Get the drift: Olympic mountain bike racers worry about gravel on man-made Paris course

The Paris Olympic Games get underway this weekend with the women’s and men’s Mountain Bike Cross-country events taking place on a former landfill. The top competitors were mixed in their assessment of the Elancourt Hill course after their training runs this week, noting the loose gravel and fully man-made course differs from what inspired mountain biking as a sport.

Former Olympic champion Nino Schurter (Switzerland) voiced a unanimous assessment of the course.