The International Cycling Federation (UCI) has brought about some bold changes to the UCI MTB World Cup programme which will take place at the Cascades MTB Park from April 11 until 13.
South Africa Philip Buys in action during the men’s cross country eliminator at the UCI MTB and Trials World Championships 2013 at Cascades MTB Park in Pietermaritzburg. Photo: Darren Goddard /
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The schedule of the MTB World Cup, which is presented by Shimano, has been rejigged to host the Downhill finals on the Saturday, swopping places with the Cross Country final, which will now take place on the Sunday.
The Cross Country Eliminator, which was a crowd-pleasing feature of the World Championships last year, has been dropped from the programme altogether.
Simon Burney, the MTB Sport Coordinator at the UCI’s Sport and Technical Department, says dropping the Eliminator had nothing to do with the event’s popularity but rather the lack of daylight hours to fit in the entire programme.
“It has only been dropped from Pietermaritzburg, simply due to lack of daylight with no options to fit it elsewhere into an already packed schedule,” says Burney.
Burney pointed out that swopping the Downhill and Cross Country was actually reverting to the original format for the World Cups.
“Traditionally Downhill was always on the Saturday and Cross Country on the Sunday,” said Burney. “It only changed a few years ago.
“This year we had a couple of organisers who asked about the option to switch it back, particularly Mont-Sainte-Anne in Canada who have the Commonwealth Games just three days before their event so they wanted to give the riders travelling from Scotland an extra day to get there, recover from travel, and train on the course.”
More information can be found at www.mtbworldcupsa.co.za.
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