2020 Nove Mesto World Cup: favourites

Just a few hours before the start of the shortest XCO World Cup in recent years, we will see which men and women will be favourites to win. How each one arrives and some of the characteristics that are going to mark this strange season. In a short time we are going to see many races and we have the impression that anything can happen in each of them.

Favourites to win at the 2020 Nove Mesto World Cup

If you are not already aware, this year's MTB World Cup has been reduced to just two events and both will be held in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, from 29 September to 4 October. Just one week later will be the World Championship in Leogang, Austria, and a few days later the European Championship. This means that in less than a month the elite cyclists will have to compete in up to 6 different races at the highest level and with hardly any recovery between them. How will this affect the results? Nobody knows yet.

In the Nove Mesto circuit you can already find most of the world's top cyclists who want to save the season by getting a good result in one of the 4 races they have to compete in less than 7 days. Here you can check the timetables and where to watch each of the races from Tuesday 29th September.

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If predicting the outcome of any XCO mountain bike race is already a little difficult because of the large number of variables involved, in the current situation it seems even more risky. So let's see how some of the riders who we think could be on the podium arrive. We remind you that the great absence of this season will be Mathieu Van der Poel, who will not compete in any mountain bike race to focus on the road.

In men we will start with the safe cards. Nino Schurter is the current leader of the classification, champion in everything and the clear favourite in any race in which he takes the start so it would be very unwise of us not to say that he is the one with the best chance of winning the two Nove Mesto events. However, on the other hand he suffers from the lack of competition that the Coronavirus has generated, in addition he is a year older and this could have repercussions on the most explosive events such as the Short Track with respect to other rivals, and finally that the Nove Mesto World Cup is expected to be held in cold and rain, something that in 2019 did not go well for the Swiss champion during the first events of the season.

In second place we would put Henrique Avancini, the Brazilian is the current number two in the ranking and despite the lack of competition he has been very strong in the few races he has competed. In his favour we can put the exhaustive preparation that he has carried out during the confinement in Brazil and that we could see in this documentary. It would be very strange if the Cannondale Factory Racing driver did not take one of the victories of the 2 Short Tracks or the 2 finals we are going to see this week.

Among the other favourites to win one of the races are the Swiss Lars Forster of Scott SRAM or Mathias Flueckiger of the Thömus RN Swiss Bike Team, both of whom have already won a World Cup in 2019. The Italian Gerhard Kerschbaumer, for his part, remains number 3 in the ranking and although he performed more discreetly last year, he should not be dismissed. The Czech Ondrej Cink finished fifth in 2019 in Nove Mesto and if he arrives in good condition he may also be another candidate for the podium.

We already know that we are leaving out many names that may actually have podium options, and more if we consider that there are four races, but this is about making a selection even at the risk of being completely wrong. But we do want to add one more name that for us is very important. Vlad Dascalu arrives this year to make his debut in the elite category of the World Cup and he does it in the 10th position of the absolute UCI ranking after he won everything in U-23 last year, so knowing him well we can assure that the young Romanian can be another firm candidate in at least a Short Track, his explosiveness and technique are a good combination for one of his favourite circuits of the calendar.

 

 

 

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If in men it has been difficult to choose, in women it seems even more complicated. The current world champion, in XCO and XCM, Pauline Ferrand Prevot has not had good sensations during the few races in which we have seen her compete this year and in 2019 she already had some difficulty in taking the pace of competition, so she would not be our first choice if we had to choose a top favourite to win the Nove Mesto World Cup.

The American Kate Courtney of Scott SRAM, winner of the overall World Cup in 2019, has not yet competed this year and her state of form is a mystery, but it would be strange not to see her repeat the podium in one of the four races she will be competing in this week. The Swiss Jolanda Neff suffered a serious injury at the end of 2019 and her performance looked like it was going to be an unknown this season, but far from it we have already seen her become Swiss Champion. She is one of the great favourites.

Another one we hope to see ahead is the Swedish Jenny Rissveds. Last year she showed the world that her talent and tenacity are above any problem she may have and in a few months she was able to return to competition, after being practically retired, and win a World Cup. Among the multitude of names that could be on the podium without surprising anyone would be the Australian Rebecca Macconnel, the Swiss Sina Frei or the Dutch Anne Tauber, who almost won here last year.

What do you think about our selection? We would like you to tell us your favourites through our social networks, we read you there!