It's XCO MTB SZN Again
The 2023 UCI XCO Mountain Bike World Cup kicks off this weekend in Nove Mesto
It’s mid-May, which can only mean one thing.
Well, actually, it can mean a lot of things depending on what you’re into and where you’re at in life. The first of the three Grand Tours is underway, the NBA and NHL Playoffs are heating up, and some folks are graduating from college and looking forward to the next phase of their lives.
But here at the Bulletin, mid-May only means one thing—the proper start of UCI XCO World Cup Mountain Biking series.
Like the Classics and the Grand Tours, the XCO World Cup series comes every year in generally the same form, but with only seven or eight races, it brings a heightened level of excitement every year thanks to its brevity (remember when we did that in cyclocross? *sigh*).
However, while the XCO World Cup Series is still the XCO World Cup Series, there are some new things for the 2023 season. First off, it’s not technically the XCO World Cup Series, it’s the UCI MOUNTAIN BIKE WORLD SERIES. Related to the name change, long-time broadcast partner Red Bull is gone, with Warner Brothers Discovery Sports purchasing the broadcast rights. Finally, the World Championships are going to be a bit different this year, with the event taking place in mid-August at the first-ever UCI Mega Worlds being hosted in Glasgow.
If all of these new things are a bit much for you—and we all know how resistant cyclocross folks can be to change—fear not, because like pretty much every other year, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot and Nino Schurter are again going to be wearing the rainbow stripes this season. We wouldn’t want too many things to change, now would we.
The Schedule
The 2023 UCI XCO World Cup features a full eight-race schedule this season, with the World Championships in early August adding a ninth race to the international calendar. The series kicks off this weekend at Nove Mesto in the Czech Republic.
In recent history, the World Cup series has kicked off either with a non-European race in early spring—such as the race in Petropolis, Brazil last spring—or with the one-two duo of Albstadt, Germany, and Nove Mesto, Czech Republic. Nove Mesto has the pole position for the calendar this year, but Albstadt is not hosting.
After a one-off to start the calendar, the series heads to the mountains for three races in four weeks in Lenzerheide, Leogang, and Val di Sole. Following the World Championships in early August, Andorra hosts in late August, then a race at a new venue in Haute-Savoie, France, before the series concludes at Snowshoe and Mont-Sainte-Anne in late September, early October.
While it is awesome that the series features a full schedule, and early fall is a perfect time to be in the eastern part of North America, it is again a bummer to see disciplines creep out of their respective lanes (’M lkng @ u grvl). For real, the Byrds wrote an entire song about how the Spring Classics are in March and April, Mountain Biking goes from May to early September, and then cyclocross runs from September through February. Pete Seeger is looking down and shaking his head.
The full schedule is below. As in years past, the XCC Short Track races take place on Friday, and the Elite XCO races are on Sunday. The schedule shifts back a day at Worlds, with the XCC races on Thursday, August 10, and the XCO races on Saturday, August 12.
What’s New
One of the biggest pieces of news to hit the mountain bike world in recent years was the announcement that Warner Brothers Discovery would be taking over the broadcast rights from long-time rights-holder Red Bull.
Despite its omnipresent reach into the extreme sports space, I don’t think folks who were upset necessarily had an affinity for the company or its energy drink. They did, however, have an affinity for the elite-level, accessible broadcasts that Red Bull provided for the community for free. Fans of the sport had come to get used to being able to surf over to redbull.tv and watch each and every World Cup XCC and XCO via productions that effectively showed the stories of the races despite the challenges of broadcasting in forests and on the sides of mountains.
Warner Brothers Discovery has big shoes to fill as it takes over the reins of the series through the 2030 season. Fortunately, from an accessibility issue, our favorite race streaming site GCN+ is part of the WBD “portfolio”—their corporate schlock, not mine—so if you don’t have to spring for a Discovery+ subscription if you already have the GCN Race Pass. Also, apparently, the races are supposed to be available via the new Mountain Bike World Series YouTube page, but I am not seeing the broadcasts right now, so maybe that’s a work in progress.
The other thing long-time mountain bike fans are no doubt wondering is if Rob Warner and Bart Brentjens will be back providing the soundtrack of the XCO World Cup series? Yes. At least halfsies. Bart is back providing color commentary, but Warner has been replaced by Ric McLaughlin in the broadcast booth. Warner’s guttural “Ohs” will no doubt be missed. Kate Mason is listed as the “anchor” for the pre- and post-race commentary for the broadcasts.
Ah yes, let us not forget about the new Mountain Bike World Series. I’m a bit surprised Major League Baseball’s lawyers haven’t called yet, so we’ll see if the name sticks.
The general gist of the MTB World Series appears to be to host the XCO, downhill, marathon, and enduro World Cups at the same venues on the same weekends. The downhill and XCO events have generally run in tandem in the past, and the new format will add XCM (marathon) and EDR (enduro) events on some of the weekends as well.
Finally, as mentioned in the intro, 2023 is the first of the UCI’s new Mega Worlds experiment. The event runs a total of 11 days from August 3 to 13, with the XCC Championships taking place on Thursday, August 10, and the XCO Championships on Saturday, August 12th.
It’s worth noting that the Elite Men’s Road Race is on Sunday the 6th, so I think I speak for everyone in being infinitely disappointed in Mathieu and Pidders if they don’t go for the double World Championship. I mean, they’ll already be there! All they have to do is pack an extra bike.
Elite Women’s Preview
The 2022 XCO World Cup was really a tale of four seasons.
The first season was Rebecca Henderson (nee McConnell) Szn. On the Media Pit podcast, Henderson became the Laurens Sweeck of mountain biking as we oft pondered her ELITE status. She put that debate to rest in emphatic fashion by winning the Petropolis season opener, and then returning in May to win at both Albstadt and Nove Mesto. Henderson was unable to replicate that level of success the rest of the season, but for three races, it was one heckuva run.
When the series headed to the mountains of Switzerland and Austria, bah gawd, it was Loana Lecomte’s music. Lecomte, who made a massive splash on the Elite World Cup scene in 2021 by winning the first four races by an average margin of 1:20, got off to a slow start in 2022 but then returned to her winning ways at Lenzerheide and Leogang.
The final act of the 2022 season was winning time for Pauline Ferrand-Prevot. The now-four-time XCO World Champion did not have the best season prior to the World Championships as she did not finish on an XCO podium during the first five World Cups. However, when it’s winning time, the best rise to the top and Ferrand-Prevot did so in a massive way last year.
She won the Short Track World Championship in the home-country race in Les Gets, and then won the Cross-Country race two days later. For good measure, she also added a Marathon World Championship, and she won the first-ever Gravel World Championships in Italy for good measure. Four rainbow jerseys in 42 days is pretty darned impressive, but probably not surprising from the only athlete to ever consolidate the Road, Mountain Bike, and Cyclocross rainbow jerseys.
After a 2021 season that had a grand total of 2 World Cup / World Championships winners (Lecomte and Evie Richards), the bigger story of 2022 was a broader distribution of race winners. Henderson, Lecomte, Ferrand-Prevot, Jolanda Neff, Anne Terpstra and Alessandra Keller all won races last year, which is the highest number of different winners in recent memory (it certainly helped there were 9 World Cups—there were 5 different winners in 2018 across 8 total races).
It is fitting Terpstra and Keller both got wins last season, with both having monster seasons. Terpstra won a World Cup at Vallnord in 2019 and took silver at 2021 Worlds, and to continue that 2021 Worlds success, she racked up 3 podium podium finishes in 2022 with a win at Vallnord, a silver at Petropolis, and a bronze at Snowshoe.
Keller, the 2018 U23 World Champion, scored a memorable 3rd-place ride on home soil at Lenzerheide, and then took the win at Snowshoe. She also added a Short Track win at Vallnord.
Three wild cards coming into the 2023 season are three former world champions.
After impressive 2017 and 2018 campaigns, Jolanda Neff has struggled to find the consistent form that carried her to the 2017 World Championship and 3 World Cup wins in 2018. After suffering a serious injury while mountain biking in North Carolina in 2020, she has shown flashes of brilliance such as *checks notes* an Olympic gold medal ride and her win at Mont-Sainte-Anne last August. Neff finished 7th in a stacked at last weekend’s Okk Bike Revolution race, so after turning 30 this year, it’s looking more like her role in the Women’s field is being a threat to win any given weekend versus becoming a dominant force in every race. IDK.
The second former WCWC is an old Friend of Cyclocross, Evie Richards. Richards made a big splash at the Elite level in 2021, winning the World Championships in just her second year as an Elite racer. Unfortunately, she was unable to play an encore in 2022 due to long-term, lingering low back pain. Back pain sucks, and even riding a full squish bike can’t save you from the gnarly terrain World Cup mountain biking throws at you. After missing Lenzerheide and Leogang, Richards returned to decent form at the end of the season, finishing as high as 5th in the XCC race at Worlds.
Fortunately, like Gene Autry, Richards is back in the saddle again in 2023, and she appears to be on an upward trajectory after winning the Okk Bike Revolution pre-World-Cup tune-up last weekend.
The final wild card is 2018 World Champion Kate Courtney. After winning 2018 Worlds in an epic battle against mountain biking legend Annika Langvad, Courtney appeared to be the next star of the sport after winning three of the first four World Cups in the 2019 season. However, since Les Gets in 2019, Courtney has not finished on another World Cup or World Championships XCO podium since. She had a disappointing 2020 pandemic fortnight of racing and then injured her hand in a crash at Nove Mesto at the start of the 2021 season.
Courtney has been racing well so far this season, picking up a win at the US Cup in Fayetteville and then earning the U.S. one Olympic spot by winning the Pan-American Championships in Brazil in late April. If anyone is poised to be … BACK … in 2023, it’s definitely everyone’s favorite producer of sparkle watts.
Speaking of Americans, after Haley Batten had a Moment in 2021, it was Gwendalyn Gibson’s turn to shine in 2022. Gwinnie the Pooh raced well in the XCO races last season, but she really made her mark in the Short Track series. A year after Christopher Blevins’ memorable win at Snowshoe, Gibson continued the U.S. streak by winning the Short Track race in 2022. She then followed that result up with a 3rd-place finish in the XCC race at Worlds in Les Gets.
Gibson was rewarded for her success with a contract with Trek Factory Racing. I know TFR doesn’t really do cyclocross anymore, but with Gibson’s success in short-track racing, one has to wonder how she would look on a ‘cross bike 🤔. [Ed note: After Batten’s ride in the XCC race today … *sigh*, if only]
Finally, no Elite Women’s World Cup preview would be complete without a mention of wunderkind Mona Mitterwallner. After winning ALL THE THINGS in the U23 category in 2021, Mittenwalner leveled up to the Elites and did pretty well. She scored a podium finish at Albstadt in the second race of the year, but then she kind of hit a lull in the middle part of the season. Mitterwallner came into the season with a crazy amount of hype, so it was hard to not expect continued podium finishes the rest of the season. Which was perhaps a bit unfair.
She capped the season with a 2nd-place finish at Snowshoe, and at the old, old age of 21, she obviously has plenty of time to rack up plenty of Elite wins as she grows at the Elite level.
Elite Men
Now look, I’m not going to be presumptuous and assume that LeBron James watches international mountain biking, but with Reggie Miller an ambassador for the sport, it’s not outside the realm of possibility. As I type this, old man LeBron is on the verge of carrying the Lakers to the Western Conference Finals at age 38. No one really expected James and the Lakers to be in this position, but after old man Nino Schurter won his 10th World Championship at age 36, who’s to say LeBron didn’t derive just a little bit of motivation from his fellow Masters athlete?
What more is there to say about Schurter at this point? After a down 2020 fortnight of racing in 2020 when some people were saying he might be done, Schurter bounced back by winning Worlds in 2021 in an epic, epic battle against Matias Fluckiger, and then he had a really solid 2022 campaign that he capped with another World Championship.
The big thing folks will be watching with Schurter this season is if he can finally, finally break his tie with Julian Absalon for the most World Cup wins of all time. After pulling within one in 2019, Schurter finally drew even with Absalon by winning in Petropolis last spring. He came close in Leogang, losing by 6 seconds in Fluckiger, and then had an unfortunate incident on home soil at Lenzerheide when Fluckiger got way too argy-bargy and the two crashed out, allowing Luca Braidot to get the win.
Old Man Time stands undefeated, but with Masters basketball players LeBron, Steph Curry, and Baby Master Jimmy Butler balling out in the playoffs this year, I am not one to count Schurter out from taking sole possession of the record.
Speaking of Fluckiger, that man has had a year. And not the best kind of year. Fluckiger had probably the best season of his professional career in 2021 in winning two World Cups and coming within closing the door on Schurter on like the third to last turn of winning the World Championships.
Fluckiger had a slow start to the 2022 season in Petropolis but then started racing well at Albstadt, where he podiumed, and Leogang, where he won. Then in August, he got busted for doping. It was huge bummer for everyone that he tested positive for a banned substance, but it was definitely believable because he did have the best season of his career at age 32.
But then in December, his suspension was lifted by the Swiss Olympic Disciplinary Committee when the organization ruled that the amount of Zeranol in his system was too small to be considered a positive test.
With Fluckiger back, hopefully the Lenzerheide dust-up will turn into a little Swiss-on-Swiss beef as Schurter chases his record-setting World Cup win. After all, we like beef. What’s cycling without a little beef?
Cyclocross fans will no doubt be heartened to know Tom Pidcock is starting his 2023 mountain bike campaign from the get-go this season. Pidcock farted out of ‘Cross Worlds (boo) to focus on the Spring Classics in a move that seems to have paid off. Pidcock won Strade Bianche, finished 3rd at Amstel Gold and 2nd at Liege-Bastogne-Liege. For the time being, he is picking up the fat, knobby tires as he gets some MTB reps in, with a focus on the World Championships in August.
Pidcock won the tune-up at the Okk Bike Revolution in Switzerland last weekend, so after winning both Albstadt and Nove Mesto last year, anything but a win on Sunday would be a disappointment for our guy who was reportedly born to mountain bike. [Ed. note: Clearly not winning the XCC race on Friday also would have been a disappointment. Disaster averted.]
To be honest, this focus on the recurring characters in the Bulletin mountain bike narrative really buries the lede from the 2022 season. Just as with the women, six different dudes won World Cups last year. We’ve talked about Pidders, Nino, and Flucki, and joining them were Luca Braidot of Italy, Titouan Carod of France, and the tallest man in mountain biking, David Valero of Spain.
All three of Braidot-Carod-Valero trio had career years in 2022.
Carod finished 4th at Albstadt and then appeared to be headed to the mountain bike equivalent of the moon at Worlds after finishing 2nd at Snowshoe and winning at Mont-Sainte-Anne prior to worlds. Unfortunately, like crypto, he had a huge crash at Worlds, finishing a disappointing 51st. Unlike FTX, there was a redemption story for Carod when he bounced back with a win at Val di Sole to close out the season.
Prior to the 2022 season, the best results of Luca Braidot’s Elite mountain biking career were likely a 2nd at the 2018 European Championships and a 3rd at the Tokyo test event in late 2019. Outside those results, it is tough to find results that presaged the run Braidot went on in the final 2/3 of the 2022 season.
He no doubt benefitted from the Swiss-on-Swiss argy-bargyness at Lenzerheide, but he then showed that was not a fluke by also winning at Vallnord. He then continued with a 3rd at Snowshoe and a bronze at the World Championships. Braidot returns in 2023 as part of the Santa Cruz Rock Shox team, so West Coasters and Tobin Ortenblad likely have a soft spot in their hearts for his success to continue.
The final breakout winner of 2022 was David Valero of Spain. Valero turned 34 in December, so he is also tapping into that fountain of youth with a late-career resurgence. Valero had good World Cup seasons in 2016 and 2017, but he really tipped his hand of where 2022 was headed when he took the bronze at the Tokyo Olympics.
Similar to Braidot, Valero came on strong in July. He took 2nd at Vallnord and then took the win at Snowshoe at the end of July. He then finished 3rd at Mont-Sainte-Anne and capped his late-summer run with a 2nd-place finish at Worlds in Les Gets. As he heads into 2023, Valero is another rider hoping to tap into those age-is-just-another vibes LeBron, Steph, and company are giving off this May.
One final rider who had a standout 2022 at the Elite level is Vlad Dascalu of Romania. Coming into the 2022 season, Dascalu was a mere trivia answer thanks to his 17th-place finish at Nove Mesto in 2021 that gave Great Britain a spot at the 2021 Olympics and thus basically gave Tom Pidcock his Olympic gold medal.
As it turns out, however, young Dascalu is more than just a trivia answer. He made a big splash at the start of the season with three-straight podiums at Petropolis, Albstadt, and Nove Mesto. Dascalu did not reach the podium the rest of the World Cup season, but he was constantly knocking at the door on a consistent basis. At just 25 years old, Dascalu’s stock appears to be on the rise, so it would not be surprising to see him start the 2023 season as he did a year ago.
The final rider of note here is Chilean phenom Martin Vidaurre. Vidaurre was the Mona Mitterwallner of the Men’s U23 field in 2022, winning 8 of 9 World Cups and the World Championships. Vidaurre ages up to the Elites this year, which gives him an opportunity to be at the vanguard of a new generation in an aging Elite Men’s field.
Great write up - I am not surprised. Equally unsurprised that having been given the unbeatable red bull template for covering MTBing we get an inferior product, a lead commentator who seems to lack knowledge - ( been a while since Neff was the woman to beat - maybe PFPs stripes are a clue) - and who mentions tech features - dropper post anyone? In lieu of dropping actual knowledge. We will see but I am not convinced. ( Proper marathon coverage will be cool though) The good news is that U.K. Corner is alive and well with Pidders and Evie showing out and Pinarello have given PFP a bike that works more reliably than her CX bike.
Great writeup and very thorough but must visit corrections corner. Rob Hatch is seemingly omnipresent on Eurosport / GCN he did not do the RedBull MTB series. That was Rob Warner who was equally over the top at times but like Phil Ligget a voice that seemed to belong with the sport. And judging by the XCC coverage there is work to be done as in no spoilers and explaim weird anomalies like the XCC world champion not making the 40 rider start list (Gaze got it due to a late scratch). Same with Pidders which makes the UCI’s start qualifying a bit suspect given the result huh?