Australian Team set for UCI XCM Championships

It’s less than 20 hours until five Australian athletes toe the line for the 2016 UCI XCM World Championships in Laissac, France.

The race is being held in conjunction with the 25th Roc Laissagais, on a demanding course that traces 90km for men and 70km for women. While the course is not in the Alps, the Midi-Pyrenees provide about 2500m of climbing for the women, and about 3200m for the men. So imagine the Convict 100 with about twice as much climbing, to understand how your legs would feel.

The course is free of much modern built singletrack, but has a huge variety of terrain, from farm trails, forest singletrack, purpose built mountain bike singletrack, rocky trails, mud and steep climbs and descents. It is a true mountain bike test, and while it has plenty of climbing, it’s not 2 or 3 major climbs, but many. Even the final descent has two notable climbs on it!

While seven riders were originally named for the team, Peta Mullens and Morgan Pilley will not be starting. This leaves Chris Hellman as the sole Australian male racing, with Jenni King, Imogen Smith, Anna Beck and Briony Mattocks racing in the women’s field. A testament to how much the women’s marathon field is filling out at home.

Anna Beck

Imogen Smith

Briony Mattocks

Jenni King

We’ve taken a look at the bikes of King and Mattocks, and Smith’s and Beck’s bikes have been previewed elsewhere – while I also took a look over the course prior to race day, and made my predictions.

The course – it’s quite a tour on the map.

Following the XCM World Championships

You can follow the race updates via the MarathonMTB Instagram from the feed zones – and check back here for results. It’s worth getting behind the five riders who have got themselves to France without any national support, to race for their country. It’s not an easy undertaking, and there will be some true battles in the forests tomorrow.