5 minBy Annie Fast
Cycling Mountain Bike
The 2024 UCI Mountain Bike World Series saw a shakeup at its third stop Nové Město, Czechia, from 24 to 26 May. This was the first European UCI World Cup stop after Brazil and featured a handful of the elite European field making their World Cup premiere.
In the men’s XCO, Great Britain’s Tom Pidco*ck sealed his fourth consecutive victory at Nové Město and France’s Pauline Ferrand-Prevot showed that she’s the one to watch in women's mountain bike with a commanding win in Elite XCO after finishing second in the short track.
At the close of the event, Ferrand-Prevot announced that this would be her last year competing in mountain bike (more on that below).
American Riley Amos also stole headlines sealing his sixth consecutive win in as many starts this season in the men's U23.
This marks the final qualifying event ahead of Paris 2024, with final rankings to be released early this week. The stakes are even higher than Tokyo 2020, as there are now a maximum of two Olympic spots per gender per country. National Olympic Committees ranked one through eight in the UCI MTB Olympic Qualification rankings can qualify two athletes per gender, with those ranked nine to 19 qualifying one athlete per gender.
- How to qualify for Mountain Biking at Paris 2024
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
France’s Pauline Ferrand-Prevot is back on top in mountain bike
The podium at Saturday’s XCO short track was a preview of Sunday, with Switzerland’s Alessandra Keller earning her first win of the season in a blistering attack, followed by Ferrand-Prevot in her first World Cup start of the season, and Team USA’s Haley Batten, the current UCI points leader, in third.
But Sunday’s XCO saw Ferrand-Prevot take a commanding lead crossing the finish line a full minute ahead of Batten, herself continuing her podium streak, making a late push to take second, followed by Keller in in third place. With the young Dutchwoman Puck Pieterse earning fourth.
The Americans currently hold two of the top three spots in the UCI rankings as of 25 May, with Batten on top, followed by Keller and USA’s Savilia Blunk.
Looking ahead to Paris 2024, Ferrand-Prevot’s win brings her name back to the forefront as the one to beat. Paris 2024 will mark her fourth Olympics competing in mountain bike, and she looks to be putting it all on the line.
At the close of the event, the reigning world XCO champion announced that this would be her last year competing in mountain bike, saying, “I think I did everything on MTB and I still like it, but it doesn’t make sense to continue more.”
With the event on her home turf in France she said: “It’s my last chance to be Olympic champion at home, so it’s good to finish on it [in Paris].”
She hinted that she will continue with a focus on road cycling.
Ferrand-Prevot’s best finish in mountain bike was at Tokyo 2020 where she came in tenth, her best finish in cycling was eighth in road racing at London 2012.
Full race results are available here.
Tom Pidco*ck makes it four in a row at Nové Město
In Saturday’s short track, France’s Victor Koretzky took the win, followed by Team USA's Christopher Belvins continuing his podium streak, and Switzerland’s Thomas Litscher in third. All eyes were on the defending champion from Great Britain, Pidco*ck, who finished in seventh, followed by Switzerland’s Nino Schurter.
In Sunday’s XCO, it was all about Pidco*ck, who put on a dominant performance to make it four in a row at Nové Město. Pidock took the win with a 32-second lead over Switzerland’s Schurter in second and Switzerland’s Marcel Guerrini in third for his season’s first podium.
Team USA’s Blevins ended in a disappointing 29th place after sharing on Instagram that he had come down with an illness during the weekend.
In an interview with Cycling News, Pidock shared his plans to compete in the Tour de France (29 June to 21 July) leading up to defending his Olympic mountain bike title at Paris 2024. Relatedly, Pidco*ck followed up Sunday's World Cup win at Nové Město with a Monday morning 226 km road ride which he shared on his Instagram stories.
Pidco*ck said of his win at Nové Město, "I think I can be quite pleased with that for my first race of the year. Obviously, when you're putting big hours in on the road, it's quite different to come in and smash it for an hour and a half."
Full race results are available here.
The Riley Amos Show
Team USA’s Riley Amos is seemingly unstoppable in this World Cup series, taking both the Men Under-23 XCC and XCO in Nové Město. In the wet and rainy U23 short track (XCC), he took the lead just ahead of the Swiss duo of Dario Lillo and Luke Wiedmann. He capped that off to win in XCO ahead of Frenchman Luca Martin, with USA teammate Bjorn Riley in third.
This marks his sixth win of the season in as many starts.
When will mountain biking be contested at Paris 2024?
The Paris 2024 mountain bike competition will take place from Sunday, 28 July, to Monday, 29 July, at Elancourt Hill.
