August 12/23 4:39 am - Van der Poel Controversy for Men's XCO

Posted by Editor on 08/12/23
 

The UCI decision to allow road world champion Mathieu van der Poel to start mid-field rather than at the back, despite being un-ranked in the UCI world rankings for mountain bike, has created a mini storm pre-race. Riders and teams have both submitted protest letters to the UCI.

While van der Poel has won mountain bike World Cups in the past, he has not raced off-road at all this season or last, and has no UCI standing in mountain bike. The UCI did create a ruling allowing riders ranked highly in other disciplines to have a preferred start position for World Cups [which Tom Pidcock has used], but did not do so for Worlds. The UCI has now stated that the same rule applies for Worlds.

The actual UCI statement:

To mirror UCI regulation Art. 4.10.003, B.3, used in UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, Cross-country Olympic Elite, the start places 33rd to 40th in the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships, Cross-country Olympic Elite, will include any riders ranked in the top 10 of any individual UCI ranking with the exception of the UCI Road individual world ranking where top 20 will be included.