Les Gets World Cup is cancelled
As World Cup racing in Les Gets gets cancelled, the 2020 World Cup is getting smaller.
The 2020 World Cup has had another cancellation with Les Gets (France) cancelling the World Cup racing in September. This comes after the announcement that Lenzerheide would be cancelled less than a week ago. As the UCI has always said, the new dates that were announced after initial postponements and cancellations in May would be subject to developments in the ongoing global health crisis and the decisions made by the relevant authorities in the countries hosting the events.
So right now, the World Cup looks like this:
29 September – 4 October: Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic, XCO double round
15-18 October: Maribor, Slovenia, DHI double round
29 October – 1 November: Lousã, Portugal, DHI double round
The 2020 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships presented by Mercedes-Benz in cross-country, downhill and pump track are also going ahead and will take place on 5-11 October in Leogang (Austria). So yes, that's before any of the DHI World Cups. In 2020 that doesn't even seem crazy!
The 2020 UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Championships are going ahead on 23 August 2020 in Leuven (Belgium) and the 2020 UCI World Cup calendar in the speciality has been reorganised.
The 2020 UCI Masters Mountain Bike World Championships have been cancelled, as have the 2020 UCI Mountain Bike Four-cross World Championships in Val di Sole (Italy).
Interestingly, the 2020 UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships are still going ahead, on 24-25 October, in Sakarya, Turkey.
The UCI eMTB World Cup rounds have all been cancelled.
This is a huge blow for elite athletes around the world. Motivation counts for a whole lot when training, and given the drive needed for an elite athlete, having major goals wiped off your schedule can have a big impact. But there's more to it than that, as their sponsors are paying for exposure across race coverage and team shoots. If there's a lot less of that going on, the chance of having a job for some riders will really be a huge dark cloud hanging over their head.
This week Mountain Bike Australia (MTBA) announed that we would have no more national titles being contested this year. But that's not to say there is no racing here at home, with lots of states and territories already kicking off with events last weekend. It's a great time to get involved. The World Cup might not be very big this year – but were you going to enter it if it was?
