week. The Crans-Montana, Valais, track features steady, long climbs on a mix of tarmac and dirt in the first half of the course and some fast descending and tricky technical features in the second half.

The track may be new to the World Cup circuit, but it’s a known entity for Swiss riders, having served as their National Championship track in 2023.

If you’ve seen any recon or practice videos from Crans-Montana, they probably focus on the technical bits and the tricky rock drops. We’ve seen some gnarly crashes on these sections, and with rain in the forecast, the conditions could get even rowdier by the time the racing starts.

One of the parts of XCO racing I love is that the race process starts early in the week. Unlike cyclocross, where your elite riders can show up to a venue, put in four or five laps and have their lines more or less dialed for the race, XCO is a multi-day process.

Most teams start with a Wednesday track walk, especially at a new venue like Crans-Montana, to see exactly what the race organizers have in store. The next step is to reconnoiter the technical features and understand the strategy for getting through the sections safely and ultimately fast.

It is not uncommon to see full-on team meetings taking place at these features during the first official practice sessions of a World Cup week. Riders will line the feature, waiting for anyone brave enough to take it on. Coaches will stand in the middle of the track and impersonate Sir Simon Rattle, conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, to convey the complex intricacies of successfully navigating the feature. There may be more observation than riding during these first few hours, but eventually, everyone takes a crack at the feature and starts to find their comfort zone.

I remember when they first put the big drop into the Albstadt track. It was gnarly. People were crashing left and right, and adding the feature to the course initially seemed ridiculous. But lap-by-lap, day-by-day, everyone figured it out, and now it’s just part of the course. It no longer seems ridiculous, but it is still something you have to concentrate on every lap.

This will be the same with the Crans-Montana features. They will always be challenging, but as the riders get more reps, they will dial in the lines and start ripping through these sections.

Until it rains. If it rains, all bets are off for this track.

The Pivot Cycles-OTE squad has a great preview of the course, illustrating the process I’ve tried to describe.

Schedule

There are no downhill or junior races this weekend, so we return to racing elite XCC on Saturday and elite XCO on Sunday. The U23 XCC races are today, and the U23 men’s XCO race will be held on Saturday. According to the schedule below, the U23 XCO races will be televised.

Course Maps

Start Lists

Men’s Elite

Women’s Elite

Men’s U23

Women’s U23