The cross-country mountain bike competitions on the Paris Olympic Games happen on the opening weekend of the worldwide sports activities extravaganza, with biking occasions spanning July 26 to August 11. Elite ladies start the XCO competitions on Saturday at Élancourt Hill, positioned 25km exterior Paris, with the elite males following the following day, July 27.
There are 36 riders on the beginning checklist for every contest, balanced fields for ladies and men. Cross-country mountain biking made its debut within the Olympic Games in 1996 in Atlanta, the place Bart Brentjens of the Netherlands took the first-ever gold medal for males. Only one man has ever gained two gold medals within the XCO race and Frenchman Julien Absalon went back-to-back in 2004 and 2008.
A 4.4km course awaits the boys at Élancourt Hill, on which riders took strong notes at a Test Event final September with its groomed gravel paths, a technical rock backyard, twisting terrain and one signature, difficult climb, which is bypassed on the opening 2.2km lap. The important circuit, with 110 metres of elevation acquire, crosses the best level within the Paris space, providing views within the distance of the Eiffel Tower.
Two gold medalists are within the area for the boys, 2016 Rio winner Nino Schurter (Switzerland) and the Tokyo defending champion Tom Pidcock (Great Britain), in addition to the silver medalist from 2021 Mathias Flückiger (Switzerland). In truth, Flückiger’s evaluation of this 12 months’s battle was easy, “Tom Pidcock is the highest gold favourite”.
Should a brand new Olympic champion be topped in Paris, there’s a robust argument that France’s Victor Koretzky will carry a bonus, particularly after he gained the Mountain Bike Test Event final 12 months in addition to the latest World Cup spherical in Les Gets.
Also within the combine can be World Cup chief Alan Hatherly of South Africa and a pair of US riders, 22-year-old Riley Amos and fellow Coloradoan Christopher Blevins.
Tom Pidcock comes into Paris because the best choice to take a second gold medal, as he’s not solely the defending cross-country Olympic champion but additionally the reigning XCO world champion, a primary for a British male.
He’ll experience double-duty for the United Kingdom on the Paris Games by competing every week later within the males’s street race. The 24-year-old mentioned he’s, nevertheless, firmly centered on the MTB repeat.
Riding for Ineos Grenadiers, Pidcock completed second on stage 9 of the Tour de France, the rigorous route marked by 14 gravel sections round Troyes. But mid-way by way of the Tour’s second week, the Brit suffered from COVID-19 signs and pulled out for relaxation at dwelling. His preparations for Paris appear to be clean.
His WorldTour street schedule didn’t allow many alternatives to compete on the MTB World Cup circuit this season, however he gained the 2 races he began – Nové Město and Crans-Montana.
While the Olympic course doesn’t have a number of elevation acquire, it does have an abundance of technical sections that go well with Pidcock’s punchy attacking type.
Switzerland is nicely represented by a pair of mountain bike veterans, Nino Schurter and Mathias Flückiger, the duo each proudly owning Olympic Games medals. On a heavy schedule of World Cup races this season, 2023 sequence winner Schurter was second general within the present standings after six rounds whereas Flückinger, who was third final 12 months, was sixth general.
Schurter has a set of all three Olympic medals, incomes the bronze in Beijing in 2008, the silver in London in 2012 after which capturing the gold in Rio 4 years later. He completed one spot off the rostrum in Tokyo. He continues to mild up the leaderboard within the World Cup races, constructing momentum with a podium at Nové Město and the win at Val di Sole.
Last 12 months, Schurter was the lone Swiss consultant on the Mountain Bike Test Event and completed third, simply 4 seconds behind French winner Victor Koretzky. He’ll have one final shot at a win at Elancourt Hill and a fourth Olympic medal, because the 10-time XCO World Champion in XCO makes his last look within the Olympics, and perhaps his last season of racing.
It is the third Olympic Games for Flückiger, who was sixth in Rio earlier than using to silver in Tokyo. The 36-year-old ramped up his health earlier than Paris with second-place finishes on the final two World Cup occasions. He gives a second card for the Swiss one-two punch and appears to particularly thrive on technical programs. The Swiss duo can be a fierce pair in Paris, and both may declare the highest step of the rostrum.
At the Olympic mountain bike cross-country Test Event in September final 12 months, Frenchman Victor Koretzky sprinted to victory on dwelling soil forward of Anton Cooper (New Zealand) and Nino Schurter (Switzerland). While Cooper won’t be in France this time and Schurter can be powerful to drop a second time, search for Koretzky to shine regardless of the climate on Sunday.
The 29-year-old competed for a number of years within the professional street peloton, profitable a stage on the Alpes Isère Tour in 2022 with B&B Hotels, however turned his focus to mountain biking to compete in his third Olympic Games.
He was main the XCO World Cup standings earlier this season, however suffered a crash within the quick observe race at Nové Město and had a bout with COVID-19, lacking Crans-Montana. Upon his return at Val Di Sole, he took second within the XCC race however didn’t carry out nicely the following day in XCO. He can be a wildcard in Paris.
Alan Hatherly (South Africa)
The Paris Olympic Games can be a 3rd likelihood for Alan Hatherly to make historical past for South Africa with a medal of any color within the cross-country occasion. After twenty sixth place in Rio in 2016, he completed eighth in Tokyo.
The 28-year-old hasn’t waited for Paris to make some historical past, as he turned the primary South African to win an XCO World Cup race earlier in July. It was a “dream weekend” on the sixth spherical of the sequence at Les Gets, France, Hatherly profitable each the XCO and quick observe races.
The victory, together with two different podiums this 12 months, gave him a strong lead within the World Cup XCO standings, plus an enormous enhance for Sunday’s cross-country contest.
Riley Amos, the 22-year-old from Durango, Colorado, makes his debut on the Olympic Games for Team USA, steamrolling throughout the U23 division of the World Cup thus far this 12 months with 5 consecutive victories.
He gained the XCO title on the Pan-American MTB Championships in Midway, Utah in early May, which helped the US safe two quota spots for Paris, the primary time since 2012 that the USA would have multiple man within the Olympic MTB occasion. He adopted that efficiency with wins at Nové Město and Crans-Montana and sealed his spot for Paris to race alongside fellow Coloradoan Christopher Blevins.
“It’s actually unreal – I positively didn’t suppose initially of the 12 months that one thing like this was potential, for positive,” Amos mentioned in a Team USA report after profitable at Crans-Montana. “This is my fourth season within the under-23 class, so I’ve had 4 years to develop as an athlete bodily and mentally.”
After the win in Switzerland, Amos returned dwelling to the US to relaxation for a number of weeks to be contemporary for his journey to France, the place the US males look to attain a medal in mountain biking for the primary time.
The 25-year-old Blevins completed 14th within the XCO contest in Tokyo. He is eighth general on this 12 months’s World Cup standings, based mostly largely on his victory in Mairiporã, Brazil in April, however spent the final two weeks at a coaching camp in Annecy, France to organize for his second Games.
When is the Paris Olympics males’s mountain bike cross nation?
The males’s race begins on July 29 at 14:10 CET or 8:10 EDT. Find out tips on how to watch biking on the Paris Olympics
Men’s MTB Start List
- Maximilian Foidl (Austria)
- Pierre de Froidmont (Belgium)
- Jens Schuermans (Belgium)
- Ulan Bastos Galinski (Brazil)
- Gunnar Holmgren (Canada)
- Martin Vidaurre Kossmann (Chile)
- Diego Alfonso Arias Cuervo (Colombia)
- Ondrej Cink (Czechia)
- Simon Andreassen (Denmark)
- Joni Savaste (Finland)
- Victor Koretzky (France)
- Jordan Sarrou (France)
- Julian Schelb (Germany)
- Luca Schwarzbauer (Germany)
- Charlie Aldridge (Great Britain)
- Tom Pidcock (Great Britain)
- Tomer Zaltsman (Israel)
- Simone Avondetto (Italy)
- Luca Braidot (Italy)
- Martins Blums (Latvia)
- Romano Puentener (Liechtenstein)
- Adair Zabdiel Gutierrez Prieto (Mexico)
- Alex Miller (Namibia)
- Samuel Gaze (New Zealand)
- Knut Roehme (Norway)
- Jiujiang Mi (China)
- Krzysztof Lukasik (Poland)
- Ede-Karoly Molnar (Romania)
- Alan Hatherly (South Africa)
- Jofre Cullell Estape (Spain)
- David Valero Serrano (Spain)
- Mathias Flueckiger (Switzerland)
- Nino Schurter (Switzerland)
- Oleksandr Hudyma (Ukraine)
- Riley Amos (United States)
- Christopher Blevins (United States)