It’s an Olympic year again, and one thing that always strikes us every time is just how many sports that we have never heard of actually have an Olympic event. That’s one reason why when you look at the various disciplines that make up what we put under the mountain bike umbrella, and how popular mountain biking is in general, it’s surprising that the only discipline in mountain biking that has an Olympic event is the XCO or cross-country Olympic.
What is cross-country Olympic format?
Cross-country Olympic mountain bike races are typically between 1 hour 20 minutes and 1 hour 40 minutes depending on the category. The races take place over multiple laps of a course that usually is between five and ten kilometers long and can take in extremely technical terrain, depending on the location. Fitness level and bike handling skills are equally important for success.
If you are familiar with cyclocross racing, an XCO race format is not much different with a seeded grid start, with best ranked riders in the front rows and lower ranked riders behind. This has been a sticky issue in recent years with the UCI making a rash rule change ahead of the 2023 World Championships that allowed riders who are well ranked on the road to take a similarly high ranking grid in the XCO Worlds race. It meant part-time (and unranked) mountain bikers like Mathieu Van Der Poel could take a front row start along with full time mountain bikers like Swiss multi-World Champion Nino Schurter.
The disadvantage of being a lowly-ranked rider positioned at the back of the large group of starting athletes is clear. Once the starting gun goes off, there is an almighty sprint for the first pinch-point where a massive bottleneck will result in many riders’ chances at victory disappearing mere seconds into the race.
What’s the best XCO bike?
Considering how important XCO racing is from a professional mountain biker’s point of view – any event that could win a rider a spot in the Olympics is very important – pure cross-country mountain bikes are not as common in a company’s product line up as you might expect. Sure, most brands will design a trail bike that they claim is light and responsive enough to be used in XC races. But the economic truth of mountain bikes is that many more normal people are looking to joyride their local trails and bomb down ski slopes in summer than are looking to take up the technically challenging, lung-busting discipline of XC-mountain bike racing.
If you want a clear example of what a pure XCO (and XCC, something we’ll discuss in a later post) mountain bike looks like, you need look no further than the recently released Pinarello Dogma XC. Both the Dogma XC full suspension and the Dogma XC hardtail versions of the Pinarello mountain bike have been designed for one purpose: to win Olympic and World Championship gold medals.
Both versions of the Dogma XC have been designed to climb phenomenally and descend beautifully – if under the hands of real experts. Stiffness is as important to these bikes as it is to professional road racers bikes, which also means that comfort has taken a bit of a back seat. That’s largely because XCO races are not multi-hour adventures, but very definitely timed and always under two hours. Not like a day-long trail ramble you might want to plan with your buddies on a Saturday.
There are other brands that do make very light and responsive mountain bikes as well. But no one seems to have been as single-minded in their design as Pinarello.
Conclusion - XCO MTB races are TOUGH
There aren’t too many disciplines in or outside of cycling that are more physically demanding than XCO mountain bike races. The sheer level of physical fitness needed to race for 90+ minutes at 95% of your VO2 max, sometimes at altitude, is almost impossible to imagine. Add to that the level of skill that is required to get you down a very technical descent, choosing the fastest lines without taking out your nearest competitor also takes years to develop.
Having said all that, there can hardly be a better way to improve both your fitness and handling skills than taking up a little XC riding yourself. You don’t have to try racing current Olympic Champions Jolanda Neff or Tom Pidcock just yet. But you can start working your way up the rankings.
You may also like our article on Cape Epic.
