National series changes

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The below is taken for Cyclingnews.

"Australian Mountain Bike Series gets facelift
By: Cycling NewsPublished: August 9, 23:31, Updated: August 9, 23:32Race:Australian Mountain Bike National Series - Thredbo
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Sam Hill (Monster Specialized) at the Australian Mountain Bike National Championships in Adelaide.
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New formats for cross country and gravity

The Australian Mountain Bike Series will take on a new look this summer, with two new formats to be introduced for the benefit of riders and spectators alike. The 2011-2012 season will be split into two, with the cross country riders vying for the "All Mountain Cup" and the downhillers contesting the "Gravity Cup".

Spectators across Australia will have the opportunity to witness the nation's best riders, with events to be staged in Perth, Canberra, Thredbo, Mount Buller, Adelaide and Newcastle.

Each round will feature an activity staged in the center of each host town to bring spectators closer to the action than ever before.

The new formats will allow for growth in both disciplines, by offering riders the chance to compete in additional events over the weekend.

The All Mountain Cup will include a number of additional elements over the course of each two-day event. Riders will compete in a stage-like environment, in which performance results will be tallied to determine the overall event winner.

In addition to the centrepiece Olympic cross country event, other formats such as the cross country eliminator (four cross for cross country), cross country time trial, cross country enduro (25km to 50km), super D and the return of the short track event will be scheduled over the weekend of competition.

In the Gravity Cup, all downhill classes will now have seeding races on the Saturday, followed by finals on the Sunday.

"Mountain Bike Australia has completely re-written the way the national level events are delivered," said Tony Scott, Executive Officer of MTBA.

"The new All Mountain Cup is going to be a spectacle of cross country mountain bike racing that will appeal to all levels of skill and experience and one that will involve both riding prowess and strategy in several different short duration activities.

"For the gravity riders we have expanded the seeding races to include all classes. This means two timed runs for all riders.

"All of these changes are geared towards providing better value to participants by giving them more time on the bike, more often."

Details for the Four Cross Cup will be announced shortly.

On-line registration for all rounds begins September 1."



Sounds like some great ideas there but how are they going to run a XCO, cross country eliminator (four cross for cross country), cross country time trial, cross country enduro (25km to 50km), super D and short track in one weekend??
 
alchemist

alchemist

Manly Warringah MTB Club
sidetrack said:
Sounds like some great ideas there but how are they going to run a XCO, cross country eliminator (four cross for cross country), cross country time trial, cross country enduro (25km to 50km), super D and short track in one weekend??
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They're not. Expect two or three events over the weekend, XCO plus one or two of the others.
 
akashra

akashra

Eats Squid
That's not the impression I got. The way I'd heard it explained was that a weekend of XC riding/racing was not sufficiently full, so by introducing additional events, this could fill the full Saturday and Sunday.
With only four rounds, I'd like to know what they would do with series points if they only ran, say XCE for 2 rounds, XCC for 2, XCT for 2... you'd do away with the XCC series and create some kind of amalgamate series?

I see no reason why XCO can't be run Saturday, XCT Saturday evening, XCE on the Sunday morning and XCC following the Eliminator on Sunday. Admitedly I'm not sure where that leaves SuperD and XCP.
 
Antsonline

Antsonline

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akashra said:
That's not the impression I got. The way I'd heard it explained was that a weekend of XC riding/racing was not sufficiently full, so by introducing additional events, this could fill the full Saturday and Sunday.
With only four rounds, I'd like to know what they would do with series points if they only ran, say XCE for 2 rounds, XCC for 2, XCT for 2... you'd do away with the XCC series and create some kind of amalgamate series?

I see no reason why XCO can't be run Saturday, XCT Saturday evening, XCE on the Sunday morning and XCC following the Eliminator on Sunday. Admitedly I'm not sure where that leaves SuperD and XCP.
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I've got to say, I think you have mis-interpreted it. It seemed really clear to me that they overall 'series' would be called "All Mountain" and that this would be made of points from each event which would consist of XCO + a combo of the other formats. Not all venues would offer all formats.
So theoretically, you might only have 1 super D in the whole series.
Of course, the focus will still be on XCO, and I'll be interested to see how many people go hard on a Friday night event knowing that Saturday is the focus of the weekend.

I think the changes are great. I like the fact that there might only be 1x Super D and 1xXCE - it really removes the ability for a specialist to dominate, and does mean that the winner of 'All Mountain' is likely to be an all-rounder.

I'm sure more details will come soon, but its a positive step so far.
 
RED_RACER

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Antsonline said:
I've got to say, I think you have mis-interpreted it. It seemed really clear to me that they overall 'series' would be called "All Mountain" and that this would be made of points from each event which would consist of XCO + a combo of the other formats. Not all venues would offer all formats.
So theoretically, you might only have 1 super D in the whole series.
Of course, the focus will still be on XCO, and I'll be interested to see how many people go hard on a Friday night event knowing that Saturday is the focus of the weekend.

I think the changes are great. I like the fact that there might only be 1x Super D and 1xXCE - it really removes the ability for a specialist to dominate, and does mean that the winner of 'All Mountain' is likely to be an all-rounder.

I'm sure more details will come soon, but its a positive step so far.
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Need a 100km and a 24hr to make it an all rounder :)
 
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serowe

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Antsonline said:
I think the changes are great. I like the fact that there might only be 1x Super D and 1xXCE - it really removes the ability for a specialist to dominate, and does mean that the winner of 'All Mountain' is likely to be an all-rounder.
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So, if I read this the right way, anyone aspiring to push themselves for international competition (Olympics, C'wealth Games) won't be able to use this as a stepping stone then? Unless, of course, they also go the same way :)
 
Antsonline

Antsonline

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serowe said:
So, if I read this the right way, anyone aspiring to push themselves for international competition (Olympics, C'wealth Games) won't be able to use this as a stepping stone then? Unless, of course, they also go the same way :)
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Not really. They just go and win the XCO. I'm sure selectors / perf coach could care less about performance in the Super D....
 
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serowe

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Antsonline said:
Not really. They just go and win the XCO. I'm sure selectors / perf coach could care less about performance in the Super D....
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OK - the way I read this originally is that the 'series' is a combination of points across all disciplines. So this isn't a correct way to interpret it then?
 
alchemist

alchemist

Manly Warringah MTB Club
serowe said:
OK - the way I read this originally is that the 'series' is a combination of points across all disciplines. So this isn't a correct way to interpret it then?
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The series is a combination across disciplines. But somebody looking for National selection is probably going to concentrate on the XCO (they may not even race other events). I'd expect the selection criteria to change slightly to focus on the XCO part of the series.
 
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