At the beginning of the month, not only was the first edition of the enduro regulations published by the UCI, there were also some innovations for the Olympic cross-country discipline.
Category C3 in particular received a great deal of attention. In the future, this will be able to include a large number of formats that previously did not fit into one of the specified categories. In the future there will be no restrictions in terms of lap length for category C3. In addition, any cross-country format is allowed, except for the time trial, the length of which is no longer specified. This means that for the first time in XC Eliminator races, outside of the World Cup, world ranking points can be collected - as long as they are registered as C3 races with the UCI. Furthermore, the marathon races held outside of the Marathon World Series are rated in the C3 category, which means that the experienced points also go into the XC world rankings.
“Many organizers have complained that they cannot officially register their races because there is no corresponding race format. We wanted to accommodate that.”, explains Simon Burney.
//Other UCI rule changes in 2014
- Marathon races registered with the UCI must be between 60 and 160 kilometers in length.
- From 2014, the team relay at continental championships will also be included in the world rankings of nations. So far, this only applied to the relay races at the World Championships.
- In the future, five instead of four races in the C2 category and five instead of three in the C3 category will count for the individual world rankings.
- The minimum width of the start-finish straight for XC races outside of the World Championship and World Cup was corrected down to six meters, as the required eight meters were often not or could not be met.
- The top 16 of the overall World Cup ranking start from the first two rows. The following starting rows are filled according to the world rankings.
- To be allowed to start at a U23 World Cup you have to be nominated by the respective coordinator or be part of a UCI trade team – However, this rule is currently being discussed as it has more disadvantages than advantages.
- The best five athletes will continue to be honored at the award ceremony. Before that, there were considerations to pray only the top three on the podium.
