We are just two rounds into the 2014 UCI XCO series and the Men’s overall title is looking like it MIGHT be all but wrapped up. The reasons? Julien Absalon and Nino Schurter…
Reason I
French mountain bike racing legend Julien Absalon is two for two in 2014, taking wins at the opening round in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa and again in Cairns, Australia last week. He is in some SICK form. Hell, he even flatted early in the Cairns race and still managed to worm his way back to the front and eventually overtake Mathias “what the flück?” Flückiger for the win.
Reason II
Nino “750b” Schurter had some bad luck in Pietermaritzburg, when he suffered a puncture at the height of the race and was forced to ride it (quite well I might add) for nearly 2 km to the tech zone. By the time he was back up to speed the race was all but over. Absalon took the victory and Nino would have to settle for 6th place on the day.
Well, losing is something we do when we are not winning. – Nino Schurter
Normally this wouldn’t be too big of a deal, but Schurter is on a bit of a hiatus, racing at the Tour de Romandie and the Tour de Suise with the Orica-GreenEdge team, and in the meantime, Absalon is winning and piling up points. With the potentially dominate Schurter out for at nearly half of the series, the rest of the Men’s field is going to have to step up if they plan on catching Absalon, who leads the series with 500 points followed by Maxime Marotte (BH-SR Suntour-KMC) with 320 and Jose Hermida (Multivan-Merida) with 310 points. Then again, anything can happen in mountain bike racing… broken bones, punctures, riders shunning knobbies for road races, etc., etc.,
Oh well, IF the series is all but over, I’d have to say that the veteran Absalon would be quite deserving of it, given that his victory in Cairns was his 27th World Cup victory. The dude has has an AMAZING career. Let’s just hope that he keeps passing his doping controls and doesn’t follow in the footsteps of so many other “successful” cyclists we’ve read about in recent years. Ah, that’s just me being negative, let’s just enjoy it and see the man in action…
Photo: flowmountainbike.com, check out their site for some amazing race photography!
Video: Footage taken via Red Bull TV.
Music: Arctic Monkeys, Crying Lightning (Amex Remix)