Video: Course Preview with Pauline Ferrand-Prévot - Snowshoe XC World Cup 2019

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waldog (Sep 8, 2019 at 2:53)

"It's moist....."

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JohanG (Sep 8, 2019 at 6:13)

Geez man, why are you such a chump? Ride a bike a bit so you can turn the pedals. But otherwise great preview, I enjoyed it.

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Radley-Shreddington (Sep 9, 2019 at 4:23)

Grass on grass on grass. No thanks.

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panzer103 (Sep 8, 2019 at 6:34)

He wasnt the best to ride with. The course, technically looks like something i could ride, however slowly and probably have to walk part of the climbs. But it looks like a lame track. She seems like a very nice person with a smile all the time.

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tacklingdummy (Sep 8, 2019 at 14:06)

Track looks good. Fast parts and technical sections.

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iamamodel (Sep 8, 2019 at 5:08)

I stopped watching after ten minutes and having seen only one turn and about ten metres total of tech (which was all man-made). It's going to be the battle of the fittest.

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clink83 (Sep 8, 2019 at 8:43)

All XC races are a battle of the fittest

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iamamodel (Sep 8, 2019 at 18:05)

@clink83: Two words: Annika Langvad, the fittest from 2016 to 2018, but not the fastest (Pendral, Neff, Batty all beat her on tech courses).

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R-M-R (Sep 8, 2019 at 18:10)

@clink83: It's certainly the primary factor, but plenty of World Cup XC races have been decided by technical skills. Remember Langvad losing 10+ seconds every lap at the 2018 World's in Lenzerheide, dramatically highlighted as Courtney passed when Langvad stalled on the roots? Langvad was fading and part of her stall was due to fatigue, but still, she was giving up time in every technical section and eventually couldn't keep pulling that time back with fitness.

There was a time when many World Cup mountain bike racers were just road riders who felt it would be more rewarding or lucrative to be a top mountain biker than a back-of-the-pack road rider. If we go all the way back to 1998, Cadel Evans won in Canmore by putting MINUTES into Miguel Martinez EACH LAP on the descents. Little Mig would pull back most of that on the climbs, but no amount of EPO could allow him to do that all day and he eventually cracked.

It was fewer than ten years ago that riders simply couldn't get away with abysmal technical skills, but even in this era of universally strong skills, there are still meaningful differences.