Jenny Rissveds tears apart the great cliché of XCO today

Team 31 rider Jenny Rissveds was second in the Mont Saint Anne World Cup, her best result of the season, after a tough race in which she was able to pull herself together as many times as necessary. Afterwards she left us an interesting reflection that goes in the opposite direction to what is thought about the current XCO competitions.

Jenny Rissveds talks about the technical capabilities of today's XCO

In an interesting video posted on the Wyn TV channel, which includes statements from the weekend's protagonists, former Olympic champion Jenny Rissveds stops to explain a topic that the interviewer asks her about after being surprised by her answer: Is today's XC as technical as people say it is? Do you have to be a complete cyclist to win?

Rissveds argues that although the circuits are more technical, all competitors have enough training laps to learn how to go fast through almost any section. Once the exact line is learned, the key is to try to repeat it every lap. On this subject, Rissveds adds that if, for example, the course could only be ridden once before racing, then the technique of each rider would be decisive in winning a race.

So she concludes that nowadays XCO races are won by the strongest rider and that the technical capabilities of each rider are not as influential as we may think.

Here you can watch the full video:

At the end of the interview she also has time to show her support for all the private teams and riders that until now raced in the World Cup and that the UCI, together with Warner's new organisation, seem to want to move away from the competition in order to keep only strong UCI teams in the races. Rissveds recalls that she herself spent two years competing in the World Cup with the sole support of her father, who accompanied her in the races, until Thomas Frischknecht signed her to SCOTT.

With this new measure, it is expected that many young cyclists and amateurs will not be able to make a name for themselves and will have less chance of getting a professional contract.