January 25/21 19:52 pm - Discounting Rumours on the MTB World Cup Series

Posted by Editoress on 01/25/21
 

The last few days I've received a number of messages asking what I knew about some early rounds of the Mountain Bike World Cup being cancelled. My immediate reply was that I knew nothing about it, and that it is the time of year when rumours fly.

However, then a couple of articles appeared on European websites talking about how Nove Mesto in the Czech Republic was gone from the UCI schedule, and some other people told me they had heard that Albstadt (Germany) might not go. This, of course, would be a huge blow to the international mountain bike circuit, especially since they are the final qualifying events for Olympic nation ranking points.

So, I investigated. I spoke with the UCI Off-road Manager, Simon Burney, and with people from both the Nove Mesto and Albstadt organizations. The answer? Both events are still planning to take place, although spectators may be curtailed. It appears that an old document was archived on the UCI website from 2020 that led to the impression that Nove Mesto was cancelled (since updated).

However ... why did no one bother to confirm any of these rumours had a basis in fact? It took all of 30 minutes for me to disprove them.

Of course, we still may see the postponement of some events, depending on pandemic conditions in the coming months, but let's not get ahead of ourselves and potentially negatively impact the ability of organizers to put on events.