Peter Sagan’s Olympic MTB hopes seem gone as Slovakia misses qualification

Peter Sagan’s longshot to make it to the Olympic Games in mountain bike look like over as Slovakia didn’t climb excessive sufficient within the UCI rankings earlier than the tip of the qualification interval on Sunday.

Slovakia was thirty fifth within the UCI MTB Olympic Qualification Ranking revealed at the moment, effectively exterior the highest 19 nations which earn automated entry to the cross nation race in Paris.

Sagan’s efforts to qualify a spot for Paris have been hampered by irregular coronary heart rhythms which required him to cease racing twice for procedures. He returned to racing on the Tour de Hongrie however didn’t compete within the final qualifying race, the Nove Mesto World Cup, this weekend, the place World and Olympic champion Tom Pidcock received forward of Switzerland’s Nino Schurter.

Switzerland topped the boys’s rankings forward of host nation France, whose automated entry for the XCO races can be reallocated as a result of they certified two positions as a part of the highest eight nations within the rankings.

But, even with the reallocation, Slovakia is just too far down the rankings to be awarded the spot, which is able to almost definitely go to twentieth place Israel.

Italy, Spain, the United States, Germany, Belgium and Great Britain all certified two entries for the boys’s XCO occasion in Paris.

Brazil, Denmark, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Austria, Norway, Chile, Poland, Romania and Czechia every certified one place.

The standards additionally award one spot to the profitable nation of the 2023 Asia, American and African Continental Championships, in the event that they have not already certified by the UCI rankings. If they’ve, the following nation from every continent within the UCI rankings is awarded the entry.

Mexico’s Geraldo Ulloa Arevalo and China’s Lyu Xianjing received the American and Asian championships in 2023, whereas South Africa, already certified, received Africa’s. The subsequent nation from Africa within the UCI rankings, Namibia, ought to get the spot.

Next, the highest two nations that have not already certified from the UCI MTB World Championships within the elite and under-23 races every get one place.

For the boys, Latvia’s Martins Blums (eleventh) and Colombia’s Diego Arias (forty eighth) have been the highest two within the elites and the Netherlands’ Tom Schellekens and Sweden’s Andre Eriksson the highest within the under-23s.

Mathieu van der Poel has opted to not compete within the MTB occasions on the Paris Olympics, opening the door for Schellekens or a teammate to compete.

On the ladies’s aspect, Switzerland additionally topped the UCI MTB Olympic Qualification Ranking, with France, the USA, Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Denmark and Great Britain incomes two locations.

Germany, Brazil, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Czechia, Poland, Estonia, Ukraine, Portugal and South Africa rounded out the highest 19 to every get one place.

China earned a spot due to Li Hongfeng’s win within the Continental Championships in India in October. South Africa and the USA received the African and American championships. Mauritius and Mexico look like the next-ranked nations to take these entries.

Slovenia and Spain have been next-best within the elite girls’s UCI World Championships in Glasgow, whereas New Zealand and Hungary topped the not-yet-qualified nations within the under-23s.