For the first time in World Championships history, there will be a rainbow jersey awarded in the cross-country short track (XCC) format in Val di Sole. With the exciting format's inclusion, first introduced in the UCI World Cup in 2018, Val di Sole will crown new UCI World Champions in six formats in 2021.
Titles will now be awarded in cross-country short track, cross-country Olympic, cross-country team relay, downhill, four-cross and eMTB.
The World Championships are scheduled to take place from August 25th to 29th in 2021 in Val di Sole, Italy. This will be the third UCI World Championship in Val di Sole after 2008 and 2016 and the UCI has already named Val di Sole as the venue of the 2026 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships.
Will the addition of a rainbow jersey mean that we see more cross-country athletes specialize in the shorter distance or will it continue to act as a precursor to the longer-distance event?
UCI: I'll get you, my pretty. And your little dog too!
From the UCI Rule Book:
A maximum of 40 riders per gender (40 men elite and 40
women elite) already registered and confirmed for the elite
XCO event taking place during the same week-end shall be
allowed to start in the XCC event. The riders shall be
selected as per article 4.9.015 to reach a total number of 40
riders per gender. No online registration is required for the
XCC event.
The start order is determined as follows:
XCC men elite and women elite
1. riders ranked in the top 16 of the most recently published XCO world cup
standings (not applicable for the first UCI world cup round of the season)
2. as per the most recently published UCI XCO individual ranking.
Would be interesting / weird if the eMTB world champion (good a rider as he is) could line up in his rainbow stripes next to Sarrou or Nino at an XCO race!
Logic dictates @jibbandpedal has it correct for the new setup of who can wear the full stripes and when, going forward after world championships 2021.
, when in road bike the TT worldchampion only rides the jersey in TT courses. In the other hand the stage WChampion will not use the rainbow in the TT days.
I guess the UCI could use the same protocol.
I'd say it's like pre-1994 when road world champions would wear the stripes in a TT, as there was no World title for ITT.
The fact that XCE is still taking place as it's own series/circuit, with it's own world champs, is mind blowing to me.
Do you think the idea can come from the teams? They can have more options of having a rainbow jersey in the team.
I think is win win situation for both of the sides. dont know @mfoga , dont know
(it was nice to be able to talk with somebody without insults or mean words)