Rider Perspective: The Direction Is Finally Clear for World Cup XC
Kicking off the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup season never felt so good! It feels like forever since I departed Toronto, finally use to the time change and all the comforts or discomforts abroad that travelling offers. The first World Cup in South Africa was one to mark on your calendars... the direction of these XCO races is finally clear to the riders, fans, organizers and all involved. Everything has officially become "Red Bull-ized" (in a good way of course). Higher average speeds, gap jumps, drops, rock gardens and of course spectator friendly viewing points are all now familiar features to be found in cross country racing.
I had a pretty decent race in South Africa, no crashes and no real mistakes either which in itself is a positive feeling. I was slightly penalized by my poor starting position due to missing the two final World Cups last year because of an illness, but quickly moved up in the first 2 laps. I hung out around 10th place for the rest of the race and finally made a little push to finish 9th. I'm not overly happy with the race as I really didn't feel it was a reflection of where I am at physically, mentally and technically. It was a clean race overall on a course that demands everything of you, although I'm for sure looking to build on this result in Australia.
The past few weeks with Trek Factory Racing have been good. All the teams on the World Cup circuit have had to keep up with the ever evolving sport and Trek in particular has done a great job. I've witnessed first hand how much R & D they have been doing, getting feedback from the racers and applying that to the future product lines. It's been a really successful recipe so far and these new courses are translating to better equipment choices like 2.2 tires, stiffer yet more compliant frames and super light wheels. Check out my bike check from South Africa here.
Some of these new equipment choices have really benefited in Australia already. The course, very similar to RSA is super technical and demands 100% focus. You really need to nail all your training and race elements + have some luck for it all coming together on race day. So far it's rained pretty much everyday although training and course inspection carries on and my training schedule for the day showed 3 hours with 2 of that on course. When it's as warm as Cairns, the rain really doesn't matter, once your soaked it's fine "keep calm and carry on"... I had a blast on course today and moto'ed the crap out of the course... sometimes you have to embrace the conditions.
Only one more week left in this first World Cup journey and I am happy to report I haven't been bitten by a spider or snake yet which is always positive news. I am finally getting use to the time zone change, the different foods that each country (or continent) has to offer and I'm really excited to step back onto the World Cup stage this weekend. It's going to be a throw down show that's likely going to be a flip flop in results, so be sure to tune in and enjoy the action!
Images by Matt Delorme.
www.trekbikes.com
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Member since Apr 8, 2014
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About what most of us are riding, allow me to disagree. XC race format consists of riding a short course in the lowest possible time and repeating it several times. I really doubt that has anything to do with mountain biking or about what any of us do on a normal ride. Enduro (the race format) in this aspect is way more similar to what everybody does, fun descents linked by normally paced uphills.
As to the olympic champions... last time around was also when 650B was exploding and Olympics were mid-summer... many teams were scrambling after Nino started kicking ass to get even 650B wheelsets together after the season opener only 2 months earlier. In the space of five days the industry went from having a surplus of tires and rims available because production had until then, exceeded demand to having practically nothing available for sale to dealers. Schwalbe had shipped a container load of 650B tires to North America and immediately shipped it back to europe to meet the demand of race teams/dealers there. Kirk Pacenti sold over 1,500 rims and tires by the tuesday immediately following Nino's world cup win (so roughly 60 hours of time passage).
The only reason 29" has seen the results it has in the women's category is due to the lack of 650b offerings. Once Trek gets on the 650b bandwagon you will undoubtedly see Emily on a bike that actually suits her stature. Then, she can benefit from a lighter set of wheels, resulting in quicker acceleration out of corners, a lower BB, resulting in more stability through the tight turns and 'features', and a stiffer wheel, resulting in better handling. The writing is on the wall: 29" wheels for people of her stature are a crutch, and will be replaced by 650b as a better fitting wheelsize not requiring tweeks to keep the cockpit 'normal'.
Think of it this way, if your GF/Wife/Mom/Sister went to go get a bike fitted, was 5'2" tall, and came back with a 29" bike with those tweeks, you'd storm back to the shop to put your boot up the fitters backside. This is no different.
She weighs what? 50kg's?
She's not the best descender.
A 29" has 20mm more BB drop than a 650b.
That's why she rides a 29".
Nino rides a 650b because he likes a high BB to low bar height ratio and is in another dimension faster seat-up descender than anyone on Pinkbike. I would recommend people with the ability of the average XC Pinkbike rider to ride a 29" as they have a stability advantage and comparing yourself to Nino Schurter is ridiculous.
What is scaled? You could have a 29" with exactly the same sizing as a 650b. It would just have a higher CoG.
But still, in the real world the 29" is more energy efficent and is more stable over rough terrain.
I think a 650b would fit her better she simply doesnt have an engine big enough to accelerate the 29" wheels quick enough.
Also due to her little Bodyweight the weight the bigger wheels add is more critical.
I have to disagree with the 29" are more energy efficent. On a track where u dont have to accelerate this is true, but on these modern xc tracks you have to slow down and accelerate all the time so bigger wheels make you accelerate slower but may be quicker on the descent. It comes down to a riding type decision, Riders with big engines but a lack of skill on descents greatly benefit from 29" wheels, Riders with a smaller engine but good descending skills will benefit more from 650b/26".
Mainly from the BB drop.