Mathieu van der Poel given last minute bump up XCO start grid and Nino Schurter is not happy
UCI's 11th-hour rule change moves trio of roadies ahead of mountain bikers for Saturday's start
An 11th-hour rule change by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) is rubbing a lot of riders the wrong way. The UCI announced it would “adapt” the rule for allocating positions on the start grid for Saturday’s elite XCO mountain bike world championships. The change moves three riders, Mathieu van der Poel, Tom Pidcock and Peter Sagan, from near the back of the start grid to the fifth row.
Position on the start grid is critical in mountain biking as riders are quickly squeezed from rows of eight riders on the start grid into single file for sections of singletrack. Getting stuck behind a bottleneck off the start could be disastrous for a rider like van der Poel as they try to move up to the front of the race.
Not the rule, but the timing
The last-minute change, announced just one day before the world championships race, is, unsurprisingly, ruffling some feathers among the mountain bikers. Nino Schurter responded saying that, while he’s happy to have riders from “different disciplines at the start line,” making such a consequential rule change the day before the race is disrespectful to racers and the discipline of mountain biking.
“I and all 40 members from the MTB athletes association are really not happy how the UCI is treating our discipline by changing rules regarding start position one day before the race,” Schurter said in a post online. “The point at this time is not whether or not the rule being applied is fair, unfair or suitable – this is a topic for another day. The concern is the way and timing that UCI has applied and enforced this rule.”
“Hours out from the start of the World Championships is not time to selectively look for rules and we express our deep disappointment and frustration with this situation.”
Schurter added that the rule change could have significant consequences beyond Saturday’s world championships as the race serves as a major event in the Olympic qualification process for next year’s Games in Paris.
“I wouldn’t call it favoritism…”
The UCI seems unbothered by the concerns expressed by Schurter, the most accomplished men’s cross country racer ever, and the rest of the regular mountain bike field.
Explaining that the rule, which allows for top-ranked racers from other disciplines to move up the start grid to the fifth row, already exists in mountain bike World Cup, UCI Sports Director Peter Van den Abeele told Sporza that the UCI is simply extending that rule from World Cup to world championships.
That explanation completely sidesteps the athlete’s concerns regarding the timing of the rule change. It also offers no reasoning for why the UCI waited until so close to the race to announce the change.
Instead, Van den Abeele doubled down on the disrespect.
“I wouldn’t call it favoritism,” Van den Abeele stated. “It’s about the added value of the sport. A mountain bike race with Pidcock or van der Poel is of a different caliber than a mountain bike race without those two.”
For any riders pushed back behind the trio of road racers, like short track world champion Sam Gaze, the UCI director had some helpful advice: just follow the draft.
“You get an ideal lead-out to advance to the front of the race,” said van den Abeele, adding, in an argument that completely contradicts the UCI’s stated need for the rule change, “And if you are really handy, you will move up anyway.”
Fairness versus viewership figures
Rules determining placing on the start grid exist in incredible detail exist, of course, because position on the start grid is so important in mountain biking. Setting out the rules in advance allows racers to take steps to ensure they have a safe position as far up the grid as they can manage.
For many riders, that means making a decision to travel around the world chasing UCI points. For Tom Pidcock, that meant making the choice to pause his road season to race, and win, the Nove Mesto World Cup. Mathieu van der Poel made the opposite decision, deciding that road races were more important than his position on the start grid at XCO world championships. Both the Dutch racer and Peter Sagan, who appears to have had his fun retirement off-road tour caught up in the controversy, have no UCI mountain bike points as they have not raced off-road in the last year.
Changing the rule at the last minute is, as Schurter said, unfair to riders who have followed the UCI’s own rules as they existed until yesterday.
Van den Abeele told Sporza that, when it comes to mountain biking, viewership is more important to the UCI.
“We had good media figures in Tokyo. Pidcock and van der Poel were both at the start there. That is why I think it is an opportunity to help the sport, because the sport is better with stars,” van den Abeele explained, adding “Know that we have to fight to keep the sport on the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic program.”
