XCC Short Track Results from the Andorra XC World Cup 2022

 (For those who don't follow road biking, Pidcock just won a mountain stage at the TDF)

 @cypher74: Well, he is smashing TdF instead and that is the point. The youngster is truly incredible.

 @neologisticzand: yeah, and as much people hate road cycling in this site, a mountain stage win at the Tour is definitely more prestigious than an XCC podium. Well to his sponsors at least.

 @Narro2: now that they clearly see how good he is they will probably demand more road and less mtb

 @suspended-flesh: i dont think he is shooting for the yellow jersey. Not this year at least.

 @Narro2: Def showing what he can do. A real talent for sure.

 @suspended-flesh: As of Friday the 14th and Stage 13, he's 8th on GC.

 @krka73: Oh for real? Damn, son that's amazing! Not up on my TDFing as you can plainly see!

 @suspended-flesh: Fo' realz.

 He was showing peak performance yesterday, very much on top of his game.

 @kingdick: Which ones?! About your boy Pidcock? I'm a fan. I already look like a moron - not worried about it.

Scroll down to #35 here: www.letour.fr/en/rankings You can see how a Yanqui could get confused.

 @suspended-flesh: He was 35th in stage 13, currently 8th overall in the GC. Team ineos are doing well between Pidcock, Yates and Geraint (he's not the real Gee for me)

 @suspended-flesh: the large buttons at the top labelled "Stage Ranking" and "General Ranking" are what you're missing here. There are 21 stages in the race and you're only looking at one of them.

More importantly you're talking about a team sport and it's not Tom's job on the team to cross the line first. It's his job to help the team leaders get to the end with legs left. Saying he's not 1st is like complaining the defence isn't scoring a lot of goals in a soccer game. They turned him loose to see what he could do up front yesterday and he made it count, but you have to understand that if he WAS a GC contender the peloton would never have let him get ahead like that in the first place. He would've had Vingegaard and Pogacar all over him. Not trying to take anything away from what was a spectacular ride for him (that >100Kmh descent was incredible) but the reality of the sport is that he was allowed to be up front because he's not a GC threat.

 @tacopop: Understood. Thanks for clarifying that. I haven't really followed TDF since 'Ol 1-Nut strung all those wins together on Outdoor Life Network. I wasn't trying to argue some point about something I'm not following with those other folks who clearly take my misrepresentation of Mr. Pidcock's ranking VERY SERIOUSLY @kingdick

Cheers

 @martin737: and for anybody who hasn't seen it yet - check out Tom Pidcock smashing everybody going downhill at that TdF stage as well www.eurosport.co.uk/cycling/tour-de-france/2022/heart-in-your-mouth-tom-pidcock-flies-past-rivals-at-terrifying-speeds-on-tour-de-france-descent_vid1711436/video.shtml

 @cypher74: whoooooooooooooosh

 haha, yep, everytime there's results that's the name i am looking for

 He's done well after leaving Leicester

 It's a bit annoying to me when pros skip races for any reason other than illness or injury. You want to be a UCI world cup racer, show up to every race and compete!

 @MDW83: Couldn't agree more. It's unbelievable to me that every racer doesn't go to every race, there's only 9 of them total, most do nothing but these races. I would think sponsors would be pissed they don't show up and give it their all. Especially a LaComte who is at the top of the standings. I know, travelling is hard! It's tiring! Yes, you're a professional athlete. Show up and see what happens.

Easy for me to say, here behind my keyboard. But still.

 TL;DR: @shorttravelmag & @MDW83, you two make it sound like athletes are skipping WC-races because they are just spoiled or plain lazy... wtf!? Go out and ride your bike. Pin on a number. Then come back..

You have no idea how extremely demanding and how tough the competition is at that level..

A race is skipped cause:
a) Injury (d'oh!)
b) Priority[1].
c) Cost & Logistic[2]

[1] Competition is so level now. And that level is so high. The domination we saw in the eras of say Gunn-Rita.. or Annika.. not any more. Did you see how Lecomte imploded towards the end of last season? You can't WIN it all. Can't be at peak physiology and razor sharp mental focus & strength for an entire season. You must prioritize. E.g Lacomte. Started the season a bit slow (still top-5 in Abstadt & Nove Mesto). To avoid burning out at the end of season again. Then arrived at peak and dominated Leogang & Lenzerheide. She (and PFP too..) is really really prioritizing the World Championship at the end of August on home soil in Les Gets (France).

So for her the equation looked like this:
- Try to peak for Andorra (but risk endangering being at 110% for Les Gets). (nope..!)
- Go to Andora; to participate, not to WIN. (nope..!)
- Not go to Andora. Training schedule freed for perfect prep for World Championship. No "wasted" prep for Andora. No extra recovery (remember Andora is in the heights - thin air..), just uninterrupted training with one goal in focus.

You prioritize and choose to skip a race because you want to WIN lots of races, not just participate in all races. And being 2nd is participating


[2] Yes, competitive mountain biking is generally* a sh**ty fringe sport.. and expensive.. plenty of super gifted and talented privateers on shoestring budgets
(*exceptions exist. Looking at you Switzerland.. )

And I can promise you, the sponsors at the pointy end are also the ones pushing for "WIN" vs "show up and see what happens"!

 Yeah, every week he's challenging, amazing

 Managing physical burnout

 They said she was all in for World Championships and won't be coming to race at Snowshoe, either.

 she definitely has an unorthodox program, i am actually very curious of what it is wonder if is going to come out to the light, otherwise haters will always hate

 @Narro2: why would it? It's her program tailored to her needs. For what is worth, Kate didn't race either. Probably thinking about world champs as well.

 @Narro2: "Program" being the key word.

 @Narro2: Kate Courtney also took this weekend off. She had a couple good results for her and I was surprised she went back to the states to prep for US Champs and Snowshoe.

 @Deartist7: you are right, there is no reason to come out in the short term, what will happen is it will get implemented to other athletes close to her and her trainers and then it will become a common program through the years.

 Probably needs to eat some food and drink some water.

 @Three6ty: bit diff to skip a weekend when you're down in the ranking like kate. Kinda odd when you're leading. Most/all the other top women will race all of them so I'm not sure of what is driving her to either not want to or not be able to...

 @Three6ty: Haley Batten is also sitting this one out.

 @wilsonians: Sina Frei is having what sounds like migraine headaches so she decided not to race the XCC.
She's hoping to be ready for Sunday.

 saving himself for Sunday

 @Three6ty: Is this his standard tactic?

 @ilyamaksimov: he's not push for XCC... always fight just for the first (top10) or second row.

 @ilyamaksimov: Not usually but he got off to a bad start , so my guess is he wasn't feeling it, so it would be better to save himself for Sunday rather than crush himself just to catch up to the the top 5.
Just my opinion but I don't think I'm too far off.

 @Three6ty: he ended worse than he started. That is, he lost ground throughout the race. I do not believe that the great winner of all victories took care of himself, and did not fight for the best place. Apparently Matthias broke Nino))