This past weekend was the 2014 European Cross Country Championships in St. Wendel Germany. There was no big surprises in the Men’s race as Julien Absalon (France) just keeps on winning whether it’s for team or for his country, this time taking the victory over Swiss rider Fabian Giger by 15 seconds. The Czech Jan Scarnitzl took third.
Pauline Ferrand Prevot (Liv Pro XC Team) has started two races in the 2014 UCI XCO series and has won them both. She not only won them, she crushed them, winning in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic by 2:50 over Catharine Pendrel (Luna Pro Team) and in Albstadt, Germany by 2:59 over Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå (Multivan Merida Biking Team). To say she has dominated the two races would be an understatement, taking early leads in both and never looking back, leaving all the other women to fight it out for 2nd place or pray for a mechanical.
I finally got around to watching the round 3 XCO action from Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic on Red Bull TV. Always a great watch. The women’s race was utterly and completely dominated by Pauline Ferrand Prevot (Liv Pro XC Team) who won the race by nearly three minutes over Catharine Pendrel (Luna Pro Team), who seems to have recovered quite nicely from an early April collarbone break.
In other dominating news… Nino Schurter (Scott-Odlo MTB Racing Team) returned to the XCO circuit (for now) after recently completing the Tour de Romandie with the Orica-GreenEdge team and appeared to be in fine form.
In the end Schurter won by just just eight seconds over Stéphane Tempier (BH-Suntour-KMC) but held the lead for nearly the entire race and at times looked as if he would pull away and take the win in the same way as Pauline Ferrand Prevot had done in the women’s race earlier.
The UCI XCO series now moves to Albstadt, Germany this weekend so it should be another fine week evenings spent watching some awesome race action.
Photos via the UCI XCO Facebook page.
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…
Last Friday, after Jolanda Neff podiumed at the UCI Eliminator race in Cairns, I commented on Twitter about how every UCI XCO race weekend seems to be filled with a tad more Jolanda “Neffness” (a Tweet which got favorited by the current Women’s UCI XCO series leader I might add). Considering the form she is in right now, I fully expected a good showing from her in Sunday’s XCO race.
With the likes of Gunn-Rita Dahle choosing not to make the trip to Australia, I figured the race could come down to the likes of Neff, her Liv Pro XC teammate, and long time Soiled Chamois favorite, Maja Włoszczowska and experienced racers the likes Sabine Spitz and Irina Kalentieva. It turns out I was sort of right and sort of wrong…
Everyday I field hundreds of emails (not really, not even one) about why I am such a fan of pro mountain bike racing over pro road racing. Well, aside from that fact that I race mountain bikes (or a cross bike on gravel), I don’t really don’t dig the modern-day road racing vibe. On top of that, I’ve only competed in ONE (paved) road race in my entire life (A local race in which I got dropped within the first few miles and rode the next 27 miles solo). I just dig the mountain bike race vibe more than that of our skinny-tired brothers and sisters.
And as if I needed anymore evidence to justify my position, I give you the video clip below (taken via RedBull.TV at round 2 of the UCI XCO World Cup) of Alexandra Engen (Ghost Factory Racing)…
I love nearly everything about this photo taken by Marius Maasewerd at the 2014 Men’s UCI XCO race in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Nearly everything. Let me “dissect” the photo and explain why…
Here is another fine example of Jolanda Neff (Liv Pro XC Team) showing off her badass Jolanda Neffness on the way to winning the first elite world cup race of her career at the opening round of the 2014 UCI XCO series in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa*.
Bad luck (again) for Catharine Pendrel! It seems the Luna Chix rider broker her collarbone while training this past Tuesday, April Fools Day. Sadly, this was no bad April Fools joke and there will no racing for Pendrel for the next six weeks. Fortunately no surgery is needed and she is quoted on teamlunachix.com as saying she is “feeling pretty pain-free so far” and “optimistic for a speedy recovery.”
