Video: A Quick Tour of the 2023 XC World Championships Course

 I do hope the women are on top of their game too, which includes Puck. I wonder whether she manages to maintain this strong form until August as of course she's also been racing a tough CX season (which includes preparation and training well before these races commence. So yeah, amazing if she manages to win after such a tough season though of course there are many more great ladies who could do well too. Let's just wait and see!

 @vinay: If it was anybody else, then I don't think they could hold their form for that long, as we've seen before. However, none of them did CX in the winter.....I've a theory that she just has a far bigger fitness base than the rest.
She raced nearly all the CX World Cups from October to late January, after a short break, and finished in the Top3 in all of them.

 @Starch-Anton: Admitted I have not been keeping a super close eye on CX and XC over the past few years. I did see her name pop up in the XC score sheets before she went elite but haven't really kept track of how far into the season she could keep up. Of course if she can, that's super cool and impressive and I've mentioned this before, I hope she can keep this fun for herself too. Aside from Fem van Empel (who I think we can agree isn't ready to win in XC this season), is the the only one of the top racers who competed in CX. I would have expected Ceylin and Evie Richards to have done so as well. I know they have had some impressive CX wins in the past though I don't know about this particular season. Ceylin indeed hasn't impressed this year in XC but I think the way Evie fought back after her mechanical in Nove Mesto really was impressive. All this said, obviously there is no question Puck has impressed in both CX and XC this season so yeah, let's say she very quickly lost that underdog status .

 Now that we have Enduro, CX and even gravel as cycling disciplines, I think this is the spot for XC. I don't question riders need to be fit here too to win, but mountainbiking should be about skill too.

 @vinay: Being more fit than the other guy is a skill, and one that is incredibly difficult to attain.

Put it this way: Did Usain Bolt have to do anything dangerous to win his medals? Why should a fitness based event involve danger for the participants? There are plenty of dangerous disciplines already, enduro and downhill.

The best comparison is skiing. If you want danger there's plenty of downhill and jumping disciplines, you can even mix cross country with jumping if you are so inclined. But pure cross country doesn't require any shenanigans from its participants.

 @danger13: Too bad cross country is just a feeder for the road skiing tours, but it’s nice to see so many of the athletes coming from gravel skiing.

On another note, I heard Mr Bolt May come out of retirement to try hurdles and possibly even the steeplechase.

 That's what Marathon is for. XC should be a mix and with the current circuits, it just sits perfectly where it should be.

 @dick-pound: Actually, what I liked about marathon racing is that you're not riding laps so you don't have situations where faster riders have to overtake slower rides. Except obviously if different distances ride simultaneously so that at some point, the longer routes merge with the shorter ones. But other than that, I've often seen more tight and more technical sections in a marathon race because you won't have so many people trying to overtake etc. That said, there probably are a lot of differences between them. The videos I've seen on PB typically show some fairly straight and wide open sections and little tech. I'm not sure whether that's just because that's easy to film. Just like with the Megavalanche. The only videos I've seen show the upper section (above Alpe d'Huez) and most even limit themselves to the snow sections. But I don't think I've ever seen one that shows the woods sections below 2km altitude. Could be like that in marathon racing too.

 You're right. They should probably just run the race on Zwift to minimize the chances that anyone gets hurt.

 For a professional mountain biker of any sort, a ten foot gap should be a mandatory skill with almost zero risk. A ten foot gap is nothing. It’s still mountain biking, so the trail should involve features that test more than just endurance. It’s still miles away from enduro or downhill and if anything I thought this trail looked surprisingly tame overall. Even road racers take exceptional risks without any “features”. Riding skill still matters, not just fitness.

 @BiNARYBiKE: As I said before, aerobic fitness is the skill cross country should be testing. Funny that you are talking up the risks road cyclists take, let's analyze those.

They can be categorized as pack riding and descending.

Pack riding is inescapable in racing. You see many incidents of these types of falls in every big race. Fighting with 200 guys for space on an 8 foot wide piece of road is a recipe for disaster. If you road race you have to accept this risk.

But the speeds are relatively low in most of these events. Descending, that's a different story. The best descenders risk their lives at every bend in the road.

But, they don't have to. Riders are free to descend at whatever speed they are comfortable with. There is no mandatory "gap jump" they are forced into. Not every tour winner is a crazy descender. Most of them count on making time climbing or time trialing, not by risking their lives.

Spectator appeal shouldn't overrule the racers well being.

 @danger13: To settle this discussion, could you please refer to the official rules and guidelines of what should be testing?