Exciting XC Racing? Is that a thing?

[Roxtar]

Hells yes it was.
Damn, I wish I didn't know who won ahead of time. What a badass move and finish.
Pidcock ain't human.

[Thaleia]

I can honestly admit even on my Glory with eight inches of travel some of those features would intimidate me.

Super fun to watch them fly over that chunk like it's a tiny log over.

[jackstraw]

I'm having a hard time comprehending how much faster the woman who won was and the Brit making up 20 seconds? from the flat won. How can they be so much stronger than all the other elites?

Our American girl lives in SC these days so I creeped on her strava page. She doesn't post that often, but a few of the gnarly DH trails here she is ripping fast on an XC bike. She's not just an Up machine, she is a well rounded mtn biker.

[Roxtar]

How about Pidcock making up 45 seconds to retake the lead, loosing it again, and still having enough gas to pull off the sprint win?!
Like I said, not human.

[toast2266]

I'm having a hard time comprehending how much faster the woman who won was and the Brit making up 20 seconds? from the flat won. How can they be so much stronger than all the other elites?

Our American girl lives in SC these days so I creeped on her strava page. She doesn't post that often, but a few of the gnarly DH trails here she is ripping fast on an XC bike. She's not just an Up machine, she is a well rounded mtn biker.

At least for the women, my understanding is that Ferrand-Prevot basically built her entire schedule around the Olympics. She knew she was on the Olympic team last fall, so all her winter training was timed to peak at the Olympics, and she skipped a couple world cups to make sure she didn't wear herself out.

That's an advantage over some of the other women who were still battling to be on their Olympic team so were going hard all spring. I remember years ago talking to an Olympic swimmer who basically said that the Olympic selection process is terrible because it forces everyone to peak at the Olympic trials to get on the team, and then by the time the actual Olympics come around their bodies are just destroyed.

Not to take anything away from PFP's performance and win. She definitely put on a show.

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[XtrPickels]

. She doesn't post that often, but a few of the gnarly DH trails here she is ripping fast on an XC bike. She's not just an Up machine, she is a well rounded mtn biker.

This cannot be stated enough - both on men's and women's side.
The junior riders in Boulder rip gnarly trails on Hardtails / 100mm xc bikes. It's pretty incredible to see.
Many of the riders can send the XL DJ lines while on their way to their hill repeats.

XC seems like it has become polarized - instead of somewhat rocky / rooty throughout the course, it's now groomed / smooth / flowy until it's crazy technical.

[XtrPickels]

At least for the women, my understanding is that Ferrand-Prevot basically built her entire schedule around the Olympics. She knew she was on the Olympic team last fall, so all her winter training was timed to peak at the Olympics, and she skipped a couple world cups to make sure she didn't wear herself out.

That's an advantage over some of the other women who were still battling to be on their Olympic team so were going hard all spring. I remember years ago talking to an Olympic swimmer who basically said that the Olympic selection process is terrible because it forces everyone to peak at the Olympic trials to get on the team, and then by the time the actual Olympics come around their bodies are just destroyed.

Not to take anything away from PFP's performance and win. She definitely put on a show.

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She's the only rider - as far as I know - who was Road, Mountain, and Cyclocross World Champion in the same year (2015).

[toast2266]

She's the only rider - as far as I know - who was Road, Mountain, and Cyclocross World Champion in the same year (2015).

Oh, she's insanely fast. Not surprising at all that she won. More just commenting that the margin of her win could be at least somewhat contributed to her primarily focusing on an Olympic win while most of the other contenders have been on a full schedule of racing.

[Boissal]

Oh, she's insanely fast. Not surprising at all that she won. More just commenting that the margin of her win could be at least somewhat contributed to her primarily focusing on an Olympic win while most of the other contenders have been on a full schedule of racing.

This is clearly part of why she crushed the field. She made it clear a year ago she wanted that gold and cared about nothing else. She trained specifically for it, only entered 2 world cups (which she crushed), and peaked exactly when she needed to. In this scenario she's completely untouchable. Still an incredible win, but you gotta give someone like Alessandra Keller some serious props for finishing 7th after only finding out she was going to the olympics when Jolanda dropped out about 2 weeks ago.

[Roxtar]

Just curious, did anyone here watch the men's race?
I mean, yes PFP leading from start to finish is impressive but not particularly interesting to watch. The men's last 3 laps was the most exciting XC race I've ever watched.

[skaredshtles]

Just curious, did anyone here watch the men's race?

I casually watched it...

[EWG]

The women's race was outstanding, and then the men's race was the best bike race I've watched in years. Excellent work, Olympics.

And a shoutout to the future - Amos got seventh as a 22yo. Bjorn wasn't able to get past Blevens into the Oly team, but he's been just behind Amos in the U23s all year, and he won the US Championships by 2-3 minutes a week or two ago to earn the right to wear stars and bars for the next year. Those two go senior next year, and apparently they will both be representing the US quite well.

This may be the fastest generation of US riders we've ever had.

[g_man80]

I watched the majority of it. Full replay is available here:
https://tiz-cycling.io/video/olympic...xco-full-race/

[jackstraw]

I casually watched it...

Same.

I feel like there were probably moments in the back of the pack where some good racing was going on but they focus on the leaders. Maybe it was me or my view, but I would like to have seen the Brit make all the passes he did to get back to the leaders, but generally speaking it's not that exciting to watch when comparing to a DH race imo. And that course looked kinda bland and I'm not a fan of those manmade features.

[Skistack]

Howard Grotts was seriously injured in a crash on the final stage of Breck Epic. He was found unconscious and airlifted to Denver, had surgery for multiple broken bones and faces a long road to recovery.

The founder of Breck Epic has setup a GoFundMe to help Howard and his family.

https://gofund.me/e9c0c612

[XtrPickels]

Howard Grotts was seriously injured in a crash on the final stage of Breck Epic. He was found unconscious and airlifted to Denver, had surgery for multiple broken bones and faces a long road to recovery.

The founder of Breck Epic has setup a GoFundMe to help Howard and his family.

https://gofund.me/e9c0c612

This is pretty crazy. Not sure anyone knows what happened as the chasing riders came across him unconscious on the trail.