It's Going to Be Harder to Qualify for a DH World Cup in 2018
We're still six months away from the first race of the 2018 DH World Cup season in Lošinj, Croatia, but the UCI recently announced a number of rule changes that will have an affect on the world's fastest downhillers. The biggest change is that the number of elite male riders who will be able to qualify for finals has been reduced to 60, down from 80. This change is in line with what we saw last season, when the number of elite women who could compete in the finals was dropped down to 15, and the number of junior men was dropped down to 20.
 | The top 60 men elite, top 15 women elite and top 20 men juniors from the qualifying rounds qualify for the finals. All women juniors who started in the seeding run are qualified for the final. |
The rules regarding protected riders have also been changed slightly. The top five women and the top 10 men from the final 2017 World Cup ranking will be protected, as will the current top five women and top ten men after the first round of the season who are not already protected.
Note: The wording of the rule regarding protected riders isn't entirely clear, and an earlier version of this article misinterpreted the update. A revision to the wording will be completed by the UCI before the season begins.
| The first 10 women elite and the first 20 men elite in the qualifying round are awarded World Cup points as per the scale in article 4.5.037. However, in the last round of the UCI MTB World Cup season, no points for the qualifying round will be given. The points (qualifying round and final) will be awarded to the riders with corresponding position in the final. |
| 'Protected riders' to the final are: 1.Riders ranked in the top 5 women elite and the top 10 men elite of the final World Cup standings of the previous season 2.Riders ranked in the top 5 women elite and the top 10 men elite of the current World Cup standings. For the first UCI MTB World Cup round of the season, the top 10 women elite and the top 20 men elite of the final World Cup standings of the previous season are 'protected' for the final. They must start in the qualifying round but qualify automatically for the final in any case. If the times of the protected riders are not among the 15 best times for women elite or the 60 best times for men elite, they must ride the final in addition to the 15 women elite and 60 men elite already qualified. |
What's the takeaway from all those rule revisions? Well, one thing's for sure – qualifiers will be more important, since fewer riders will be able to make mistakes and still race in the finals. And while it will be more difficult to make it into finals, the riders that do get there have proven their worth, which should make for a more entertaining event for spectators. Bear in mind that the points required to actually enter a World Cup race haven't changed; it's just that making the jump from qualifiers to the finals has become even more of a challenge.
Along with those rule changes, riders will still not be allowed to wear cameras for the XC finals or for DH qualifying and finals, although they are allowed during training. However, the UCI can make an exception and allow a camera during finals, but that footage must be for the TV production company broadcasting the race.
Finally, there's one more important new rule in the books:
| During MTB races no electronic bikes are allowed on the course at any time during training and competition. |
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I fully understand demand, niche market, etc. etc. But I can dream.
Ohhhh now the tracks are too rough, lets reduce riders....
uhm, the Crankworx DH series already exist, and it's adding (great) venues every year...
Let's cross fingers
If you are talking about the number of starters for the mens final at (60) this has nothing to do with RedBull.
"UCI can make an exception and allow a camera during finals, but that footage must be for the TV production company broadcasting the race."
The entire Pinkbike community pools 10% of their collective income (dentists, I'm looking at you).
That's probably enough money to arm wrestle the DH World Cup rights away from the UCI? ...
Rewrite the rule book using Pinkbike polls to determine what we the collective actually wants.
Richard Cunningham is hired as the executive director?
???
...We probably don't profit.
oh, wait. I'm not. It was a JOKE. Lighten up, Francis.
Plus this community just uses dentists as a synonym for "rich people who have shit I don't"
Anyways, the majority of Pinkbike users aren't exactly hurting for cash. $0.02
Would anyone thought it would be free?
With DH, that corner is in sight!
And though you may get a few short sections stitched together for a live run we are not allowed to see any other footage unless you pay up, so coverage is actually worse and it's the guys with the passion / skill to get the best footage being handicapped.
Let's be honest, the whole damn sport of WC DH is being handicapped and is being run as a show for red bulls live coverage, it's not a race series for the riders any longer.
I've seen all types of coverage (and lack of) in the past 25 years,and somehow knew this would be coming.
XC getting in Olympics changed to a TV friendly product,and DH didn't even need to get there to changed too. Yeah it's dying,and I don't see a simple solution.
This also explains why this article, from Sept 25th but not published on anyone's news feed and with no comments as of 1 minute ago, may well appear on a news feed near you soon.
www.pinkbike.com/u/mattwragg/blog/one-question-does-mountain-biking-need-the-uci.html
It probably always is like that down at the grassroots; ask any Sunday League football (soccer) player "Does football need FIFA?", and we can guess most would say "No!".
But that article seems to suggest that those working in the WC disagree with the grassroots....
THEREFORE, it's no difficult task to imagine those affected by it changing it in some way or turning their backs on it.
If some other sanctioning body showed up and battled for control, it would not be without precedent.
Enduro it is.....
I agree with having better coverage for the areas of the course that are not covered by the ground cameras but taking the riders ability to use cameras is short sighted. Controlling all of the media is what happened to NASCAR. A consulting firm told them in 2007 that their control and cost of media was to costly, narrow focused and created the scenario where NASCAR had become "Insignificant." They quickly changed and brought back viewership and additional revenue streams. I don't see this being good for the UCI, world cup, racers, sponsors, events, or the driving of additional revenue streams in the bicycle industry.
Also 15 women to compete in finals? No better way to tell the talented women in the sport that they have little value. From my perspective UCI continues to be run poorly and doesn't listen to what views/competitors actually want. Would love to see the numbers behind all of this.
The 15th placed woman is about 2-minutes slower than first place. It may sound harsh, but unless that is only 30-seconds back (15th place), there really is no argument for putting 20, 30, or 40 female "elites" through to finals. They're just not good enough.
Womens DH is a pretty consistent podium - Rachael, Tahnee, PomPon, Tracey, and then maybe Emilie or one of the other girls at Emilies pace. The person most likely not to podium this year is the current womens DH world champ, but that's an entire other story (not saying that she won't, but she'll have to find some pace if she is to be consistently on the podium).
If you had 60 women, you'd get variations like the men get.
It's sad that we're limiting the exposure of women in the finals and subsequently limiting their visibility and sponsorship hopes. If we don't give them an equitable coverage, how do you want things to change?
And it's not like there are new UCi sanctioned events popping up to help up and comers collect enough points to even be eligible... If anything there are less and less events each year.
Someone, somewhere is pulling the strings here to ensure better exposure and content for Red Bull Media House. Remember they stopped everyone filming at the events a few years back. Now we can all agree the footage we see is pretty good these days so credit where credit is due and thankyou Red Bull.
The real problem is the coverage, nobody besides us hits up redbull.com/bike, my next door neighbour or yours will never look there for content. Yet when it was on the likes of Eurosport back in the day the viewing numbers were massive, I know because I used to commentate on the World Cups for them for the last 2 years they did it. Up next after the Moto GP we have the mountain bike world cup from.. That meant millions of people going, i'll watch that for a laugh which also meant big sponsors like Grundig, Diesel and Nissan.
The sport needs to go mainstream and whilst I thank Red Bull for doing a great job, it's coverage is weak compared to the mainstream media outlets out there. We need to ditch Red Bull and go mainstream to ensure prize money increases along with riders wages/sponsorship packages etc.. I've said my bit, i might be introuble now for say all of the above, oh well!
Should be top 20 elite men.
On the bright side should suppress a possible chance of mechanical doping.
www.facebook.com/mclarenbikepark/photos/gm.120651735276257/10155702168508764/?type=3
Dunno know if that link will work as it's FB but Google McLaren Bike Park Minnaar if interested.
Smaller final field = more individual camera time = sponsor advertise money.
no doubt Pay per view and/or specialty channel probably coming.
If top ten remains the same, those ten are protected. If top ten at first race get tossed (ala another lourdes), the new top ten are protected as well as last seasons top 10 (protected for the entirety of the season) - totalling 20 protected riders. Same for women's, but 5 and 5.
This can be a huge impact for those in last seasons top 10 that suffer injuries, or mechanicals by taken pressure off of subsequent qualifying.
Not a bad deal as far as I'm concerned.
Reduction to only 60 qualifying. Those on the bubble will feel the impact for sure. Can't help but think this is the UCI's response to varying weather conditions of last years finals (esp. Lourdes) - keep race duration shorter to minimize chance of different conditions. Not the choice I would have made, but I could see how this could have come about from comments from those at the top (ala Bruni after Lourdes).
Just out of interest, what do road cyclist think of the UCI?
Can the UCI just F*** off!!
have they ever done anything productive? They are up there with my most disliked organisation, somewhere between U2 and PETA.
Also, "During MTB races no electronic bikes are allowed on the course at any time during training and competition."
Electronics is sub 5 Volts, Over 5V is generally considered Electric.
They're banning DI2, electronic shifting, but not E-bikes?
Incompetent.
Women have less value than men apparently. Seems to me that the rules should be the same. Maybe you are slow to begin with, but practice makes better...
I would only argue that there has been a significant change lately to encourage women to ride - at the grassroots level, all the way up to bike manufacture. Local, regional and national events are certainly the stepping stones to world cup, and hopefully by then these gals will already experienced some of the pressure that would prep them for the big leagues. Not to mention that making junior women's WC look more obtainable may encourage more to pursue it.
I will admit that what im saying is mostly just wishing and hoping, but it sounds nice. Id like to see MTB continue to grow as a co-ed sport. My wife and I ride together and sit on the couch during WC season to watch all the races. She loves having girls to watch that she can be proud of.