Here is everything you need to know about the racing at the 2023 UCI MTB Cross Country World Championships held at Glentress near Peebles in Scotland!
About Glentress
Glentress is one of the UK’s most loved riding destinations it hosts Blue, Red & Black routes along with some new trails due to open soon.
Schedule
Sunday 6th August – Cross Country Marathon (XCM)
Monday 7th August – Cross Country (XCO) training day
Tuesday 8th August – Cross Country Short Track (XCC) Qualifying
Wednesday 9th August – Cross Country Team Relay (XCR)
Thursday 10th August – Cross Country junior races & Cross Country Short Track (XCC)
Friday 11th August – Cross Country (XCO) U23 races
Saturday 12th August – Cross Country (XCO) Elite Races
You can find the exact timings here
XCO/XCC/XCM Course
The course has been specially made for the World Championships. It hosts rock drops, brutal climbs, natural roots, gap jumps & fast flowing singletrack. Unfortunately, most of this will be taken down after the race.
XCC/XCO Map
XCM Course
Reigning World Champions
XCO
Elite Female – Pauline Ferrand Prevot (France)
Elite Male – Nino Schurter (Switzerland)
U23 Female – Line Burquier (France)
U23 Male – Simone Avondetto (Italy)
Junior Female – Monique Halter (Switzerland)
Junior Male – Paul Schehl (Germany)
XCC
Elite Female – Pauline Ferrand Prevot (France)
Elite Male – Sam Gaze (New Zealand)
XCR
Team Switzerland
XCM
Elite Female – Pauline Ferrand Prevot (France)
Elite Male – Sam Gaze (New Zealand)
Riders To Watch – XCO
These are the riders we think will be up there in the races – You can check out the British Cycling squad here
Elite Female
Our favourite to win has to be Puck Pieterse after her excellent start to the season at the first 4 World Cups. Reigning champion Pauline Ferrand Prevot will be keen to keep the jersey and with her wealth of experience we reckon she’ll be in with a great chance! If Pauline can win another she will take the top spot with Gunn-Rita Dahle for the most World Championship wins for a Female!
Elite Male
With Tom Pidcock & Mathias Van der Poel racing as well as all the usual big names it’s going to be some race! However, we can’t rule out Nino as a favourite to win due to his performance winning 2 of the 4 World Cups so far this year.
U23 Male
Adrien Boichis or Dario Lillo will be up there in contention to win however Charlie Aldridge from the UK will be racing the U23 race & judging from his performance at the Europeans where he got 3rd even after a front flat he has a chance of winning especially with the home crowd!
U23 Female
Sofie Pedersen is our favourite win as she smashed the first 4 World Cups often winning by a huge margin (over 1 min at some races!)
Watch Live
You will be able to watch the racing LIVE on multiple destinations depending on which country you are in.
The BBC will be producing all of the content which will be distributed to all of the other broadcasters.
How to watch:
UK – BBC will have the XCR/XCC/XCO (Elite/U23 Races) available to watch for free either on tv or on Iplayer.
USA – You will be able to watch the racing on FLOBIKES with a valid subscription.
Australia – SBS will have coverage of the racing for FREE.
Rest of the world – UCI will be showing the racing on their YouTube & Facebook but it will be geo-restricted to the countries listed above.
We will be there we will be wearing our XCOMTB.COM branded merch – come and say hi we have lots of free stickers to give out!
