No more 4X anymore

In the competition for the worlds’ most unpopular governing body the UCI have pulled a master stroke by getting rid of one of its disciplines.

In yet another immensely unpopular move by the Union Cyclist International, who are the governing body for on and off road cycling. A lot of consideration is given to the Olympic disciplines (road, track, Cross country even BMX) however the gravity sports (4X and Downhill) seem to be considered the black sheep in the family and are pushed to one side, but have they gone too far by removing the 4X world cup? Is it time for a new governing body for mountain biking or at least the gravity sports one that will actually stick up for them, promote them and make them as widely and easily accessible and watchable as other disciplines.

The excuses for pulling the 4X World Cup are pretty pitiful, claiming the financial and environmental expense of building the tracks and that riders may want to concentrate on BMX in the Olympic year. First off will the UCI be demanding all support cars in the Tour De France and other road races have to run on Hydrogen or be Electric in order to save the environment? There are already World class 4X tracks out there that at most need to be tweaked not built, not only that but more are being built anyway due to the sports rising popularity such as the mini 4X track at Stockwood, Bristol just completed by Architrail. I’d guess most 4X riders aren’t intending to compete in the Olympic BMX competition, yes there is some cross over but there are only a few places in the Olympic competition and there are BMX riders who don’t ride 4X who obviously would be competing for the spots on the start ramp.

Another excuse is that not enough people go to the competitions; surely this is poor marketing rather than lack of popularity. I had heard that the marketing director for 4X had never been to a race before the World Champs 2 weeks ago. The races at The Fort William have always been popular as shown by the iconic images of the kids in the tops of the trees, and what happens to events such as Fort William which once had XC, 4X and Downhill and next year will be down to just the Downhill? Will people still travel hundreds of miles for one event? The Downhill there is secure for the next couple of years but with no 4X World Cup will we see rapidly declining numbers and therefore lose some of the world famous atmosphere that makes the event what it is.

Taking to the trees to see the action.

The 4X Alliance have now issued a statement shown here, pointing out other issues such as the lack of consultation and the fact that sponsors riders and teams all had deals in place for the 2012 season, and the support they have received from fans and race organisers as well as their quickly implemented decision to set up their own World series, which more than likely will take place in places such as Fort William, though personally I can see the UCI getting petty about it happening at the same time as the World Cup Downhill. However this could turn into a step forward for 4X as it will be free from the constraints of the UCI and able to move in the direction riders and teams want to take it.

Obviously struggling with popularity.

This all comes on the back of announcing the major sponsor for next year’s Mountain Bike World Cup series and World Championship as RockyRoads, a web based magazine that no-one’s ever heard of and that I struggled to find in a google search to put a link on this blog (you do get a lot of cake recipes though....). Is the loss of the 4X World Cup part of the deal? This deal had current media providers worried for their future coverage rights and while some fears of exclusive rights for the title sponsor have been allayed, Freecaster have decided it’s too costly to show next year’s World Cup series, this surely doesn’t help the popularity of the sport never mind discouraging sponsors from placing advertising.

One last piece of bad news is about Downhill racer Matti Leikohnen who was badly injured in a crash in the Nordic Downhill Championships, more on this from his teams website as well as a link to the facebook page where you can leave messages of support.

Muddy rides and a couple of videos

Earlier today I saw this article on what British Cycling is doing for mountain biking, it's interesting that it appears to be entirely focused on Cross-Country with only one photo of Downhill. In terms of text it only has one line that mentions that Downhill and FourCross (4X to you and me), this seems rather disproportionate with the number of medal winners in the World Cup series and the  World Championships, as I talked about in my previous post.

Okay I guess it’s looking at grass roots and there’s only Cross-Country mountain biking in the Olympics and most people getting into the sport aren’t going to be throwing themselves down a mountainside or competing head to head against three of their mates straight away. So I see where they are coming from in those terms, however surely showing our success in these disciplines is a way to encourage new riders and make existing riders try something new, never mind to get them to pay money to join British Cycling. I know following this year’s Downhill and 4X World Cup series' has certainly inspired me to push my limits and ride more often.

If you want something to inspire you to get out here’s two homemade videos for you, one from me which is pretty damn rubbish and one filmed by and starring Mike Martin up in Scotland which is pretty damn good. 

The video I put together is from Ashton Court last weekend, finally got there with a couple of friends and my cameras, unfortunately it was very wet and pretty chilly so hanging around trying to get good photos and video was dropped from my main priorities. Instead I opted for getting a couple of shots and having a lot of fun in the mud.

The first ride round we took things pretty easy not knowing how slippy the rocky sections would be, however they seemed to grip fine it was some of the muddier sections where we could feel the tyres sliding from under us. It made for an interesting run with a couple of close calls for me and one crash where my front wheel slipped and I was thrown out the front door, somehow I managed to jump over my handle bars landing on my feet and running out while keeping hold of my bike and being able to pull the front brake to swing the back end out of the following riders way.

Despite the weather it was a cracking day out and there’s something fun about getting coated head to toe in mud, and although the cloying mud made it hard to pedal in places most of the trails are barely different in the wet from the dry. On the last ride of the day one of the lads tried a drop off and unfortunately stacked it, buckling his front wheel quite badly however after a trail repair of standing on it, it was rideable so we departed to the pub for a well deserved pint. One thing I noticed on the ride was the amount of 661 gear we had between us, whether it’s the price or the quality, or both (as it is for me) it seems to be the make of choice at this level.

Bike report and Race reports.

Ok so I haven’t posted for a while and a few things have happened since then, which to be honest is why I haven’t managed to put anything together. Firstly the Lanai is up and running and already covered in mud. The World Cup season is over and the World Championships took place last weekend. I’ve been to Oslo for my brothers wedding and have another wedding to attend this coming weekend. My car failed it’s MOT and after everything is going to the big car park in the sky.

Bike Repair

The Lanai had new brake pads installed, a new saddle and new tyres as well as the old grips off my bike put on as they were a damn sight better than the gaffa tape and scraps of rubber that passed for grips before. The old tyres were practically bald and very weather beaten, so I had suggested rather strongly they should be replaced. So it’s up it’s been out for a very decent ride and is now coated in mud. All the hard work seems to have paid off and the payment in beer was much appreciated.

World Cup

The World Cup season was all but decided when I last posted and that’s how the overall standings finished.

Elite men; 1. Aaron Gwinn (USA). 2. Greg Minaar (RSA) 3. Gee Atherton (GBR).

Elite Women; Tracey Moseley (GBR).  2. Florianne Pugin. (FRA) 3. Rachel Atherton (GBR)

Junior Men’s Champion; Troy Brosnan (AUS)

Junior Women’s Champion; Manon Carpenter (GBR)

You may notice one country keeps cropping up in these results and you’re just looking at the top 3 if you look at the overall standings you’ll notice how often GBR crops up. We have a mass of talented riders from Lewis Buchanon and Manon Carpenter in the juniors through to Steve Peat still getting on the podium at 37 and everyone in between. More on how amazing Britain is at mountain biking in the next section.

Lewis Buchanon

The World Cup series has been thrilling to watch this year, while it may not have had the head to head competition for the overall of previous years, each race has had me completely gripped for both the men’s and the women’s. Aaron Gwin and Tracey Moseley, both racing for Trek, have been dominant this year with Gwin winning 5 out of 7 races, Minaar winning the other 2. Yet still we have seen these people pushing themselves to the limit to try and catch up, not only that but we have seen the future Danny Hart GBR grabbing 2 second places, Brook Macdonald getting on the podium a few times as well as Florianne Pugin and Myriam Nicole in the women’s, it won’t be long until these guys are winning world cups in fact the girls already have. Hot on the heels of these guys are the generation after, with Carpenter placing 10^th overall in the women’s and Brosnan placing 8^th next years world cup series is going to be intense.

World Championships

Unfortunately, but I think fairly, you had to pay to watch the World Champs on Freecaster and I’m skint and wasn’t sure I’d even be around to watch any of it. Freecaster pay a lot of money to show the World Cup series and World Champs so I don’t think you can argue too much about only having to pay for one race. Call it a season ticket if you will.

The week started off hot and dry, it finished quite differently after thunder storms and showers the downhill track rapidly deteriorated and with it being such a steep course anyway carnage was bound to ensue. However certain riders’ faces lit up when they saw the rain falling on Sunday.

On Friday night the 4X took place. I don’t often mention the 4X but it’s great to watch, 4 people head to head on a Downhill/BMX course. The dominant force in women’s 4X this year has been Anneke Beerten (NED) winning most World Cup rounds and the overall so it was no surprise that she took the World Championship title, one she’s so far not managed to achieve. She did this just ahead of Fionn Griffiths (GBR) see those three letters again, told you we were good. In the men’s races the win was taken by Michal Prokop(CZE), with World Cup overall winner Jared Graves (AUS) in 4^th after a massive pile up which resulted in all the riders going down in the final and Prokop managing to pick himself up and ride on fastest. Graves had hung on a little longer before going down but ended with a flat front tyre for his trouble.

Rachel Atherton

Sunday saw the Downhill finals, starting with the Junior women which Manon ran away with, putting over 14 seconds on the next quickest person. This girl is fast, in fact her time would have seen her third in the Elite Women’s race if my maths is right. This was followed by the Junior Men’s race which saw once again Troy Brosnan at the top of the pile despite two French lads having posted better times in testing, they weren’t able to hold it together on the day. Lewis Buchanon managed 4^th . Unfortunately there were quite a few crashes in this race with the rescue Helicopter working overtime, this delayed things a little and some of the top men were worrying they should charge their bike lights.

The Elite Women’s race was always going to be hard to call and it was a shame Florriane Pugin crashed in practice and was unable to race. Hopes were high for Rachel Atherton but after a couple of crashes she only managed 2^nd 15 seconds behind the winner Emmeline Ragot(FRA). The French girls are looking pretty good for next years season. Clare Buchar(CAN) came in 3^rd which is cool for her, I met her in Glasgow airport 5 years ago and have followed her results since. Tracey Moseley defending World Champion and World Cup overall winner only managed 9^th with some big crashes in the mud.

The Elite Men’s race was going to be an all or nothing affair in the low cloud and pouring rain, there were apparently some pretty heavy crashes throughout with the prize for the best one going to Josh Bryceland with this effort. Steve Peat managed 17^th, Marc Beaumont 6^th, Brendan Fairclough, after a disappointing season following surgery on his knee, came in 4^th and letting it all hang out and styling it up with an 11 second gap on 2^nd place was Danny Hart, taking a well deserved win. Aaron Gwin finished in 12^th , after slipping in the mud and getting caught up in the catch netting.

Danny Hart

Dannys run is here it just shows how much he is in control of that bike even when it looks like he isn’t, it also shows how awful the weather and the track is by this point.

All in all a good run for the Brits in the World Champs, though a couple of the riders will be disappointed with their performance as a team they kicked arse. Oh yeh some Cross country happened and we got a 2^nd by Annie Last in the under 23 class but other than that Britain doesn’t do so well in that discipline.

Photos all from Fort William World Cup round.