European XC champion, Lars Forster, has pulled out of this weekend's Nove Mesto XC World Cup after three crashes he suffered in Albstadt. Forster was leading when he first slid out on the grassy turns before the tech zone, his second crash is shown above on the single track section and his final, race-ending crash came in the woods.
Forster came second in the Short Track on Friday and was in a leading pair with team mate Nino Schurter before crashes spoiled his race. After confirming nothing was broken, Lars was flown to a hospital in Switzerland for an MRI which showed bruising and swelling on his foot and knee. He will miss Nove Mesto but hopefully be back on the bike for the third round in Vallnord in July.
| Slippery when wet... Maybe would have been better to pull out of the race after this one, but as you can see I wasn’t at 100% anymore. The aftermath: bone bruise at knee/ foot and both have big swelling. The worst part of it: I won’t be able to start at next weeks World Cup in Nove Mesto.
A full recovery is needed to get back to the strong shape like I showed in the first two laps.—Lars Forster |
We're hoping Lars makes a speedy recovery and that we see him back on the bike soon.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxqN6PboUsZ/
I'm starting to fear for what will be the response of the organizer for next year (for better or for worse).
From my point of view is because only a handful of athletes can stay strong during the entire race (~90 min). The track is physically demanding; twice per lap they have to put a lot of effort on those climbs, so they start to crack (physically), hence the crashes on the downhills.
They could even pave the entire track and the result would be the same, they would go faster and only a few would be able to stay focus the entire race. So when some say that a EWS or DH athlete could do the track blindfolded, they are not considering how hard those climbs are.
The fact that they don’t use dropper posts, relying purely on line choice and tyre grip should also give them something to think about.
Not to mention how ajunior girl died on wooden bridge not so long ago. Just because something like rocks and roots on steep looks dangerous, doesn’t mean it is. And just because you pave it doesn’t mean you made it safer.
This course was a disgrace and organizers should be ashamed of themselves
Yeah, sure:
Image 1 - Image 2 - Image 3 - Image 4
UCI Cycling Regulations HERE
No way are those metal? Realy??!!! Take a big core sample out of someone if they were. No... I think they're pvc. Even so they look a bit stout. Not exactly breakaway.
Dude should have been yanked from the race in any case. No surprise that he kept crashing.
Metal pipes would be shockingly stupid
This could end very badly if someone had hit one of those at speed and from a different angle.