Nikoline Splittorff, Denmark and André Haga, Finland ride over Sprint and Long Distance in the coming days in Latvia to defend their respective leads in the CX80 MTBO World Cup standings. Almost all the top six in the men’s and women’s lists will be among the 114 riders from 15 nations taking part. A Mixed Relay on Sunday ends the programme of races; the same arena will be used for all three days.
The Sprint on Friday has courses of 8.2 km/140 m climb for men and 6.6 km / 120 m for women, in flattish urban terrain together with a park area with many fast tracks, steep slopes and steps. The necessary changes in tempo and technique will be fascinating to watch! The planned winning time is between 20 and 25 minutes.
On Saturday, a complete contrast: a Long race in forested sand-dune terrain with a medium to dense path network. Here the strength and stamina of competitors will be severely tested, with planned winning times of 105-115 minutes; this means 47.5 km with 500 m climb in the men’s race, 40.0 km / 380 m in the women’s. Poor visibility in overgrown clearings is balanced by good views in the open forests.
The Mixed Relay, for teams of 3 with at least 1 woman, will mainly be in similar terrain to the Long race. Courses are planned for at best 40-45 minutes per leg.
Mass start in a Mixed Relay
On all 3 days, off-track riding is allowed, and in the Sprint race there may be off-track controls in rideable open areas. As in the European Championships earlier in the season, the riders will face some tricky decisions on whether to risk taking inviting short cuts. In Poland, some athletes could be seen carrying their bikes across unrideable terrain!
The first two days count also for this year’s U-23 World MTBO Championships, and nations can enter two men and two women under 23, additional to the standard six men and six women per race. The races also count for this season’s U-23 World Cup.
A basic TV broadcast is available for free on IOF TV from the Sprint and the Mixed Relay.
Friday’s Sprint broadcast runs from 13:50 – 15:50 EEST (UTC +3) and Sunday’s Mixed Relay is on from 09:50 – 12:30.
Reports and leading results will be posted on this website after each race. More information about the event is available at https://mtbo-wcup.lv/, in Bulletin 4.
Race Programme
Friday 5 July, start 1400 EET (UTC + 2): individual Sprint, 1-minute start interval
Saturday 6 July, start 10.00: individual Long
Sunday 7 July, start 10.00: Mixed Relay