Olympic MTB Qualification Ends This Weekend at Nove Mesto
Also, full UCI Cyclocross Calendar Published
The penultimate Olympic qualification rankings for mountain biking were posted today. In a few paragraphs, I will dive into where the U.S. stands going into the final weekend of qualifying and why that isn’t the most compelling story to watch.
Before we get to that I need to put my cyclocross hat on for a minute1. I believe it’s safe to say that you can thank the Media Pit for today’s release of the 2024-2025 UCI cyclocross calendar. Yesterday, we recorded an hour-long Cyclocross Radio podcast about the World Cup and U.S. calendars. We lamented how we didn’t know what was happening with the rest of the events, including the Superprestige and X20 series.
So it wasn’t a big surprise when I saw the post from our friends at Cyclocross24 that the entire calendar was now available, not 12 hours after we recorded. Despite not having all the information, we had a good conversation about what we can look forward to this coming season. I should have that show edited and posted in a few days. In the meantime, head over to Cyclocross24 for the entire calendar.
Now, let’s talk about mountain biking. If you’ve been following along, we are tracking the nation rankings to see if the U.S. will secure one or two start spots for the men’s Olympic MTB race2.
Last week, the U.S. jumped to fifth in the rankings on the strength of Riley Amos’ and Christopher Blevins’ performances at the Pan-American Championships.
After the penultimate weekend, the top seven spots remained the same. However, on the strength of Simon Andreassen’s resurgence, Denmark leapfrogged Brazil and Great Britain to snag the final spot in the top eight. If you’re going to watch anyone at Nove Mesto, keep tabs on Andreassen and Sebastian Fini for Denmark.
To regain a spot in the top eight, Brazil is counting on Alex Junior Malacarne, who has reached the World Cup U23 podium, Jose Gabriel Marques De Almeda, who finished 60th and 86th in the first two world cups, and Ulan Bastos Galinski, who finished fifth at Pan-Ams and has a top 20 in the most recent World Cup.
On the other hand, Great Britain has the Olympic and World Champ making his World Cup MTB debut for 2024. With Tom Pidcock on the start line, GB is almost assured a decent points haul over the weekend. GB will also have Charlie Aldridge, who scored a 13th-place finish in Brazil and was fourth at the European Championships in the short track.
With apologies to Brazil, who I think will end up on the outside (of the top 8) looking in, the battle for that final place will be between Denmark and GB. Less than 100 points separate the two nations. For GB, this is a battle to get Aldridge a ticket to Paris. I don’t know what the GB selection criteria look like, but I’m going to guess that winning the most recent world championship and Olympics gets you an auto bid3. Pidcock is racing for Aldridge to go to the Olympics.
It’s a little trickier for Denmark, but I would bet Andreassen’s World Cup win gives him the upper hand over Fini. Those two will both be going all out, but really, all they need to do is keep within 100 points of Pidcock and they both are in and Aldridge is out.
As far as the U.S. men go, it will be tough for them to drop out of the top eight. There just aren’t enough points on offer for Germany, Belgium, and Denmark (or GB) to overtake the U.S. And with Amos’ and Blevins’ performances so far in the World Cup season, the odds the pair scores no points are pretty low. They also have Bjorn Riley, who has had top-five performances all season, helping the point-chasing cause.
Interestingly, the 7-9 spots are also held by Denmark, GB and Brazil on the women's side. Denmark is in a good place with close to a 2000-point lead over GB. However, fewer than 300 points separate GB from Brazil and Evie Richards will not be racing. Isla Short is the only registered GB racer eligible to score points. And, since it looks like Annie Last hasn’t been racing, Short is basically defending her spot on the Olympic squad against Raiza Goulao Henrique and Karen Fernandes Olimpio.
The other compelling battle for the women is between South Africa and Slovenia. South Africa is holding on to the final automatic spot by less than 100 points over Slovenia. Nations finishing 9-19 receive one start spot in Paris.
One other interesting note is that Mathieu van der Poel announced this week he will not be participating in the MTB race at the Olympics. Because the Netherlands did not earn a spot for him to race, the nation is currently ranked 27th; van der Poel would be relying on a wild card invitation that the organizers would be crazy not to extend to him. [EDIT: Thanks to commenter Jan Buxton for correcting me on this. Tom Schellekens 5th place at U23 Worlds earned Netherlands a spot. This is similar to how Frazer Clacherty’s 14th place at the 2019 U23 World Championships earned a spot for GB and allowed Tom Pidcock to race and win gold. Van der Poel’s decision means that Jens Schuermans, who is currently ranked 19th will most likely get the Dutch nod.]
As far as those wild card spots go, we should know who gets those coveted final spots (we’re all assuming one will go to Peter Sagan) after this weekend.
That’s it for now. I’ll follow up soon with Nove Mesto starting lists.
They are the same hat. I own one hat.
The U.S. women locked in their two spots so we will again focus on the men until those spots are locked down.
Per Jan Buxton in the comments: GB team selection policy is here https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/zuvvi/media/media/press/Paris_2024_Olympic_Games_Selection_Policy_v2.pdf. Not the fixed criteria that US has, just “we'll consider these criteria and pick who we want based on that.”
Tom Schellekens 5th place at U23 Worlds had qualified Netherlands/MVDP a place.
GB team selection policy is here https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/zuvvi/media/media/press/Paris_2024_Olympic_Games_Selection_Policy_v2.pdf
Not the fixed criteria that US has, just we'll consider these criteria and pick who we want based on that.
Pucks back!