World Cup cancellations continue with Les Gets
French DH/XCO race weekend latest to be struck from postponed UCI calendar
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Emily Batty racing the 2019 Les Gets, France World Cup XCO. Bartek Wolinski / Red Bull Content Pool
The 2020 World Cup race calendar’s slow bleed continues, as the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) today announced it is cancelling the Les Gets round of racing.
Les Gets, France was set to host the opening round of cross country and downhill racing, after the cancellation of Lenzerheide World Cup last week.
“As we have always said, the restart of the season, whatever the discipline, will depend on the evolution of the health situation in the organising countries. Several competitions scheduled for the second half of the year 2020 had to be cancelled because the conditions for their good organisation were not met,” UCI president David Lappartient said in the organization’s update on 2020 racing. “This is a great disappointment, but the health of the athletes and all those involved in our events, or simply present at them, is our top priority.”
New World Cup calendar
Currently, Nove Mesto na Morave, Czech Republic will host the first XCO World Cup of 2020. If it happens, Nove Mesto will be a harsh return to racing, as it is set to be a double race weekend. It is slated for September 29 to October 4, 2020. The Czech race weekend is now the only World Cup XCO currently scheduled.
Downhill will get a similarly rough restart in Maribor a few weeks later. The rescheduled Slovenia round is also a doubleheader weekend, with two World Cup races smushed into one weekend. Gravity racing starts October 15-18.
The cancellation of Les Gets leaves just one more World Cup for the downhill racers. Lousã, Portugal will host another doubleheader on Oct. 29 to November 1.
What’s still happening?
2020 UCI Mountain bike world championships have been rescheduled and relocated. After the original venue, Albstadt, cancelled, the event was moved to Leogang, Austria. It is now set for Oct. 5-11, 2020.
XC Marathon world championships are still going ahead as well, giving the cross country crowd a third race this fall. Sakarya, Turkey will host XCM worlds on Oct. 24-25, 2020.
What else is cancelled?
Batteries are running low for the eMTB XC World Cup, which was set to debut in 2020. Four rounds of that series have all been cancelled.
UCI masters mountain bike world championships, set for Pra Loup in France, and four cross worlds, which were to be held in Val di Sole, Italy, are both cancelled.
