February 8/14 12:41 pm - Cycling Canada Releases MTB Team Selection Criteria

Posted by Editoress on 02/8/14
 

Cycling Canada has released the specific selection criteria that will be used to select the national team for Mountain Bike projects, such as World Cups, Continental Championships and World Championships. A link to the full document can be found below.

The program also includes national team camps, with the first taking place in Agoura Hills, California, on February 10-17. Others include a post-Continental Championships visit to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games site, and an Altitude Camp in Colorado Springs in mid-June. Both Under-23 and Elite athletes will be invited, however, we understand that some of the top pros will not necessarily attend all of the camps.

The Continental Championships, to be held in Barbecena, Brazil on March 25-30, will consist of up to six Under-23 riders and six Elite riders (three each from each category in men and women). Since this does not count towards Olympic ranking (it will in 2015-16), the top Elite pros will skip it, we have been led to believe. Selections will be based on finishing positions at the 2013 Worlds.

National team competition projects will be held at the third (Nove Mesto, Czech Republic), fourth (Albstadt, Germany) and fifth (Mont Ste Anne, Quebec) rounds of the Cross-country World Cups - Junior for all three and Under-23 also for the European events. An additional one is planned for the World Cup Final in Meribel, France, as a lead-in to the Worlds, but rider categories have not been decided. The World Cup projects may include some Elite athletes - in the past, this has been used to assist athletes on domestic teams that otherwise wouldn't have the financial and technical support to attend.

For Worlds, the number of spots is partially based on nation ranking; below are the planned quotas for each category:

Cross-country

Junior Women - 3
Junior Men - 3
Under-23 Women - 3
Under-23 Men - 3
Elite Women - 4
Elite Men - 4

Team Relay - Selected from pool of athletes attending Worlds

Eliminator - By athlete request from pool attending Worlds

Downhill

Planned team size is up to ten athletes in total, split among the following categories:

Junior Women - 1
Junior Men - 3
Elite Women - 3
Elite Men - 3


The full selection criteria can be downloaded Here.