Mathieu van der Poel and Peter Sagan have been bumped up from a last-row start in Saturday’s Mountain Bike Cross-Country World Championships to the fifth row, according to the official start list.
The UCI has so far not given a concrete explanation of the change. UCI regulations cover the starting grid position for XCO (cross-country Olympic) races, lining up riders by their last UCI ranking and, for unclassified riders, by drawing lots.
For Tom Pidcock, Van der Poel and Sagan to suddenly be in positions 33 to 35, respectively, in the fifth row was an affront to some year-long MTB racers and their teams. Neither Sagan nor Van der Poel are in the UCI MTB rankings, while Pidcock is 61st but won the World Cup in Nove Mesto in May.
Belgian Jens Schuermans explained to Sporza that a rule used in the World Cup starting grid was applied to the World Championships at Glentress Forest in Scotland. The rule allows positions 33 to 40 to be filled with athletes who are in the top 10 of any individual UCI world ranking of any cycling discipline.
“They also extended that rule to the World Championships this week. For Mathieu,” Schuermans said.
Schuermans will line up in ninth position but promises to have a stern word with the UCI about the favouritism. While Van der Poel is in the top 10 of the road and cyclocross rankings, Sagan and Pidcock are not.
“It’s not fair to other participants,” Belgian coach Filip Meirhaeghe said of the decision to Sporza. “They sometimes travel all over the world to collect UCI points for a favorable starting position.
“And it is also not fair to Pidcock, who made the effort to ride a World Cup. He raced – and won – in Nove Mesto to be able to start properly at the World Championships. Now the UCI says: ‘You didn’t have to do all that.’
“Note, I am also a fan of Tom Pidcock and Mathieu van der Poel. They bring a lot of media to mountain biking, but that should not be the criterion for a favorable starting position.”
The trio will line up ahead of newly-crowned short track World Champion Sam Gaze (New Zealand), who is gridded in 38th position. There are 98 riders on the start list for Saturday’s elite men’s XCO.
Sagan’s entourage reportedly were unaware of the change but said they were happy for him to start wherever the UCI decide as he is not hoping for a major result at Worlds.
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